TIA big dump and the disillusionment of the encryption industry narrative

Jessy, Golden Finance

TIA, which once shone brightly with a tenfold increase after being listed on exchanges during the small bull market in early 2024, has now fallen below the price at the time of its exchange listing. As of the time of writing, it is priced at 1.62U, having dropped more than 90% from its peak of around 20U. Once a leader in modular blockchain, TIA is now deeply mired in negative public opinion due to issues such as founder sell-offs and internal management problems.

The fall from grace of the once-popular TIA token is not just a symbol of the decline of the modular blockchain sector. The downfall of a leading project that was extremely popular last year is merely superficial. The deeper truth is that the once vibrant narratives in the crypto world are gradually being debunked.

On one side, there is the stock market frenzy with the Nasdaq reaching new highs, while on the other side, the once-popular narratives in the crypto world are collapsing, leading to a sharp decline in cryptocurrency prices. The traditional narratives in the crypto space can no longer be played out; the industry has reached a moment where it truly needs to focus on real-world implementation and applications.

From Glory to Fall

TIA, short for Celestia, is one of the most anticipated modular blockchain projects from the end of 2023 to the beginning of 2024. During the small bull market at the beginning of 2024, the TIA token skyrocketed from single digits post-airdrop to a peak of $20, with the vision of combining the sovereign interoperable zones of Cosmos with Ethereum's centralized rollups that have shared security.

However, starting in the second half of 2024, as market enthusiasm wanes and project ecological progress slows, the governance and team issues of CelesTIA gradually come to light. The most controversial is the suspicion of its senior executives collectively cashing out. Twitter user @0xCircusLover revealed that as early as the beginning of October 2024, all C-level executives of CelesTIA had completed their unlocks and began to sell tokens on a large scale, with co-founder Mustafa being pointed out for selling over $25 million worth of tokens off-market, and then quietly relocating to Dubai.

At the same time, CelesTIA's marketing operations also faced backlash. KOL @ayyyeandy, who once supported TIA, was exposed for receiving a substantial promotion fee. Meanwhile, David Hoffman, co-founder of the media platform Bankless, frequently recommended TIA but contradicted himself on the key issue of 'whether to hold the coin', further raising community doubts about whether the project is merely a marketing product manipulated by capital.

The deeper rifts within come from the management, as the former head of developer relations, Yaz Khoury, was fired for alleged sexual harassment, sparking a public relations crisis. CelesTIA was reported to have bought out competitor Abstract for a seven-figure sum in USD, forcing it to withdraw from its collaboration with EigenLayer. Such "exclusive acquisitions" are controversial and also reveal the team's anxiety about their expansion path.

As the price of the currency plummeted and community trust was on the verge of collapse, co-founder John Adler proposed the radical governance model of "governance as proof" in early 2025, advocating for off-chain governance voting to replace the traditional proof-of-stake mechanism to address ongoing inflationary pressures. However, before this disruptive proposal could be implemented, the fact that senior executives were cashing out was gradually exposed, leading the community to generally believe that this was a governance disguise aimed at "stabilizing prices and covering up problems." As of the time of writing, its price has dropped more than 90% from its peak. Furthermore, the on-chain activity was also dismal; according to defillama data, in the past 24 hours, its on-chain Gas revenue was only $231.

The Collapse of the Narrative in the Crypto Industry Behind TIA's Fall

However, the collapse of TIA is not just the failure of a project and its token; it is a glimpse into the disillusionment of the entire cryptocurrency industry's new narrative.

In the past cycles, modularization, AI Agent, DePIN, GameFi, NFT, and so on have all sparked huge bubbles, leading to rounds of collective excitement among capital and retail investors. However, by 2025, we faced a collective collapse of the once-promising narratives, with altcoins suffering greatly.

Similar to TIA, the once-popular projects like WorldCoin and Helium, which were highly sought after by capital, experienced rapid accumulation of traffic and explosive price increases by riding the wave of narrative in various sectors. However, they all quickly cooled down after just a wave of popularity.

The fall of these star tokens, including TIA, reflects a deeper crisis in the crypto industry: the lack of true technological innovation and user implementation leads to narratives and trust being repeatedly consumed and diluted. After modularization, there are no new narratives emerging at the public chain level. Looking at other voices in the industry today, projects combining AI and blockchain mostly remain at the conceptual level, while RWA is not just a regulatory issue, but also a profound question of whether there is a genuine demand.

The once-booming trends are being debunked one by one and quickly forgotten by people, while at the same time, positive news continues to emerge from traditional financial markets. Whether it's U.S. stocks or Hong Kong stocks related to cryptocurrency compliance, such as stablecoins and compliant exchanges, they have all experienced continuous growth.

On one hand, there is a scarcity of native innovations in cryptocurrency and a sharp decline in coin prices; on the other hand, compliant crypto projects in Hong Kong and the US are being fervently embraced by capital and the market. Some believe this is a sign that "the industry is doomed," but I think it actually serves as a warning to various project parties that true technological innovation and the implementation of applications are what create real value. The old methods of storytelling, competing for traffic, pumping, and selling off in the traditional crypto sphere can no longer be played. Like Web2 projects, the current Web3 projects are all about implementation.