TIA coin big dump, reflecting the burst of the encryption industry narrative bubble

The TIA token, which performed brilliantly in the early 2024 bull market, has now fallen below its listing price. As of now, TIA is quoted at $1.62, down more than 90% from its peak of around $20. Once a leading project in modular blockchain, TIA is now deeply mired in negative public opinion regarding founder sell-offs, internal management, and other issues.

The fall of this once-celebrated star not only symbolizes the decline of the modular blockchain track but also reflects the gradual collapse of once-popular narratives in the encryption currency circle. As the Nasdaq index reaches new heights, the cryptocurrency market is experiencing the demise of one once-hot narrative after another and a big dump in coin prices. This indicates that traditional encryption narratives are becoming unsustainable, and the industry is entering a period of genuine testing for practical applications.

From Glory to Fall

TIA (full name Celestia) was a highly anticipated modular blockchain project from the end of 2023 to the beginning of 2024. At the beginning of 2024, the TIA token skyrocketed from single digits after the airdrop to a high of 20 dollars. However, starting in the second half of 2024, as market enthusiasm waned and the project's ecosystem progressed slowly, governance and team issues of Celestia gradually came to the forefront.

The most controversial issue is the suspicion of senior executives collectively cashing out. According to reports, in early October 2024, all executives of Celestia completed their unlock and began to sell tokens on a large scale. Co-founder Mustafa is accused of selling more than 25 million dollars' worth of tokens in the over-the-counter market, and then quietly relocating.

At the same time, Celestia's marketing efforts have also encountered backlash. A social media influencer who once endorsed TIA was exposed for charging high promotion fees. Meanwhile, a co-founder of a media platform contradicted himself on the "whether to hold coins" issue, raising doubts within the community about the project's authenticity.

Internal contradictions have further intensified. The former head of developer relations was fired due to alleged misconduct, triggering a public relations storm. Celestia has also been reported to have bought out competitors at high prices and forced them to withdraw from collaboration, exposing the team's anxiety over their expansion path.

In early 2025, co-founder John Adler proposed a radical governance model of "governance as proof" in an attempt to address ongoing inflationary pressures. However, this proposal has yet to be implemented, and the fact that senior executives of the team have been cashing out has been gradually exposed, leading the community to widely believe that this is a guise for "stabilizing prices and covering up problems."

As of now, the TIA price has fallen over 90% from its peak. On-chain activity has also significantly decreased, with on-chain Gas revenue of only 231 dollars in the past 24 hours.

Behind the Fall of TIA: The Collapse of the Encryption Industry Narrative

The collapse of TIA is not only the failure of an individual project but also reflects the disillusionment of the entire encryption industry's new narrative.

In the past cycle, concepts such as modularization, AI Agent, DePIN, GameFi, and NFT have all created waves, attracting enthusiastic support from capital and retail investors. However, by 2025, these narratives will have all collapsed, and many small coins will have suffered heavy losses.

Similar to TIA, projects that were once favored by capital, such as WorldCoin and Helium, accumulated a large amount of traffic in a short period by leveraging the narrative trend and achieved a big dump in coin price. However, after the heat, they also quickly cooled down.

The fall of these star tokens reflects a deep crisis in the encryption industry: without true technological innovation and user implementation, narratives and trust will continue to be consumed. After modularization, it seems difficult to find new narratives at the public chain level. Other tracks that still have some voice, such as projects combining AI and blockchain, remain mostly at the conceptual level, while RWA faces the dual challenges of regulation and real demand.

The once-prominent trends have been debunked one by one and quickly forgotten. Meanwhile, positive news continues to emerge from the traditional financial markets. Whether it is US stocks or Hong Kong stocks related to encryption compliance, such as stablecoins and compliant exchange-related assets, they are experiencing a continuous rise.

On one hand, there is a lack of native innovation in encryption and a big dump in coin prices, while on the other hand, compliant encryption projects are favored by capital. This contrast does not imply that "the industry is doomed," but rather serves as a warning to all project parties: only true technological innovation and application implementation can create lasting value. The traditional model of storytelling, competing for traffic, and pumping and dumping has become difficult to sustain. Like Web2 projects, the core competition of current Web3 projects has shifted to actual implementation capabilities.