Crypto Apathy In 2025

I sense scant interest in crypto out there. What a difference a year makes! Take your mind back to New Year’s Eve, 2024-5. Cryptopians were not sparing the champagne. Trump had won; crypto had dodged a Democrat bullet. Ross Ulbricht was to be pardoned. On December 13th, bitcoin (BTC) had hit six figures in price. Bitcoin Maxis brashly weened¹ whether $150,000 or $250,000 was a more likely target for the end of 2025.² Everything was going to plan.

I want to give my top reasons why things did not go to plan.

Reason 1: Pantomime Fatigue

2015ish  "Bitcoin is going to conquer the World!

2018-9  "Oh no it won't!"

2020-1  "Oh yes it will!"

2022-3  "Oh no it won't!"

2024  "Oh yes it will!"

2025  "Whatever."

The naysayers have stopped playing their role in the pantomime.

The only panto-villain left is Peter Schiff. People were lining up to take selfies with him at Bitcoin 2025 in Las Vegas. I like Peter Schiff; we all do. Schiff’s rants are like classic comedy now.

The pantomime style back-and-forths were necessary in crypto’s history. It reminds me of the Rocky films. Underdog… win… fail… underdog… win… fail... and so on. There’s only so many sequels the punters are willing to take. That theme is now stale. Why wouldn’t it be after a decade?

The original villains got smarter. I think the banksters cottoned on to being covert in their attacks. That’s a big topic for another post. With the banksters being neutral or slightly positive in public, Cryptopians³ no longer feel the same contrarian energy.

I could go into more depth about all the cognitive dissonance in the minds of Cryptopians, but there’s no point. The ‘Rocky-I-though-VI’ pantomime finished its run. That’s all folks.

Reason 2: Gold steals the show

Speaking of Peter Schiff, I haven’t seen this meme in a while…

A few years ago, it did seem like gold was going nowhere. That all changed when, in February 2022, billions in U.S. bonds owned by Russia were frozen. This woke up a sleeping giant; or rather, group of giants. Central banks all around the World grasped that a lot of their money hung on being on the right side of U.S. foreign policy. They began buying gold by the tonne.

As gold’s price rose, investors noticed. It’s an easy-to-grasp narrative. Gold rose $600 per ounce in 2024, and then an astonishing $2000 in 2025. Currently it sits at ~$4600 (USD). Meanwhile, bitcoin lost value in 2025. Gold, +70%; bitcoin -10%. How do you like them apples?

Banks and people alike have gotten the message: The Debasement Trade equals…

[your local currency] -> gold

Here’s what I reckon happened: From 2021-2024, premier league investors knew that gold was a safe haven against devaluation, but were unsure whether bitcoin was as good or even better. They were still learning about bitcoin. In 2024, they made the choice: gold. Furthermore, I believe that the BRICs central banks identified a tactical weakness: the U.S.A. had a big head-start; it had the most miners, the most ‘whales’,⁴ and the best ingang⁵ to the main devs. Trump’s bluster about bitcoin was a clue.

In 2025, gold stole the show, and not because people ‘didn’t understand bitcoin’.

Reason 3: Melania Token

There’s one more thing. Something which ultimately let crypto fans know where they stood.

The tipping point happened on the 19th of January.

Trump’s ‘official’ token had launched on the 18th. It was bad. Just look at the paltry allocation to the plebs. Look at the topmost segment of each bar:

The ‘Official Trump’ (TRUMP) token is a memecoin. You need to understand the cultural value of memecoin in general. They aren’t a scam per sé. They stem from a kind of anti-marketing. They arose as a satire on the ‘slick pony-tail’ marketing that was creeping into crypto circa 2016. Memecoin are not my thing, but they revive the original punk spirit of the community. With this in mind, it was sad that Trump & co. didn’t choose to buy the already-popular $Maga (TRUMP) token quietly and pump it.⁶ That would have been like a runner elbowing his rivals, but still sticking to the lines on the track.

Never mind. ‘Official Trump’ (TRUMP) was no great surprise. What was a great surprise, was ‘Official Melania’ (MELANIA). It was astonishing how close on the heels this followed: just a day later. Imagine if Disney put out a new Star Wars film— already sundering the fans— and then the next day put out a version with an all-female cast. Things changed irreversibly with the MELANIA token. The problem was it made it blatant that the man pulling the strings of the pro-crypto government did not understand crypto and did not give a fig about the culture. It was impossible to deny. Everyone standing up for crypto felt foolish to some degree.

I can’t explain it further. Tipping points are never that special in themselves.

Conclusion

• The Rocky-underdog-comeback-narrative ran its course.
• The market chose gold for the Debasement Trade.
• The MELANIA token was the final straw.

Apathy is usually lethal. It’s worse than demoralization. Do I feel it myself? No; but then, I never bought into the ‘crypto versus gold’ war, and I tend to dislike hype. Nevertheless, there are reasons to be cheerful. For example, Rumble just added a crypto tip jar; one can pay vodcasters in tokenized gold. For another example, Iran finally wised up to the usefulness of crypto; other pariah-states will follow in 2026.

As I wrote in my first post ever, I focus on solutions.