Meme coins and artificial intelligence (AI) have been dominating crypto mindshare in 2025, amidst massive investor interest across the world. But a new report suggests that their popularity failed to translate into performance.
This could mean that the frenzy for purely speculative crypto may be subsiding, especially as investors grow cautious amid a choppy Q4.
According to CoinGecko’s latest report, despite ranking as the most followed narratives this year, meme coins and AI tokens delivered average year-to-date losses of -31.6% and -50.2%, respectively. Most of the largest meme coins declined between 44.6% and 82.5% YTD, with Ribbita by Virtuals standing out as the lone exception.
A similar pattern played out across AI crypto as well, where only Alchemist AI and Kite avoided steep drawdowns, while the rest of the sector fell between 49.8% and 84.3%.
Beyond meme coins and AI, other widely followed narratives also struggled, which was indicative of how uneven 2025 has been across the market. DeFi posted average losses of -34.8%, and roughly matched meme coin performance. Meanwhile, decentralized exchange (DEX) tokens declined 55.5% and closely mirrored the AI narrative’s downturn.
Layer 2s continued to disappoint for a second straight year, after recording average losses of -40.6% YTD, despite their long-term role in scaling Ethereum and other networks.
In contrast to these laggards, real-world assets (RWA) emerged as the most profitable crypto narrative of 2025. This cohort delivered average gains of 185.8% YTD across its largest tokens, and this outperformance was driven primarily by Keeta Network’s explosive 1,794.9% rally, alongside strong gains from Zebec Network and Maple Finance.
However, overall returns were still far below last year’s 819.5% surge.
Layer 1s ranked as the second-best-performing narrative with average gains of 80.3%, and were supported by outsized rallies in privacy-focused chains Zcash and Monero, as well as resilience from Bitcoin Cash, BNB, and Tron. Notably, RWA and layer 1 were the only narratives to post a second consecutive profitable year.
Meanwhile, the “Made in USA” narrative remained modestly positive at 30.6% YTD, largely due to Zcash offsetting losses elsewhere. At the opposite end of the spectrum, Gaming and DePIN recorded the steepest drawdowns of 75.2% and 76.7% YTD, while the Solana ecosystem fell 64.2% despite leading in mindshare.
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