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 its listing price, currently quoted at 1.62 U, down more than 90% from its peak of around 20 U. As a former leader in modular blockchain, TIA is now mired in negative public opinion due to founder sell-offs and internal management issues.

The fall from grace of the once-celebrated TIA token is not just a symbol of the decline of the modular blockchain sector. The collapse of a leading project that was all the rage last year is merely superficial. The deeper truth is that the once-bustling narratives in the crypto world are gradually being disproved.

On one side, there is the stock market frenzy with the Nasdaq hitting new highs, while on the other side, the once-popular narratives in the crypto space are collapsing, and cryptocurrency prices are plummeting. The traditional narratives in the crypto world are no longer viable; the industry has reached a critical moment for real implementation and application.

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 in early 2024, the TIA token surged from single digits after the airdrop to a peak of $20, with the vision of combining the sovereign interoperation zones of Cosmos with Ethereum, which has shared security and is centered on aggregation.

However, starting in the second half of 2024, as market enthusiasm wanes and project ecosystem development slows, governance and team issues with CelesTIA gradually come to light. The most controversial point is the suspicion of collective cashing out by its senior executives. 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. Co-founder Mustafa was even pointed out to have sold over $25 million worth of tokens off the exchange, and subsequently quietly moved to Dubai.

At the same time, CelesTIA's marketing operations have also faced backlash. KOL @ayyyeandy, who previously supported TIA, was exposed for receiving substantial promotional fees. Meanwhile, David Hoffman, co-founder of the media platform Bankless, has frequently recommended TIA, yet his contradictory stance on the key question of "whether to hold the tokens" has further raised community concerns about whether the project is merely a marketing product manipulated by capital.

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

Amid the plummeting cryptocurrency prices and the community's trust on the brink of collapse, co-founder John Adler proposed a radical governance model of "governance as proof" at the beginning of 2025, advocating for off-chain governance voting to replace the traditional proof-of-stake mechanism in response to ongoing inflationary pressures. However, before this disruptive proposal could be implemented, the fact that senior executives of the team were cashing out was gradually exposed, leading the community to generally believe that this was a governance pretext aimed at "stabilizing prices and covering up issues." As of the time of writing, its price has fallen over 90% from its peak. The on-chain activity is also dismal; according to defillama data, in the past 24 hours, its on-chain Gas revenue was only $231.

The Fall of TIA: The Collapse of Narrative in the Crypto Industry

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

In the past cycles, modularization, AI Agent, DePIN, GameFi, NFTs, and so on have all created one huge bubble after another, leading to rounds of collective euphoria among capital and retail investors. Yet by 2025, we will face a collective collapse of the once-promising narratives, with altcoins in disarray.

Similar to TIA, the once-popular projects like WorldCoin and Helium, which were highly sought after by capital, quickly accumulated a large amount of traffic and experienced a surge in coin prices in a short period by riding the wave of narrative. However, after a wave of enthusiasm, they also quickly cooled down.

The fall of these star tokens, including TIA, reflects a deeper crisis in the crypto industry: the lack of true technological innovation and user adoption leads to repeated consumption and dilution of narratives and trust. After modularization, there are no new narratives at the public chain level. Looking at other tracks in the industry today, many projects combining AI and blockchain remain at the conceptual level, while RWA is not just a regulatory issue, but also raises a profound question of "is there really a demand?"

The once booming sectors are being debunked one by one and quickly forgotten by people, while at the same time, traditional financial markets are continuously receiving positive news. Whether it’s about US stocks or Hong Kong stocks related to crypto compliance, such as stablecoins and compliant exchanges, they have all experienced a sustained rise.

On one side, there is a scarcity of native innovation in cryptocurrency and a plummeting coin price; on the other side, compliant cryptocurrency projects in Hong Kong and the US are being enthusiastically embraced by capital and the market. Some believe this is a sign that 'the industry is finished,' but I believe it actually serves as a warning to all project parties that true technological innovation and the implementation of applications are what create real value. The old ways of the traditional crypto circle—telling stories, competing for traffic, pumping prices, and then selling off—can no longer be sustained. Like Web2 projects, today's Web3 projects are all about implementation.