The interest of cryptocurrency investors remains focused on assets that have been well known to market participants for at least a year. These are meme tokens and tokens from the artificial intelligence category.
According to the results of the first quarter of 2025, these types of coins dominated the list of investors' areas of interest. This is the data from a study conducted by analysts of the crypto tracker CoinGecko.
Which cryptocurrencies are being bought most frequently?
Tokens related to artificial intelligence and meme coins emerged as the dominant trend in the crypto market during the first quarter of 2025, accounting for 62.8% of investor interest. Notably, AI-related projects were even more popular than meme coins, which captured 27.1% of traders’ attention.
Among the top twenty trends of the quarter, six were connected to meme coins and five to artificial intelligence. These findings were commented on by Bobby Ong, co-founder and COO of CoinGecko.
It seems we haven’t yet seen the emergence of a new trend and are still following the patterns of previous quarters.
Many appear tired of the same old trends repeating over and over. However, some industry experts are concerned that meme coins are diverting capital away from “truly useful” tokens like Solana, limiting the growth of their ecosystems. In particular, since Trump’s inauguration, SOL’s price has dropped by roughly 48 percent.
Interest in memecoins increased dramatically before the inauguration of US President Donald Trump on January 20, 2025. Shortly before that — on January 18 — his team launched the official memecoin. Also, the MELANIA token appeared a little later in honor of the first lady of the United States.
The popularity of meme tokens took a major hit after the collapse of the Libra (LIBRA) project—a meme coin inadvertently promoted by Argentine President Javier Milei. Within hours of its launch, the token crashed to nearly zero, wiping out over $4 billion in market capitalization.
It later emerged that the project was a scam, and the politician even faced impeachment risks due to his involvement.
Following the Libra scandal, meme coins “fell into an abyss.” Additionally, the number of new tokens launched on the Pump.fun platform within the Solana network sharply declined. An expert noted:
“The daily number of new tokens dropped by more than 56.3 percent from the peak in January to 31,000 by the end of Q1 2025. The percentage of ‘graduates’—tokens that reached a certain level of success—also fell sharply to 0.7 percent compared to 1.4 percent in January 2025.”
Although the Libra scandal marked the end of the “political meme coin” trend, the most successful traders in the industry continue to hunt for speculative investments in this space.
As previously reported, some have managed to make fortunes from a few lucky trades.
How Binance Is Driving Crypto Adoption
Meanwhile, the largest crypto exchange, Binance, is making significant efforts to promote mass crypto adoption. It is currently in talks with several governments about creating strategic reserves of digital assets, according to Binance CEO Richard Teng.
Teng said Binance is advising multiple governments on establishing crypto reserves in Bitcoin and on developing crypto asset regulations. He commented:
“We’ve actually received quite a few inquiries from governments and sovereign funds about setting up their own crypto reserves.”
While he did not name specific countries, Teng noted that the United States “is significantly ahead of everyone else in this regard.”
The main reason governments are turning to Binance for help in building reserves is a new narrative in the US, where the government has become highly crypto-friendly.
This issue has become a cornerstone of current President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign, including plans for a national crypto reserve and digital asset stockpiles. Earlier this year, Trump signed an order to create a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve based on BTC confiscated in federal criminal and civil cases.
Previously, Pakistan and Kyrgyzstan announced cooperation with Binance and former CEO Changpeng Zhao on crypto regulation, though neither country has publicly mentioned plans for crypto reserves.
As Binance becomes more involved in helping countries build crypto reserves and regulatory frameworks, the company appears to be moving away from its former policy of having no formal headquarters, introduced under Zhao. Teng said Binance is “actively working” on plans to establish a centralized major office. He stated:
“This requires serious discussion, and the board of directors along with top management are spending a lot of time evaluating options. Hopefully, we will be able to announce our intentions on this soon.”
Back in 2019, Zhao described offices and headquarters as “outdated concepts, like SMS and MMS.” This strategic shift comes as more countries implement clear regulatory frameworks for crypto businesses.
In his fresh interview, Teng also referred to important developments in the US, including the creation of a national crypto and digital asset reserve. Earlier this year, Donald Trump signed an executive order creating a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve based on BTC seized in federal criminal and civil cases.
Notably, Binance faced scrutiny and investigations from multiple governments in 2020 due to its decentralized business model.
Despite the ongoing hype around meme coins and AI tokens, the crypto market is still driven by old trends. However, institutional initiatives like the creation of crypto reserves could change the game. Binance’s and governments’ involvement signals that the industry is preparing for a new phase of maturity. Over time, more players of various sizes are likely to engage with these tokens.
