CoinGecko research analyst Shaun Lee highlights the success of AI-enabled crypto projects and the unprecedented growth of certain meme coins.
In an interview with BeInCrypto, Lee also underscored the use of crypto points farming for airdrops, perpetual trading on decentralized exchanges, and real-world asset (RWA) projects as other promising narratives to watch out for in 2025.
The Surge of AI-Enabled Projects
Since the inception of ChatGPT, Lee emphasized that the crypto community has taken a keen interest in building 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 the Virtuals 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 more than 21,000 AI Agent tokens, according to Dune data, while certain tokens like AIXBT and LUNA surged more than 300% only days after their initial launch.
Lee also mentioned the AI-driven venture firm AI16z, which launched in October and currently has a market cap of $600 million. As of this month, the Eliza Framework, AI16z’s technical foundation, has become one of the most widely adopted open-source frameworks for AI agents.
This open-source platform empowers developers of all levels to build and deploy AI-driven solutions. AI16z’s 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
Alongside AI integrations, there has been a push in the generation of new meme coins, which has led to higher trading volumes and a surge in overall earnings.
“Solana’s resurgence and the creation of Pump.fun have led to the proliferation of meme coins. Meme coins are easily accessible nowadays and can be created with the click of a few buttons, carrying the trend from 2023,” Lee told BeInCrypto.
Since its launch this year, Pump.fun has become a major player and dominates Solana meme tokens. The meme coin launchpad generated nearly $300 million in revenue in 2024, according to data from DeFi Llama.
Pump.Fun Revenue. Source: DefiLlama Promising Airdrop Narratives
The success surrounding airdrop narratives in the DeFi space has also been a highlight of the year, according to Lee.
“After lagging for the past couple of years, DeFi has caught a bid once again. Points farming for airdrops drove up the usage of Pendle, 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 crypto assets, allowing users to trade and manage yield-bearing assets. It enables strategies like fixed-income yield, yield speculation, and yield farming, bringing traditional finance concepts to the DeFi world.
Though the concept behind Pendle has been around for a long time, its particular framework allows users to trade tokens while earning yields of up to 47% on the underlying assets, outperforming similar existing projects.
Launched in 2021, Pendle has seen a surge in popularity this year due to increased Ethereum liquid staking and airdrops from DeFi protocols like Ether.Fi. In April, raising Ethena’s USDe pool cap to $400 million fueled further activity, pushing Pendle’s total value locked (TVL) to a staggering $4.88 billion.
Crypto Points 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 engagement. By completing specific actions, users earn points that can lead to airdrops or can be used for other types of incentives.
“Points farming was a surprising development, with many new projects such as Eigen and staking protocols taking advantage of idle capital during the bear market, by offering points (in anticipation of future airdrops) in return for Total Value Locked,” Lee explained.
When discussing successes within DeFi, CoinGecko’s research analyst also spotlit Aave Protocol’s token, which has experienced a recent surge in activity fueled by significant whale accumulation, injecting fresh liquidity into the market.
Similar to this, decentralized exchanges have also witnessed a surge in popularity for 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 at the end of November when it airdropped its HYPE token to over 90,000 users.
HYPE Monthly Price Chart. Source: TradingView
This generous distribution of tokens made crypto history as the largest airdrop ever done, while the token’s pricer surge has been ongoing, reaching an all-time high this week. The crypto community greeted the move with surprise, setting a new standard for future crypto airdrops.
A Bright Future for Real-World Assets
According to Lee, real-world asset projects are here to stay. A type of physical or financial asset that exists outside of the digital spectrum, RWAs are represented on the blockchain in the form of a token.
“In previous cycles, the RWA narrative struggled to take off but has managed to find its footing this time around. Major financial institutions have increased their involvement in the RWA sector, with BlackRock setting up its BUIDL fund to offer qualified investors the opportunity to earn US dollar yields,” he told BeInCrypto.
According to RWA.xyz, tokenized treasuries have already surpassed $3 billion, having grown from just over $700 million at the start of the year.
Tokenized Treasuries Market Cap. Source: rwa.xyz
When BUIDL, a tokenized US treasury issued by asset management giant BlackRock, entered into the RWA space in July, it experienced a market surge that also triggered an overall increase in the total market capitalization of RWA-related assets.
The year has seen several prominent 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 businesses.
By using smart contracts and automated credit assessments, Maple empowers institutional investors to lend to creditworthy corporations through the tokenization of real-world assets, allowing for novel financial instruments and strategies.
Ondo Finance is another prominent RWA crypto project, specializing in tokenizing fixed-income assets. It provides various vault strategies to optimize yield returns and mitigate risk, while the ONDO token offers exposure to diverse assets, making it a compelling choice for investors seeking unique financial opportunities.
