TIA big dump and the disillusionment of the encryption industry narrative

Jessy, Golden Finance

TIA, which once showcased a tenfold increase after being listed on the exchange during the small bull market at the beginning of 2024, has now fallen below its listing price. As of this writing, it is quoted at 1.62U, a drop of over 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 like founder sell-offs and internal management problems.

The fall from grace of the former star TIA token is not just a symbol of the decline of the modular blockchain sector. The collapse of a top-tier project that was once all the rage last year is merely the surface. The deeper truth is that those once-boisterous narratives in the crypto world are gradually being debunked.

On one side 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 space can no longer be sustained; the industry has truly arrived at a moment where practical implementation and application are paramount.

From Glory to Fall

TIA, short for Celestia, is one of the most watched modular blockchain projects from late 2023 to early 2024. During the small bull market in early 2024, the TIA token soared from single digits after the airdrop to a peak of $20, aiming to combine the sovereign interoperability zones of Cosmos with Ethereum's aggregated centralization that has shared security.

However, starting in the second half of 2024, as market enthusiasm waned and project ecosystems progressed slowly, the governance and team issues of CelesTIA gradually came to light. The most controversial aspect is the suspicion of its senior management 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 selling tokens on a large scale. Co-founder Mustafa was even pointed out to have sold over $25 million worth of tokens off-market, and then quietly moved to Dubai.

At the same time, CelesTIA's marketing operations also faced backlash. The KOL @ayyyeandy, who once endorsed TIA, was exposed for receiving a substantial promotional 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 token," further raising community doubts about whether the project is merely a marketing product manipulated by capital.

The deeper internal rifts stem from the management, as the former developer relations head, Yaz Khoury, was fired due to allegations of sexual harassment, sparking a public relations controversy. CelesTIA was reported to have acquired its competitor Abstract for a seven-figure sum in USD, forcing it to withdraw from cooperation with EigenLayer. This kind of "exclusive acquisition" has sparked considerable controversy and also reveals the team's anxiety about its expansion path.

As the price of the currency plummeted and community trust was on the verge of collapse, co-founder John Adler proposed a 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 cope with 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 this was a guise for governance aimed at "stabilizing prices and covering up issues." As of the time of publication, its price had fallen more than 90% from its peak. The on-chain activity was also dismal, with data from defillama showing that its on-chain Gas revenue in the past 24 hours was only $231.

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

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

In the past cycles, modularization, AI Agent, DePIN, GameFi, NFT, and so on have all blown up one huge bubble after another, ushering in rounds of collective revelry from capital and retail investors. However, by 2025, we are faced with the collective collapse of the once-promising narratives, with altcoins in a state of despair.

Similar to TIA, the once-popular projects like WorldCoin, Helium, and other leading tracks that were highly favored by capital have rapidly accumulated a large amount of traffic and experienced explosive price increases in a short period by riding the wave of narrative. However, after a wave of heat, they quickly cooled down.

The fall of these star tokens, including TIA, reflects a deeper crisis in the crypto industry: a lack of real technological innovation and user adoption leads to narratives and trust being repeatedly consumed and diluted. After modularization, there are no new narratives at the public chain level. Looking at the current voices in other tracks within the industry: most projects combining AI and blockchain remain at the conceptual level, while RWA is not just a regulatory issue, but also poses a profound question of "is there really a demand?"

The once-popular trends are being debunked one by one and quickly forgotten by people. Meanwhile, the traditional financial markets continue to receive good news, whether it's in U.S. stocks or Hong Kong stocks related to crypto compliance, such as stablecoins and compliant exchanges, all of which have seen a sustained rise.

On one side, there is a lack of native innovation in cryptocurrency and a plummet in coin prices, while on the other side, compliant crypto 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 think it actually serves as a warning to all project teams that true technological innovation and the realization of applications are what can create genuine value. The old ways of the traditional crypto world—telling stories, competing for traffic, pumping, and then dumping—can no longer be sustained. Like Web2 projects, today’s Web3 projects are all about realization.