AI Agents and Memecoins Fizzle Out as Crypto’s Hottest Narratives Lose Steam

Key Takeaways

• Pump.fun daily token launches and trading volumes have declined by more than 50%.
• AI Agent platform Virtuals Protocol has seen its number of daily active wallets fall by 86% since Jan. 1, 2025.
• Pump.fun is facing lawsuits despite the SEC declaring that memecoins do not fall under securities laws.

Two of 2024’s biggest crypto trends—memecoins and AI agent platforms—are showing signs of fatigue.

Pump.fun and Virtuals Protocol, two of the most talked-about projects in their respective niches, have seen activity plummet to unprecedented lows.

While the broader crypto market faces another major sell-off, the sharp decline in engagement suggests that the initial frenzy surrounding these platforms may have already peaked.

Losing Steam

Despite receiving the green light from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which ruled that memecoins are not securities, Pump.fun’s momentum continues to fade.

According to Dune data , token creation on the platform has plummeted. After peaking at an all-time high of 48,055 addresses minting tokens on Jan. 24, 2025, the daily count has steadily declined.

By Feb. 27, only 15,042 addresses had launched tokens—a sharp 68.69% drop.

Pump.fun token creation figures slide. | Source: Dune

Naturally, this downturn has impacted the platform’s bottom line. Further data shows that daily volumes, comprising trading volumes and token mint purchases, have plummeted by around 50% from $184.87 million to $92.66 million since Feb. 14.

So far today, only 4,780 addresses have minted 6,869 tokens, with volumes currently at $27.34 million.

A similar trend is unfolding in the AI-driven crypto sector.

AI Sector Follows Suit

Virtuals Protocol, the leading platform for tokenized AI Agents, has seen daily active wallets drop from an ATH of 58,641 on Jan. 1 to just 7,781 on Feb. 27.

Trading volumes on decentralized exchanges (DEXs) have also tumbled—from $260.2 million on Jan. 2 to just $11.58 million, a 95% decline.

Meanwhile, fewer than 100 AI Agents have been created in the past week, compared to the hundreds being launched daily at the sector’s peak.

The AI Agent narrative was another piping-hot realm of innovation emerging in crypto and Web3 last year, but the sector appears to be struggling for traction.

Some see this decline as a natural correction following an initial hype-driven growth phase, especially amid broader market turbulence.

For Pump.fun and memecoins, however, the situation may be more complex.

Pump.fun Memecoins

The initial decline of Pump.fun began when it was pressured to remove its controversial livestream feature on Nov. 27. The feature allowed users to promote the launch of their tokens. Many took to using violence, porn, and other depraved acts to garner attention.

It was only a matter of time before that was removed. This briefly hurt the platform’s metrics, resulting in the number of new addresses creating tokens being slashed in half overnight. However, the total addresses creating memecoins hit new ATH in January.

To make things worse, the Pump.fun X account was hacked on Feb. 26, 2025, and used to promote a fraudulent governance token.

This sets a dangerous precedent for the memecoin space, as social media hacks are the most frequented attack vector, and a token promoted by Pump.fun could result in enormous losses for victims.

The memecoin-creating platform is also being hit with a couple of lawsuits . Notably, they allege it has cost users millions in losses through scams and rug pulls that it facilitated on its platform.

There’s a real chance that the year-long memecoin mania is officially cooling. Or at least, Pump.fun’s dominance over the memecoin market has finally come to an end.