TIA market capitalization big dump 90%, encryption industry traditional narrative faces test

The once highly regarded modular blockchain project TIA has now fallen below its initial launch price. As of now, its price is only $1.62, more than a 90% drop from its historical high of around $20. As a former leader in modular blockchain projects, TIA is currently mired in a whirlpool of negative news, including founder sell-offs and internal management disputes.

The fall of this former star project is not only a microcosm of the decline of the modular blockchain track, but also reflects a deeper questioning of the once-popular narratives in the entire encryption industry. On one side, the stock market is thriving with the Nasdaq index reaching new highs, while on the other side, once hot concepts in the cryptocurrency field are collapsing and prices are experiencing big dumps. The traditional encryption narratives seem to be difficult to sustain, and the industry is entering a new phase that truly tests practical applications and actual value.

From Glory to Decline

TIA, as one of the most关注的 modular blockchain projects from the end of 2023 to the beginning of 2024, performed remarkably in the small bull market at the beginning of 2024, with its token price soaring from single digits after the airdrop to a high of 20 dollars. The project's vision is to combine the sovereign interoperability of Cosmos with the shared security centered around Ethereum.

However, as the market's enthusiasm cools down in the second half of 2024 and the development of project ecology slows, the governance and team issues of TIA gradually come to light. The most controversial issue is the suspicion of collective cashing out by the senior management. Some users reported that as early as the beginning of October 2024, all senior executives of TIA had completed their unlocks and started to sell tokens on a large scale. One co-founder was even pointed out for selling tokens worth over $25 million off-exchange and then quietly moving overseas.

At the same time, TIA's marketing strategy has also backfired. Several influencers who once supported it were exposed for receiving high promotional fees, while a co-founder of a well-known media platform has been contradictory on the question of whether he holds TIA tokens, further raising community doubts about whether the project is merely a marketing product manipulated by capital.

Internal contradictions are also escalating. A senior developer was fired for alleged misconduct, triggering a public relations storm. TIA has also been reported to have acquired competitors with large sums of money, forcing them to withdraw from collaborations with other projects. Such "exclusive mergers and acquisitions" have sparked controversy and also exposed the team's anxiety about their expansion path.

At a time when the cryptocurrency price is experiencing a big dump and community trust is on the brink of collapse, one of the co-founders proposed a radical governance model 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 team executives were cashing out was gradually exposed, leading the community to widely believe that this was a governance facade aimed at "stabilizing prices and covering up problems."

As of now, the price of TIA has fallen over 90% from its peak. The on-chain activity is also dismal; according to the data, its on-chain Gas revenue in the past 24 hours was only 231 dollars.

The Decline of TIA: Challenges in the Narrative of the Encryption Industry

The decline of TIA is not just the failure of a single project and token; it reflects the challenges faced by the new narrative of the entire encryption industry.

In the past cycles, concepts such as modularization, artificial intelligence, decentralized Internet of Things, game finance, and non-fungible tokens have sparked waves of investment frenzy, leading to a collective celebration of capital and retail investors. However, by 2025, we witnessed the collective collapse of these once-popular narratives, with numerous small cryptocurrency projects suffering significant setbacks.

Similar to TIA, many leading projects in various fields that were once favored by capital rapidly accumulated a large amount of traffic and achieved a big dump in coin prices in a short period of time by leveraging popular concepts. However, these projects often quickly cool down after experiencing a brief surge in popularity.

The fall of these star projects reflects a deeper crisis in the encryption industry: the lack of real technological innovation and user implementation, relying solely on narrative and trust is difficult to sustain. After modularization, it is also hard to see new breakthrough concepts at the public chain level. In addition, there are still some voices in other areas of the industry, such as the combination of artificial intelligence and blockchain, which mostly remain at the conceptual level. The tokenization of physical assets not only faces regulatory challenges but also needs to address the fundamental question of "whether it is truly necessary."

The once hot topics are being debunked one by one and quickly forgotten by the market. Meanwhile, good news continues to emerge from traditional financial markets. Whether it is U.S. stocks or Hong Kong stocks related to compliance with encryption, such as stablecoins, compliant exchanges, etc., they have all experienced continuous rises.

On one hand, there is a lack of native innovation in encryption and a big dump in coin prices; on the other hand, compliant encryption projects in the traditional financial market are favored by capital and investors. Some believe this indicates the decline of the encryption industry, while others argue that it actually serves as a warning to various project parties: only true technological innovation and application landing can create lasting value. The traditional model in the encryption circle that relies on storytelling, competing for traffic, and short-term price hikes followed by sell-offs is becoming unsustainable. Similar to Web2 projects, current Web3 projects will also face severe challenges in practical application and value creation.