CoinGecko research analyst Shaun Lee highlights the success of AI-based crypto projects and the unprecedented growth of certain meme coins.
In an interview with BeInCrypto, Lee also highlighted the use of crypto point farming for airdrops, perpetual trading on decentralized exchanges, and real-world asset (RWA) projects as other promising narratives to watch in 2025.
The rise of AI-based projects
Since the inception of ChatGPT, Lee emphasized that the crypto community has shown great interest in creating projects that seek to converge the capabilities of blockchain technology and artificial intelligence. In 2024, many have shown positive results in facilitating decentralized access to AI.
Lee highlighted Virtual Protocol, a decentralized platform for creating, owning and monetizing AI agents in virtual worlds, among the most successful projects.
In the last month alone, Virtuals created over 21,000 AI Agent tokens, according to data from Dune, while certain tokens like AIXBT and LUNA surged over 300% just days after their initial launch.
Lee also mentioned AI-powered venture firm AI16z, which launched in October and currently has a market capitalization of $600 million. As of this month, Eliza Framework, the technical foundation of AI16z, has become one of the most widely adopted open source frameworks for AI agents.
This open source platform allows developers of all levels to create and deploy AI-based solutions. The AI16z framework was specifically designed to bridge the gap between centralized and decentralized systems, making it accessible to Web3 and Web2 developers.
A successful year for Meme coins
In addition to AI integrations, there has been a boost in the generation of new meme coins, leading to higher trading volumes and an increase in overall profits.
“The resurgence of Solana and the creation of Pump.fun have led to the proliferation of meme coins. Meme coins are easily accessible today and can be created with just the click of a few buttons, following the trend from 2023 onwards,” Lee told BeInCrypto.
Since its launch this year, Pump.fun has become a major player and dominates Solana meme tokens. The meme coin launch platform generated nearly $300 million in revenue in 2024, according to data from DeFi Llama.
Pump.Fun Income. Source: DefiLlama
Promising airdrop narratives
According to Lee, the success of airdrop narratives in the DeFi space has also been a highlight of the year.
“After lagging behind for the past few years, DeFi has once again been offered. The accumulation of airdrop points boosted Pendle usage, while Ethena’s new stablecoin model and its integration with many popular DeFi protocols have helped bolster its popularity,” he told BeInCrypto.
Pendle’s Ethereum-based yield trading protocol tokenizes the yield of cryptoassets, allowing users to trade and manage yield-generating assets. It enables strategies such as fixed income yield, yield speculation, and yield farming, bringing traditional financial concepts to the DeFi world.
Although the concept behind Pendle has been around for a long time, its particular framework allows users to trade tokens while earning returns of up to 47% on the underlying assets, outperforming existing similar projects.
Launched in 2021, Pendle has seen a surge in popularity this year due to the rise of liquid Ethereum staking and airdrops of DeFi protocols like Ether.Fi. In April, raising Ethena’s USDe fund limit to $400 million spurred further activity, raising Pendle’s total value locked (TVL) to a staggering $4.88 billion.
Crypto Point Farming Practices
Pendle’s approach to point farming has also been notable. Crypto points are a reward system used by Web3 projects to incentivize user participation. By completing specific actions, users earn points that can generate airdrops or be used for other types of incentives.
“The accumulation of points was a surprising development, with many new projects, such as Eigen and staking protocols, taking advantage of idle capital during the bear market, offering points (in anticipation of future airdrops) in exchange for total value locked,” he explained Read.
Discussing successes within DeFi, the CoinGecko research analyst also highlighted the Aave Protocol token, which has seen a recent surge in activity driven by a significant whale buildup, injecting new liquidity into the market.
Similarly, decentralized exchanges have also seen a rise in the popularity of perpetual trading. Lee used Hyperliquid’s most recent airdrop as an example of how this initiative significantly boosted trading volumes.
Hyperliquid, a high-performance decentralized crypto exchange built on its own Layer 1 blockchain, made waves in late November when it launched its HYPE token to over 90,000 users.
HYPE monthly price chart. Source: TradingView
This generous token distribution made cryptocurrency history as the largest airdrop ever, while the token’s price rise has continued, reaching an all-time high this week. The crypto community greeted the move with surprise, setting a new standard for future cryptocurrency airdrops.
A bright future for real-world assets
According to Lee, real-world asset projects are here to stay. RWAs, a type of physical or financial asset that exists outside the digital spectrum, are represented on the blockchain in the form of a token.
“In previous cycles, the RWA narrative struggled to take off, but this time it managed to find its footing. “Major financial institutions have increased their participation in the RWA sector, and BlackRock created its BUIDL fund to offer qualified investors the opportunity to earn returns in US dollars,” he told BeInCrypto.
According to RWA.xyz, tokenized Treasuries have already surpassed $3 billion, having grown from just over $700 million at the beginning of the year.
Market capitalization of tokenized Treasury bonds. Source: rwa.xyz
When BUIDL, a tokenized US treasury issued by asset management giant BlackRock, entered the RWA space in July, it saw a market surge that also triggered an overall rise in the total market capitalization of RWA-related assets. RWA.
This year there have been several notable leaders among RWA crypto projects. Maple Finance, for example, tokenizes corporate debt, merging traditional and decentralized finance. The platform offers investment opportunities and financing solutions for companies.
Using smart contracts and automated credit assessments, Maple enables institutional investors to lend to creditworthy corporations by tokenizing real-world assets, enabling novel financial instruments and strategies.
Ondo Finance is another prominent RWA crypto project, which specializes in tokenizing fixed income assets. It provides several vault strategies to optimize returns and mitigate risk, while the ONDO token offers exposure to various assets, making it a compelling option for investors seeking unique financial opportunities.
