Notable Crypto Moments of 2025: From Meme Coins to Legal Battles
In 2025, the cryptocurrency landscape witnessed a series of unusual and headline-grabbing events. In May, an anonymous participant at a Trump-themed meme-coin dinner minted the 'DINNER' coin, which reached a market cap of roughly $450,000 before collapsing. February saw a Twitter/X user known as 'Buzzlamic Jihad' successfully pump Aptos through memes, later joining their team as an official advisor while claiming significant revenue and notable mentorships.
From April to October, the Melania Trump meme token Meteora was embroiled in a class-action lawsuit. In October, the token airdropped about $1.2 million worth of MET tokens to wallets central to the case, totaling approximately 2.2 million MET valued around $1.5 million.
April through summer also brought attention to James Howells’ unsuccessful attempt to purchase a Welsh landfill for $3 million to recover 8,000 BTC. After the bid was rejected, documentary rights were acquired in April, and by late summer, Howells shifted focus to developing a Bitcoin layer-2 solution backed by the initial funds.
August featured a Solana-based application compensating users with POOP tokens for submitting photos of their bowel movements to create an extensive fecal-health dataset for potential sale to researchers, insurers, or supplement companies. In the same month, Texas law enforcement used power tools to forcibly open a Bitcoin ATM to recover $32,000 following a scam. The ATM operator, Bitcoin Depot, labeled the officers as rogue and expressed concerns over additional victimization, a stance courts have not uniformly supported.
September hosted a crypto-twerking competition titled 'Twerk From Home' with crypto-based voting and a crypto sportsbook; Laura Cintron emerged victorious, winning $10,000.
In October, the meme coin Chill House, associated with Pump.fun, garnered attention through social media pumps and satirical references to major crypto figures like Vitalik Buterin, who largely chose to ignore the mockery.
