Despite the crypto sector being largely regarded as a space of rapid innovation and progress, it seems like the market has been running out of ideas lately. That’s because the first quarter of 2025 is looking strikingly similar to the previous one in terms of dominating narratives. These past few months, we’ve seen the same trends being reiterated as the majority of investors continued to focus their attention on meme coins and AI tokens.
Spotlight on meme coins and AI tokens
Meme coins have remained a steady presence in the crypto market since their emergence in 2013. These assets have been gaining more ground over the years, despite undergoing periods of decline when they faded into the background and were nearly forgotten by investors. Highly criticized for their lack of utility and technical deficiencies, meme coins compensate through humor, creativity, and community spirit.
This has ensured their survival and fueled their resurgence after each bearish phase. Judging by their recent performance, meme coins might be gearing up for another rebound, with the Pepecoin price showing consistent gains and the Dogecoin price trending upward.
Alongside meme coins, AI-driven cryptocurrencies represent another fast-growing segment of the crypto market, although they made their debut a bit later than their meme-based counterparts. Spurred by the convergence of AI and blockchain, this crypto subset reflects the increasing popularity and interest in these two cutting-edge technologies. AI tokens support the development of different AI initiatives where they serve different functions, such as:
- Providing access to AI platforms and resources, enabling them to take advantage of AI capabilities.
- Giving token holders governance rights, allowing them to participate in the decision-making process for AI projects and actively contribute to their management and development.
- Facilitating safe transactions within AI-powered ecosystems and marketplaces. As a medium of exchange, they can be used to buy, sell, or share assets that play a key role in AI growth.
- Incentives for encouraging users to contribute to the progress of AI systems. Users can receive AI tokens as rewards for supplying data and computational resources.
The first projects combining AI and blockchain emerged around 2017, but they only saw limited adoption given their novelty. Over the following year, more initiatives featuring AI tokens followed, but none of them managed to gain much traction since AI wasn’t yet as popular as it is today.
The trend finally started to pick up pace in 2022, in the wake of the AI boom sparked by the launch of ChatGPT and other generative AI tools and applications. From this moment on, AI tokens began to attract attention from a growing number of investors looking to gain exposure to AI technology through crypto. As the hype around AI grew throughout 2023 and 2024, so did the popularity and demand for these new assets.
Being tied to real-world AI projects gives AI tokens a solid foundation to stand on and ensures their longevity in a space fraught with volatility and uncertainty. The same cannot be said about meme coins, whose lack of underlying utility makes them a lot more unstable and susceptible to major price fluctuations.
However, AI tokens face challenges of their own. Most notably, the technical complexities of combining blockchain with AI, two technologies that are not naturally compatible with each other, can hinder development and pose barriers for adoption. Furthermore, AI tokens are affected by the current regulatory ambiguity surrounding both the crypto and AI sectors.
Replaying old narratives
Despite the challenges they present, the potential of meme coins and AI tokens seems to trump their drawbacks, and that keeps them at the top of investors’ preferences for the moment.
According to a quarterly report from crypto data aggregator CoinGecko, the first quarter of 2025 saw meme coins and AI tokens dominate the market in terms of global investor interest, capturing a combined 62.8% of the market share.
AI tokens took the lead, seizing 35.7% of the market focus, while meme coins enjoyed their fair share of popularity with a 27.1% share. Moreover, out of the main crypto narratives in Q1 of 2025, six were related to meme coins and five were connected to AI projects.
The research points out that the trends of the past quarter still influence investors’ behavior this year and will probably continue to do so until new narratives emerge. Meme coins got a new boost around Donald Trump’s inauguration as the 47th president of the United States on 20 January 2025, which also coincided with the launch of the TRUMP and MELANIA meme coins.
Several experts have expressed concerns that the growing interest in meme coins could cause capital outflow from utility tokens. Solana seems to be one of the main assets to bear the brunt of this phenomenon. Despite recent gains, Solana has experienced a sharp decline in the months following Trump’s return to the White House, confirming analysts’ theories.
On the other hand, the crypto market at large and the meme coin segment in particular were also shaken by the sudden collapse of the Solana-based Libra meme token on February 15, which caused a total loss of nearly $4 billion. However, the scandal didn’t seem to stop investors from chasing new opportunities in the meme coin space.
As for the future, analysts believe that meme coins will remain a fun addition for investors since they aren’t subjected to the same macroeconomic influences as more established coins. At one point, market players might get tired of the same old themes being rehashed all the time and turn their attention toward other crypto areas. But in order for that to happen, the market also has to come up with new developments worthy of their consideration. If there’s no newness, the next quarters won’t look much different than the ones we’ve left behind.
