Alternative Cryptocurrency Assets Plummet to 2025 Lows as Meme Coins Lose $5 Billion and NFTs Decline by 43%

Alternative cryptocurrency markets experienced one of their most significant declines of the year on Friday, as meme coins and NFTs collectively lost billions in value, continuing a multi-week downturn across the wider digital asset landscape.

Data from CoinMarketCap and CoinGecko indicates that speculative assets have reached their lowest valuations of 2025, reflecting substantial losses in Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other prominent cryptocurrencies.

Meme Coin Market Plummets 66% From January High Amid Widespread Crypto Sell-Off

The meme coin sector was particularly affected. The market capitalization for this category fell to $39.4 billion, down from $44 billion the day before, resulting in a loss of nearly $4.6 billion within 24 hours, despite a 40% rise in trading volume.

Meme Coin Market Cap Source: CoinMarketCap

This sell-off exacerbates a downturn that commenced after the sector reached a peak of $116.7 billion on January 5. The current valuation represents a 66.2% drop from that high.

Losses were widespread among major tokens. Dogecoin was priced at $0.1426, with hourly gains unable to counter a 4.21% daily decline and a 12.88% decrease over the week. Shiba Inu exhibited a similar trend at $0.000057987, down 14.04% for the week.

Source: CoinMarketCap

Pepe, Bonk, and Floki all experienced steeper weekly declines exceeding 17%, while Dogwifhat recorded one of the most significant drops at 21.13% over the seven-day period.

Despite the downturn, trading activity remained focused on the largest assets, with Dogecoin achieving nearly $3.95 billion in 24-hour volume, contrasting with the single-digit millions seen in smaller tokens.

Only a few assets displayed signs of resilience. The Official Trump token increased across hourly and daily timeframes but still concluded the week down 13.53%, while SPX6900 was the only major meme coin to finish the week in positive territory, up 14.04% despite short-term losses.

Wider market weakness contributed to the pressure. The total cryptocurrency market capitalization decreased to $2.99 trillion, a 2.2% decline from the previous day and down from $3.77 trillion on November 1, resulting in a loss of approximately $800 billion in just three weeks.

Bitcoin was trading at $85,023, down nearly 15% for the week and significantly lower from recent highs, while Ethereum hovered around $2,785, reflecting Bitcoin’s weekly losses and the broader volatility in large-cap assets.

Solana and BNB also recorded double-digit weekly losses, although neither reversed the month’s downward trend.

Global NFT Market Cap Declines 43% in a Month, Reaching $2.78B Low

The NFT market continued its decline alongside meme coins. According to CoinGecko, the global NFT market cap fell to $2.78 billion on Friday, marking a 43% decrease from its $4.9 billion level 30 days prior.

This represents the lowest NFT market valuation since April and indicates that digital collectibles have decreased by more than 80% from their early-2022 peak of nearly $17 billion.

Long-term charts suggest that the NFT market is entering a prolonged correction phase. After reaching multi-billion-dollar heights during the 2021 boom, the sector has spent most of 2023 to 2025 within a tightening range, with sporadic rallies failing to maintain momentum.

Recent trading volume remains low, with $3.99 million traded globally in 24 hours, indicating reduced liquidity across various chains.

Most leading collections experienced significant monthly losses. Hyperliquid’s Hypurr NFTs dropped 41.1% over 30 days, Moonbirds fell 32.7%, and CryptoPunks decreased by 27.1%, despite remaining the highest-valued collection with a floor price of 29.89 ETH.

Pudgy Penguins declined by 26.6%, although they maintained gains over the past year. Only two collections defied the trend: Infinex Patrons, which rose 11.3%, and Autoglyphs, which remained nearly unchanged.

Chain-level activity mirrored these trends. Ethereum continued to dominate NFT trade volume, accounting for 62.4% of the week’s $38.5 million in transactions, while HyperEVM, Base, and Solana followed at lower levels.

Monthly user activity was strongest on Base, which recorded 253,000 active traders, significantly surpassing Ethereum and Solana.

In light of the downturn, marketplaces are adapting. OpenSea, once the frontrunner of the NFT boom, has rebranded as a multi-chain crypto trading aggregator after volumes across the sector plummeted by over 90% from 2021 levels.

The platform processed $1.6 billion in crypto trades and $230 million in NFT transactions in the first half of October, marking its strongest month in over three years as it expands into broader asset trading.

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