What if 2025 is a bear market for the crypto market? There are still a few days left until the end of the year, but when we analyze the narrative, we see mostly red and deep waterfalls that shake up the ecosystem.
sector DeFAI, which combines decentralized finance and artificial intelligence (AI), was hit the hardest.. At the time of publishing this article, Dexu Explorer data shows a decline of over 97% by 2025. Note that the sector’s most representative assets were significantly affected, including Fetch.ai, SingularityNET, and Ocean Protocol.
The modular protocol, designed to make it easier to build applications and services within the cryptocurrency ecosystem, recorded a 92% decline, confirming one of the worst performances of the year.
Projects such as the Decentralized Science Initiative (DeSci), Bio-Protocol, VitaDAO and ResearchCoin, which aim to publish and fund scientific research in a collaborative and transparent manner, have seen a decline of around 91%, reflecting a significant loss of market interest.
cryptocurrencies related to projects related to artificial intelligence (AI), i.e. tools and services based on automated systems and data models; They too were unable to escape the correction, with a cumulative decline of 87%.after being one of the most popular stories of the previous cycle. In this niche, Render or Bittensor stands out.
Other sectors will also be hit hard GameFi and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) fell nearly 85%unique digital assets used for collectibles, digital art, and video games fell by about 80%, deepening the crisis in an already weakened segment.
Finally, even meme coins, historically associated with speculative and retail momentum, ended the year with significant losses of over 70%, indicating that bearish pressure was widespread.
winner
In contrast, privacy was the standout in the red, ending the year with a 23.9% gain, driven by privately traded cryptocurrencies such as zcash (ZEC) and Monero (XMR), allowing it to outperform the rest of the market in 2025.
ZEC was one of the standout assets of 2025, rising 713%. At the time of publication of this note, it is trading above $434.
As seen in the chart below, XMR has accumulated an increase of 143% per year.
As reported by CriptoNoticias, privacy has also been at the center of the discussion this year, as evidenced by the Foundation and Vitalik Buterin’s push for Ethereum to prioritize privacy-focused updates.
Then there are exchange tokens. OKB, a token on the OKX exchange, stood out with a 135% rise, while BNB, a token on the Binance exchange, rose 29%, mainly due to a token burning program that reduced the circulating supply.
Tokenized gold has lagged a bit further, with Tether Gold (XAUT) and Pax Gold (PAXG) posting 66% gains, benefiting from gold’s strong performance as a safe-haven asset.
From a macroeconomic perspective, this movement is not small. it is, Gold is usually a sign of risk aversionwhen the market perceives vulnerabilities more than opportunities.
Especially since it was a year marked by global uncertainty due to geopolitical tensions caused by the “tariff war” promoted by President Donald Trump.
The truth is that these data show that 2025 was a bearish year for most stories. This does not mean the lower bound is guaranteed, and the scenario still leaves room for further declines if the macro environment hardens or liquidity becomes scarce again. So far, there are no clear signs of recovery in 2026.
