In 2025, several high-profile projects debuted their tokens, after carefully selecting their launch conditions. Despite this, most of the token sales failed to outperform the market.
For the past year, Pump.fun held the first place in achieving the most valuable token sale. The platform raised $600M in a sale that ended in under a minute, after years of waiting.
Initially, PUMP expected to launch as an airdrop token. Instead, the platform chose a token sale for a $4B valuation. PUMP had a volatile journey since July, peaking at $0.008. Toward the end of the year, PUMP extended its slide to $0.0017, down from the initial IPO price of $0.004.
Following the token sale, PUMP was pressured by direct whale selling. The token ended the year with a market cap of $1B, with $1.7B in fully diluted value. PUMP was also depressed by the slowdown in meme trading, new launches, and creator activity.
The token slid despite regular buybacks, in which Pump.fun poured all trading fees. For now, Pump.fun still achieves significant daily revenues as a Solana DEX, though this has also not helped the token’s performance.
PUMP tokens retail a relatively high mindshare of 5.9%, though token fatigue and market weakness are still preventing a rally. Despite the initial enthusiasm for the ICO, PUMP was one of the warning examples in 2025. Other projects stuck to airdrops or remained tokenless.
World Liberty Fi token sale leaves buyers with losses
World Liberty Fi reported $550M from its WLFI token sale, including both retail rounds and pledges from high-profile investors. The token sale also included Justin Sun’s buy-in for $30M.
The Trump family crypto project was highly active in 2025, with multiple investments in crypto. However, the WLFI token was also limited by the lack of an altcoin market.
WLFI became transferable and tradeable after months of holding. WLFI fell from a peak of $0.24, down to $0.14 in late 2025. The project got a boost from the usage of USD1 tokens, but WLFI still underperforms.
High-profile token sales faced bear market conditions
While PUMP and WLFI still saw some liquid trading, other token sales failed more dramatically. Monad (MON) caused some of the biggest losses, after a rally to $0.04. In the past month, MON erased 50% of its value, down to $0.02. The project caused investor discontent, despite raising $217M.
L2 projects MegaETH and Aztec are yet to generate their tokens. The projects are still expected to launch, although the conditions for new tokens remain unfavorable.
The ICO model and other token sales were mostly used for small-scale projects. High-profile events ended up destroying sentiment, as some projects stayed away from tokenization and moved to the IPO model. Even long-term projects with a wide support network like Berachain (BERA) fared worse once they created their token and launched it during a hostile market.
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