What are Crypto narratives?
Crypto narratives are ideas, stories, or prevailing beliefs that shape how people perceive and evaluate cryptocurrencies. These Crypto narratives can influence investor psychology, market trends, and the adoption of new technologies in crypto.
Why are Crypto narratives important?
Crypto narratives arise from the combination of many factors, including the technological capabilities of cryptocurrencies and blockchain, social and economic events, beliefs, and motivations of individuals participating in the cryptocurrency industry. Mainstream media, social media, online forums, influencers, and market trends can drive Crypto narratives.
In 2024, we are witnessing a trend in Crypto narratives exploring the capabilities and applications of blockchain, such as Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Network (DePIN). However, we are also witnessing Crypto narratives like memecoins take off. These Crypto narratives make the cryptocurrency market accessible to anyone, as they do not require deep knowledge of the cryptocurrency space.
Crypto narratives are important because they play a crucial role in shaping people's perceptions and subsequently the market movements. They provide a framework for people to understand the potential risks and rewards of various cryptocurrencies, and they can influence the trajectory of the entire cryptocurrency industry.
However, Crypto narratives can also be misleading or harmful based on flawed assumptions or hype. Therefore, it is crucial to seriously evaluate Crypto narratives and make investment decisions based on one's own analysis and research.
Here are 5 Crypto narratives that are likely to shape the cryptocurrency industry in 2025.
Memecoin
Memecoin is still one of the most profitable markets in 2024, leading to expectations of a memecoin super cycle, with SPX6900 and Gigachad topping the list of the leading bullish projects on CoinGecko in Q3 2024.
There are also other memecoins that have reached new heights, such as GOAT becoming the first Pump.fun token to reach a $1 billion market cap.
As its name suggests, memecoins are based on memes and trends, supported by an enthusiastic community. They are often positioned as fun tokens and typically rely on community development to spread and drive price growth.
Memecoins can also provide traders with an easy way to participate in the frenzy surrounding popular blockchains, as meme tokens are often launched at very low prices with many zeros.
Memecoin buyers will not care about technology; what they care about is whether the community of that project is thriving.
In 2024, many memecoins emerged with tremendous growth momentum, thus in 2025, many expect memecoins to be the area that makes the cryptocurrency market more vibrant.
Prediction Market
The prediction market allows users to bet on the outcomes of ongoing and future events using cryptocurrency by purchasing 'Yes' or 'No' tokens. After the event concludes, users who chose the correct option will receive a payout based on the number of tokens purchased.
Among all prediction markets, Polymarket is the largest prediction market. Other popular categories for prediction markets include Sports, Business, and Pop Culture.
Recently, the 2024 US presidential election generated over $732 million in volume on Polymarket.
In 2025, many believe that events in the following year will also help the Prediction Market attract more participants.
Restaking
Restaking has been a prominent trend in 2024. Restaking involves restaking liquid staked tokens to provide security and allow users to earn rewards from the services offered by intermediary applications.
The leading project in this field is EigenLayer. This is a pioneering project in the area of restaking, with over 3.5 million ETH in TVL at the time of writing. Users can restake their liquid staked tokens, such as stETH, rETH, and cbETH, to secure Actively Validated Services (AVSs) on EigenLayer.
Solana (Layer 1)
Layer 1 Blockchain refers to foundational blockchains that serve as the main network of the ecosystem and have the capability to process and finalize transactions. One of the notable Layer 1 blockchains is Solana.
Although Solana was launched in 2020, it is the most popular blockchain ecosystem in 2024, according to Coingecko. Solana accounts for 38.8% of investor interest in cryptocurrencies in chain narratives.
A key factor contributing to the popularity of the Solana ecosystem is the ongoing memecoin wave. Solana is indeed the cradle of many famous memecoin projects. Its high speed and low gas fees, along with the popularity of the Pump.fun memecoin platform, have made Solana one of the top chains for memecoin speculation.
Layer 2: Optimistic Rollup
L2s are clearly a hot topic of discussion in 2024. L2s are protocols built on L1 to further expand and develop them. They minimize L1 computations by moving transactions off-chain, significantly improving their throughput. The Total Value Locked (TVL) of L2 has steadily increased throughout 2024.
Optimistic rollup is an L2 scaling solution aimed at increasing transaction throughput and reducing fees while maintaining the security guarantees of the blockchain. They leverage a trust-based model to validate off-chain transactions and add them to the underlying blockchain after being confirmed by a small group of 'witnesses'.
Layer 2: ZK Rollup
Zero knowledge rollups (ZK rollups) are a Layer 2 scaling solution that improves Layer 1 throughput by moving computations and state storage off-chain. In this way, they can process many transactions in batches and post summarized data on-chain. Zero knowledge rollups allow you to prove knowledge about something without revealing it.
This makes them an attractive solution for applications where privacy is paramount, such as digital identity verification and confidential transactions.
Speaking of ZK rollup, one must mention Scroll.
Scroll is a Layer 2 solution that aims to provide unlimited scalability, high throughput, full decentralization, and minimal privacy. Scroll is working towards this goal by leveraging ZK rollup and high-performance decentralized off-chain systems.
Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Network (DePIN)
DePIN refers to decentralized physical infrastructure networks that use blockchain and token rewards to develop infrastructure in the physical world across various fields such as wireless connectivity, geospatial mapping, mobility, healthcare, energy, etc.
The goal of DePIN is to create resource-efficient physical infrastructure by incentivizing providers to commit their physical resources to a decentralized network. DePIN then provides these resources to users seeking lower service fees (compared to centralized facilities), and the network generates revenue through fees paid by users.
Conclusion
In 2023, we saw narratives like 'AI, China tokens, DeFi, L1, Bitcoin Ordinals, and BRC-20', while in 2024 it is 'Restaking, DePIN, L2...'. With 2025 approaching, we can expect these Crypto narratives to continue to gain popularity in the market.