Major Crypto Narratives Post Divergent Returns in 2025

• RWA leads 2025 crypto narratives with 185.8% YTD gains, though returns fell sharply from 2024 levels.
• Layer 1 remains profitable for a second year, driven mainly by strong privacy coin performance.
• Popular narratives like AI, meme coins, GameFi, and DePIN ended 2025 with heavy losses.

Major crypto narratives delivered mixed results in 2025, with returns ranging from deep losses to triple-digit gains, according to performance data compiled across the year. While a small number of themes managed to extend profitability into a second consecutive year, most popular narratives ended the period in negative territory despite sustained market attention.

Real-world assets (RWA) emerged as the strongest-performing crypto narrative in 2025, posting average price gains of 185.8% year-to-date (YTD) across its largest representative tokens. Performance within the category was heavily concentrated, with Keeta Network recording gains of 1,794.9% YTD, followed by Zebec Network at 217.3% and Maple Finance at 123.0%. Despite leading this year’s rankings, RWA returns were substantially lower than in 2024, when the same narrative delivered average gains of 819.5%.

Layer 1 ranked as the second most profitable narrative, with average returns of 80.3% YTD. The gains were primarily supported by privacy-focused blockchains, as Zcash and Monero rose 691.3% and 143.6% respectively. Additional contributions came from Bitcoin Cash, BNB, and Tron, which maintained portions of earlier price appreciation. Notably, RWA and Layer 1 were the only two major narratives to record profitability for a second straight year.

Limited Crypto Gains Outside Leading Narratives

The only other narrative on track to close 2025 with positive average returns was Made in USA, which posted gains of 30.6% YTD. This outcome was driven almost entirely by Zcash’s performance, which offset moderate losses among other representative tokens in the category.

Despite maintaining high visibility throughout the year, meme coins and artificial intelligence narratives recorded average losses of 31.6% and 50.2% YTD, respectively. Most large meme tokens declined between 44.6% and 82.5%, while leading AI-related assets fell between 49.8% and 84.3%, with only limited exceptions.

Decentralized finance (DeFi) also underperformed, posting average losses of 34.8%, closely matching meme coin declines. Decentralized exchange (DEX) tokens fell 55.5%, while layer 2 assets declined 40.6%, marking a second consecutive unprofitable year for that narrative.

Gaming, DePIN, and Ecosystem Losses Deepen

GameFi and DePIN recorded the steepest declines among major narratives, with average losses of 75.2% and 76.7% YTD. Large gaming tokens dropped between 40.1% and 92.5%, while DePIN assets fell 44.5% to 88.0%.

The Solana ecosystem narrative also posted significant losses of 64.2%, despite maintaining the highest overall market mindshare, with Jupiter’s JLP the only major token to finish the year marginally higher.