Memecoins have been the leading narrative of the cycle after surpassing all expectations and becoming the top-performing sector of 2024. As we navigate 2025’s crypto market, emerging sectors like Artificial Intelligence (AI) agents could rival memecoins’ narrative mindshare.
Memecoins Defined 2024’s Crypto Market
On Tuesday, Binance Research shared its “Full-Year 2024 & Themes for 2025” report, crowning memecoins as the “Defining Narrative of 2024. The platform highlighted the sector’s outstanding performance last year, which drove significant attention to the crypto market.
According to the report, memecoins played a “significant role in onboarding new users to the crypto space and offer a unique way to monetize attention in the social media era.” Additionally, the notion of “so-called ‘blue-chip’ memes” served as a testament to the “growth and diversity of the memecoin market and its structure,” the report noted.
The crypto community saw the creation of various sub-sectors within the memecoin space, encapsulating the events that shaped the year. For instance, PolitiFi tokens, which rose amid the American electoral campaign, recorded the many changes in the political landscape through these tokens.
This narrative eventually led to the launch of the Solana-based TRUMP memecoin, the first-ever token officially backed by a politician. The memecoin was created in January to “celebrate Courage & Strength” after the July 2024 assassination attempt on President Trump.
Binance Research points out that memecoins meteoric rise could be attributed to various factors, including increased transparency and a perception of fairness, accessibility, and addressing users’ frustration with the “low float, high FDV” issue.
Additionally, it noted the sector’s high-risk, high-reward nature appears to have fulfilled the industry’s search for the first crypto AAA game. The report argues that the “thrill of creating memecoins of the smallest moments in cultures” trade them into “sky-high valuations” could be perceived as a game, keeping the community invested in the sector and increasing its popularity.
AI Agents: The Growing Narrative
Second to memecoins, the AI crypto sector took 12.6% of the narrative mindshare in 2024, opening the stage for the market’s “newer fascination,” AI Agents.
This sub-sector captured investors’ attention throughout Q3 2024, fueled by Truth Terminal and GOAT’s growing popularity, and became a leading narrative in recent months.
AI agents, initially sparked by Truth Terminal and $GOAT, have captured the market since October and become a dominant narrative. Infrastructure providers like Virtuals Protocol (G.A.M.E. framework) and ai16z (ElizaOS framework) have been key players.
The sector has also faced backlash from the crypto community. Some investors consider the new trend “worse than other past trends,” arguing that it is “overrated.” Similarly, an anonymous poll showed that Solana founders consider AI agent tokens to be overhyped.
Nonetheless, it has continuously evolved and has “lots more in development.” As of this writing, the sector has a market capitalization of $7.84 billion, according to CoinGecko data.
What’s Next?
Binance Research pointed out the issue of memecoin longevity, as many of the tokens see a rapid rise and fall. It considers that, despite not all tokens having the level of popularity to stand the test of time, memecoins are “likely to have some staying power” in some form.
Meanwhile, AI Agents are significantly earlier in their development but share the “power to onboard users (AI is a key topic across business and finance) and monetize attention.” As a result, the growth of the “AI x crypto” intersection is almost certain.
The report concludes that the “entry of web2 into AI Agents, and the rapid development and anticipated trajectory of AI x crypto” are some of the key areas to watch this year.
