Crypto used to be so popular. 2021 was a pinnacle time for crypto, with the Dogecoin boom, Elon Musk’s controversial market manipulation on (then) Twitter, NFTs and more. What happened? Why did everyone seem to forget about its existence?
Currently, with Trump’s decisions in office, crypto’s value has decreased by an extreme amount.

The purchasing power of mainstream and big cryptos has decreased drastically after actions and tweets by President Trump. However, with controversial claims of starting a crypto reserve, values temporarily spiked.

However, afterward, it was followed by extreme backlash due to it being supposed blatant market manipulation and a way to help boost the claimed “oligarchy.” A crypto reserve would technically benefit those who already have large sums of crypto in their portfolios.
Now, what happened to the popularity of crypto? It went from topics like Dogecoin and cryptos exploding in popularity, with trading values peaking, Bitcoin surpassing $60,000, Ethereum surpassing $4,000 and crypto generally trending across social media.

Here’s the problem: Crypto is often looked at as a bubble, a way for individuals to make money in a hustle-like method that doesn’t last. Most users will buy low, sell high and leave, while very few dedicated individuals will use crypto as a genuine new form of currency. This is what happened in 2021-2022. Many people bought piles of Dogecoin at $0.20 and sold at $0.70, with many becoming millionaires overnight. Movements such as “to the moon” emerged, where people speculated if Dogecoin would surpass $1 per coin in value.
Around this time, Ethereum also changed its mining method. It went from traditional “proof of work,” where machines validate different blocks using lots of computational power to mine crypto, to “proof of stake,” where users with large amounts of Ethereum could “stake” their ETH and get rewards over time based on their amount of staked ETH. Users who did not have the minimum 32 ETH were able to stake in groups on platforms such as Coinbase and receive stake rewards even if they did not have large amounts of Ethereum.
So why did it fall off? Strangely enough, it’s a recurring theme. Every four years, the crypto market seems to have some sort of mainstream moment where everything goes up in value. 2021 was an outlier for sure, but in 2017, crypto boomed in popularity, with Bitcoin rising to just shy of $20,000, mainstream coverage increasing and new exchanges launching throughout Asia. Now, coincidentally, in 2025—four years after 2021—it boomed again, with Trump discussing more crypto use in government.
So what’s to come? It’d be a good guess to assume that the crypto markets will expand throughout 2025. If the crypto reserve actually happens, who knows what the future of crypto will be? But until then, most users will probably continue to see it as a side hustle and a way to make quick and easy cash.