AI and Meme Coins Collapse in 2025 as Real-World-Asset Tokens Outperform

Published: 2025-12-28 17:33:14 |

Meme coins and AI-related tokens, two of 2024’s hottest crypto narratives, suffered steep losses in 2025 despite heavy social-media hype. CoinGecko data (Jan 1–Dec 22, 2025) shows meme coins fell about 31.6% year-to-date while AI tokens plunged roughly 50.2%. Top meme tokens declined between 44.6% and 82.5%; AI tokens fell 49.8%–84.3%, with a few exceptions such as Ribbita, Alchemist AI and Kite. By contrast, Real World Asset (RWA) tokens led 2025 performance with an average gain of 185.8%, driven by Keeta Network (1,794.9%), Zebec Network (217.3%) and Maple Finance (123%). Layer-1 blockchains also gained (80.3%), boosted by strong rallies from privacy coins Zcash and Monero and steady returns from Bitcoin Cash, BNB and Tron. Poor performers included gaming tokens (-75.2%), DePIN (-76.7%), Solana ecosystem (-64.2%) and Layer-2 solutions (-40.6%), with many sectors recording consecutive down years. The data highlight a decoupling between narrative popularity and returns and suggest traders should be cautious of hype-driven allocations while considering sector rotation toward fundamentals-backed RWA and resilient layer-1 projects.

Bearish

The report signals a broad sector-wide selloff concentrated in hype-driven categories (AI and meme coins), which typically amplifies downside volatility and reduces short-term market confidence. Large YTD losses (around 31.6% for meme coins and 50.2% for AI tokens) indicate deleveraging, liquidation risk, and reduced retail appetite for narrative trades. Historically, similar collapses in popularity-led sectors (e.g., ICO crash 2018, meme/DeFi corrections in 2021–22) produced short-term market weakness and forced capital to shift toward fundamentals — here represented by RWA and some Layer-1s. Expect continued elevated volatility and risk aversion in the near term, with traders favoring quality projects, on-chain fundamentals, and sectors showing real yield or revenue. In the longer term, the market may stabilize if capital rotates into durable use-case tokens (RWA, resilient Layer-1s); however, hype-driven token classes will likely remain under pressure until clear on-chain adoption or revenue metrics improve.