Meme Coins and AI Post Negative Returns Despite Leading Crypto Narratives in 2025

Meme coins, AI, DeFi, and DEX narratives all fell sharply, while RWA emerged as the standout winner this year.

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.

Weak Performance Across Meme Coin and AI

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.

RWA and Layer 1 Outperform

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.

You may also like:

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.