The most profitable crypto narratives of 2025: RWA and Layer 1 lead the pack, AI and Meme experience significant pullbacks, GameFi and DePIN lead the declines.

PANews reported on December 25th that, according to CoinGecko statistics, the strongest performing crypto narrative in 2025 was RWA (Real-World Assets), with an average annual increase of 185.76%, mainly driven by Keeta Network (+1794.9%) and others. Layer 1 crypto ranked second with an increase of 80.31%, while Zcash and Monero surged by 691.3% and 143.6% respectively. US-based crypto narratives ranked third with an annual increase of 30.62%, entirely driven by the strong performance of Zcash.

Despite their popularity, AI and meme narratives declined by 50.18% and 31.61% respectively in 2025; DeFi and DEX sectors fell by 34.79% and 55.53% respectively; Layer 2 recorded a loss of 40.63%, marking its second consecutive year of losses. The worst performers were GameFi and DePIN, which plummeted by 75.16% and 76.74% respectively, while the Solana ecosystem also declined by 64.17%.