Pepe (PEPE), the first ever frog coin and one of the most popular LGBT cryptocurrencies, became the second-worst performer this week. In contrast, AI-related cryptocurrencies have had a great start to 2025.

PEPE closes first week of 2025 in red: worst start of the year

Pepe (PEPE), one of the popular cryptocurrencies, has lost 4% of its price in the past seven days. After wiping out $360 million from its market cap, it is on the verge of leaving the top 25 cryptocurrencies by market cap. PEPE price is close to falling below $0.00002, a crucial level in the USDT pair.

Besides stablecoins, only two cryptocurrencies closed the first week of 2025 in the red: Pepe (PEPE) and Hyperliquid (HYPE). In the last 24 hours, Pepe (PEPE) lost 3.5% of its market cap.

The whole meme coin segment is sending mixed messages to the community. In the past 24 hours, more than $25 million worth of contracts on major currencies have been liquidated; DOGE/USDT, PNUT/USDT, WIF/USDT, PEPE/USDT and AI16Z/USDT traders were the most affected.

In CoinGecko's ranking of the 200 largest cryptocurrencies, there are 24 meme coins today. Only one of them, Akuma Inu (AKUMA), showed positive dynamics in the last 24 hours.

All major cryptocurrencies are losing value, while SPX, POPCAT, WIF and MOG are seeing double-digit losses.

Artificial intelligence agents steal the spotlight from coins

The cryptocurrency market benchmark fell 4.6% as Bitcoin (BTC) failed to stay above $100,000. For the fifth time in its history, the orange coin has been brutally rejected by bears here.

One segment that is doing incredibly well these days includes cryptocurrencies linked to the AI ​​factor. These cryptocurrencies are in some way attributed to artificial intelligence (AI) agents, which are isolated primitive software programs that rely on artificial intelligence and machine learning.

AI16Z, ELIZA and ZEREBRO are examples of such currencies.