Privateness property, similar to zcash or monero, have been the exception.
Some rising narratives confirmed particular rebounds in brief phrases.
What if 2025 was a bear marketplace for the cryptocurrency market? There are nonetheless a number of days left till the top of the yr, however when analyzing the narratives, the bulk seem in crimson, with deep falls that shook the ecosystem.
The sector DeFAI, which mixes decentralized finance with synthetic intelligence (AI), was hit the toughest. On the time of publishing this text, it has registered a drop of greater than 97% thus far in 2025, in line with information from the Dexu explorer. It ought to be famous that probably the most consultant property within the sector, similar to Fetch.ai, SingularityNET and Ocean Protocol, have been strongly affected.
Modular protocols, designed to facilitate the development of functions and providers throughout the cryptocurrency ecosystem, recorded drops of 92%, confirming one of many worst performances of the yr.
Decentralized science initiatives (DeSci), initiatives similar to Bio Protocol, VitaDAO and ResearchCoin, which search to open and finance scientific analysis in a collaborative and clear means, fell by round 91%, reflecting a powerful lack of market curiosity.
Tasks linked to synthetic intelligence (AI), that’s, cryptocurrencies related to instruments and providers based mostly on automation methods and information fashions, They didn’t escape the correction both and collected declines of 87%after having been some of the standard narratives of the earlier cycle. On this area of interest, Render or Bittensor stand out.
Different sectors onerous hit have been GameFi, with drops near 85%, and non-fungible tokens (NFT)distinctive digital property utilized in collectibles, digital artwork and video video games, which fell by round 80%, deepening the disaster of an already weakened phase.
Lastly, even memecoins, traditionally related to hypothesis and retail momentum, closed the yr with vital losses, over 70%, exhibiting that bearish stress was widespread.
The winners
In distinction, the narrative that stood out from the crimson was that of privateness, which is closing the yr with an increase of 23.9%, pushed by cryptocurrencies based mostly on non-public transactions, similar to zcash (ZEC) and monero (XMR), which managed to maintain the next efficiency than the remainder of the market in 2025.
ZEC is likely one of the excellent property of 2025 and has registered an increase of 713%. On the time of publishing this be aware, it’s buying and selling above $434.
For its half, XMR accumulates an annual enhance of 143%, as seen within the following graph:
Additionally it is a reality of the yr that privateness grew to become the middle of the controversy, and Ethereum proves it with the push of the Basis and Vitalik Buterin to prioritize privacy-oriented updates, as reported by CriptoNoticias.
Then there are change tokens. OKB, the token of the OKX change, stood out with an increase of 135%, and BNB, the token of the Binance change, with an advance of 29%, pushed primarily by token burning applications, which scale back the provision in circulation.
Tokenized gold was a bit of additional behind, with Tether Gold (XAUT) and Pax Gold (PAXG), which registered will increase of 66%, benefiting from the great efficiency of gold as a protected haven asset.
In macroeconomic phrases, this motion will not be minor. It’s that the advance of Gold is normally an indication of threat aversionwhen the market perceives extra fragility than alternative.
Particularly as a result of it was a yr marked by international uncertainty, as a result of geopolitical tensions brought on by the “tariff conflict” promoted by Donald Trump.
The reality is that these information present that 2025 was a bearish yr for many narratives. That doesn’t imply that the ground is assured, the state of affairs nonetheless leaves room for deeper falls if the macro context hardens or there’s a lack of liquidity once more. For now, 2026 doesn’t start with clear indicators of restoration.
