Bitcoin (BTC) has outperformed all other sectors in the crypto market this year, with various categories experiencing significant losses.
Especially, sectors like meme coins and AI appear to have taken a hit in 2025.
According to recent findings by Delphi Digital, the most severe declines were observed in AI-related sectors, with AI Frameworks suffering the largest drop at 84.05%, followed by Agents at 70.27%. Next up was meme coins, a sector that often sees extreme volatility and speculative trading, which recorded an average loss of 51.74%, while Gaming Infrastructure fell 51.54%, reflecting broader challenges in the blockchain gaming industry.
The Modular sector, which focuses on blockchain scalability and development, also saw a considerable decline of 47.48%.
The results defy earlier market expectations, as traders were largely optimistic that AI-related projects and meme coins would take the lead in the crypto space by 2025. In fact, a Binance survey conducted in December found that almost 45% of respondents predicted that these sectors would emerge as major forces in the coming year.
While several top cryptocurrencies have erased their post-2024 US Presidential Election gains, meme coins have been hit the hardest. Their market capitalization has returned to November 2024 levels, undoing the surge seen during the winter “meme coin season.”
The OG Dogecoin (DOGE), for one, rallied to nearly $0.50 after Trump’s victory but has since dropped back to $0.2. Shiba Inu (SHIB), Pepe (PEPE), Bonk (BONK), and FLOKI (FLOKI) have all suffered similar declines, with WIF experiencing the steepest drop – falling 86% from $4.20 to $0.55.
Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan believes the crypto market is currently experiencing the decline of the meme coin boom. In a recent tweet, he pointed to several key factors contributing to this downturn, including the involvement of Melania, Libra, and the Lazarus Group in using meme coins to launder stolen Ethereum.
Hougan suggests that these developments have severely damaged investor confidence in the sector, predicting that meme coins will collapse entirely within the next six months.