Tiger Research: 2025, a Year of Narrative Frenzy

Author: Tiger Research

In 2025, the cryptocurrency industry witnessed the rise of numerous narratives. Some were fleeting, collapsing rapidly; yet those key narratives left us with profound and lasting insights.

Core Insights

• The cryptocurrency market in 2025 experienced a dramatic shift in narratives, with market fatigue and skepticism accumulating throughout the year.
• The vast majority of narratives merely consumed short-term attention, but some narratives nurtured real application scenarios and market structures, steadily driving the evolution of the industry.
• In addition to trends centered around speculators, more narratives that facilitate retail participation emerged and expanded, broadening the market's participation base. This is also a significant transformation.

1. Narrative, Narrative, or Narrative

The most notable feature of the cryptocurrency market in 2025 was the astonishing speed of narrative switching. Market attention shifted to the next hot topic before the current narrative had been fully validated.

Meme coins drove particularly dramatic turns. New narratives emerged around Trump, Musk, and Sydney Sweeney, causing investors' focus to shift rapidly.

At the core of the issue is that most narratives were proven to be one-time spectacles. They consumed short-term attention but failed to build a foundational infrastructure that could evolve into a real industry. Some market participants even fabricated false narratives to harvest investors. The result was an increasingly fatigued market participant base, with growing skepticism.

That said, not all narratives ended in fatigue. Some narratives established themselves as real industries, genuinely advancing the evolution of the cryptocurrency market. So, what persisted, and what faded away? This report will delve into the major narratives that shaped 2025 and extract lessons from their rise and fall.

2. What Insights Did the 2025 Narratives Reveal?

Source: Tiger Research

2.1. Retention Value Far Exceeds New Customer Acquisition

Source: Dune

Meme coins captured the most market attention this year. Their simple and intuitive nature even attracted those who previously dismissed cryptocurrencies as overly complex. Trading applications like Moonshot further lowered the entry barrier, leading to a flood of new users in a short time.

However, most users did not stay long. They came in pursuit of quick gains and exited just as swiftly. Their activities neither spread to other services nor generated any lasting spillover effects. Although the market saw significant inflows, it merely resulted in a one-time surge in participation.

This case clearly illustrates that when the right catalyst meets low entry barriers, large-scale user inflows are indeed possible. Meme coins validated this potential. At the same time, they also revealed the reality that mere inflows are far from sufficient. If a project fails to design reasons for users to stay, inflows will inevitably turn into outflows. User retention remains a core challenge.

2.2. The Dual Nature of InfoFi

2025 was also a year when InfoFi gained serious attention. Platforms like Kaito saw the flourishing of InfoFi services, with users embracing a model where they produce information and receive incentives in return. Combining incentive mechanisms with information production was a significant experiment that brought many retail investors into the market.

However, limitations soon became apparent. The quality of content is inherently subjective and difficult to quantify. Yet, incentive distribution requires objective standards based on metrics, which gradually distorted participants' behavior patterns. Participants began to prioritize sensational content over the accuracy of information. As a result, the X platform transformed from a space for information accumulation into something closer to a billboard.

InfoFi demonstrated the potential to stimulate information production. However, it also left an unresolved question: how should we assess and reward information quality? If this issue cannot be resolved, InfoFi may not only fail to expand the information ecosystem but could also exacerbate market fatigue.

2.3. Privacy Has Become a Necessity

Source: rwa.xyz

As institutional capital accelerates its entry, the cryptocurrency market is shifting from being retail-driven to institution-driven. Along with this transition, the privacy sector has begun to gain attention. This is no coincidence.

Source: Tiger Research

On-chain transparency has long been viewed as an advantage of cryptocurrencies. However, an environment that exposes transaction sizes, timing, and holdings means complete exposure of strategies for institutional investors. The rise of over-the-counter trading in traditional finance also reflects the growing unease in the market regarding fully transparent structures.

Transparency has not benefited all participants equally. As discussions about institutional participation and market expansion continue to deepen, privacy issues can no longer be viewed as secondary concerns.

2.4. A Year of Product-Market Fit for Cryptocurrencies

2025 was a year when cryptocurrencies transcended abstract potential and began to showcase real, viable application scenarios. Stablecoins, x402, and prediction markets, while varied in form, shared a core advantage: they organically combined the borderless currency attributes of cryptocurrencies with the ability to provide transactional trust in solving real-world problems.

The key to these cases lies in the ability of cryptocurrencies to facilitate transactions and provide trust in outcomes without a central authority. In an environment where global participants are simultaneously involved, cryptocurrencies can achieve transactions and verify results without intermediaries. Traditional systems struggle to offer such advantages. These cases indicate that in specific conditions, cryptocurrencies can demonstrate relative advantages.

These examples do not prove that cryptocurrencies are a panacea for all fields. However, they suggest that when the unique attributes of cryptocurrencies align with problem structures, projects can achieve clear product-market fit. 2025 clearly revealed these conditions for the first time.

3. The Rapid Narrative Cycle and What Remains

The cryptocurrency market in 2025 saw an unusually high number of narratives emerge. Attention shifted to the next story before the current narrative could be fully validated, with many narratives quickly fading after brief consumption. Given the astonishing speed of these transitions, this year may superficially seem like a waste of time.

However, to dismiss 2025 as meaningless based solely on this impression would be hasty. While narratives may be short-lived, various experiments were simultaneously advancing behind the scenes, and institutions began to seriously plan and integrate. The trends of this period have transcended pure speculative narratives. Compared to the small circle of stories centered around speculators, more narratives that retail investors could relatively easily access began to emerge. This started to broaden the market's participation base.

Rapidly consumed narratives did not leave immediate results. However, this process helped clarify which frameworks were effective and which were mere illusions. Now is the time to use these lessons as fuel to move toward the next stage.