Memecoins go from Christmas cheer to cold reality, sinking 65% in a year

Once a barometer of retail hype, memecoins are closing the year with shrinking liquidity, weaker participation and fading speculative momentum.

Memecoins are trading near year-end lows, marking a sharp reversal from the speculative peak reached in Christmas 2024.

Memecoins fell 65% over the year to a market capitalization of $35 billion on Dec. 19, their lowest level of 2025, according to CoinMarketCap data. They retraced some losses on Friday, rising to about $36 billion.

Last year, memecoins thrived on Christmas Day, recording about $100 billion in valuation, according to CoinMarketCap data.

The memecoin sector’s trading volume fell alongside its value, dropping 72% over the year to $3.05 trillion, as crypto’s retail investing trends moved away from highly speculative assets.

Memecoins have historically acted as a temperature check for retail traders’ risk appetite. The collapse of the sector’s market cap signals a more cautious market environment where capital is harder to attract. 

How politics shaped the memecoin sector’s rise and fall

Political narratives were a major driver behind memecoins’ explosive growth in 2024, turning the sector into a proxy for election-driven speculation. 

According to CoinGecko, enthusiasm around the US presidential race helped push memecoin valuations to record highs, as election-themed tokens dominated social media, launchpads and onchain activities. 

That political momentum, however, drove the sector’s decline further into 2025. High-profile launches tied to political figures, including US President Donald Trump’s memecoin token and Argentina President Javier Milei-linked Libra, marked a turning point. 

CoinGecko added that sharp price collapses and insider activity undermined confidence and shifted the sentiment into skepticism.

Related: Solana under ‘industrial scale’ DDoS attack: Co-founder says it’s ‘bullish’

NFTs hit 2025 lows in December

Apart from memecoins, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), another speculative crypto sector, also saw a sharp dip in valuations in December. 

CoinGecko data showed that NFTs fell to $2.5 billion in December, their lowest level in 2025. This matched the 72% decline by memecoins from a peak of $9.2 billion in January.

According to NFT data tracker CryptoSlam, activity also fell, as the amount of weekly sellers fell below 100,000 for the first time since April 2021.

Magazine: Bitcoin whale Metaplanet ‘underwater’ but eyeing more BTC: Asia Express