Meme coins and AI post negative returns despite leading crypto stories in 2025

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

Meme coins and artificial intelligence (AI) will dominate the crypto mindshare by 2025, amid massive interest from investors around the world. But a new report suggests their popularity didn’t translate into performance.

This could mean the frenzy for purely speculative crypto is waning, especially as investors grow cautious amid a choppy fourth quarter.

Weak performance for Meme Coin and AI

According to CoinGecko’s latest report, despite being the most followed stories this year, meme coins and AI tokens delivered average losses since the beginning of the year of -31.6% and -50.2% respectively. Most of the top meme coins were down between 44.6% and 82.5% YTD, with Virtuals’ Ribbita being the only exception.

A similar pattern also played out in AI crypto, with only Alchemist AI and Kite avoiding steep declines, while the rest of the sector fell between 49.8% and 84.3%.

In addition to meme coins and AI, other widely followed stories also struggled, which was indicative of how uneven 2025 has been in the marketplace. DeFi posted average losses of -34.8% and roughly matched the performance of meme coins. Meanwhile, decentralized exchange tokens (DEX) fell 55.5%, closely matching the decline of the AI ​​story.

Layer 2s continued to disappoint for the second year in a row, after an average loss of -40.6% YTD, despite their long-term role in scaling Ethereum and other networks.

RWA and Layer 1 perform better

In contrast to these laggards, real-world assets (RWA) emerged as the most profitable crypto story of 2025. This cohort delivered average gains of 185.8% YTD for its largest tokens, and this outperformance was primarily driven by Keeta Network’s explosive 1,794.9% rally, alongside strong gains from Zebec Network and Maple Finance.

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However, the total return was still well below last year’s increase of 819.5%.

Tier 1s ranked as the second best performing story with an average gain of 80.3%, and was supported by outsized rallies in privacy-focused chains Zcash and Monero, as well as the resilience of Bitcoin Cash, BNB and Tron. Notably, RWA and Tier 1 were the only stories to post a second consecutive profitable year.

Meanwhile, the Made in USA story remained modestly positive at 30.6% YTD, largely due to Zcash paring losses elsewhere. At the other end of the spectrum, Gaming and DePIN recorded the steepest declines of 75.2% and 76.7% YTD, while the Solana ecosystem fell 64.2% despite leading in mindshare.