Memecoins, markets and Trump: Cointelegraph’s Q1 crypto editorial roundtable

The year 2025 kicked off with a bang and a meme. Just weeks into the New Year, a frenzy of politically fueled memecoins sent Crypto Twitter into overdrive, while lawmakers on both sides of the Atlantic turned up the heat on stablecoins, securities laws and tokenized assets, usually with different approaches.

It was a whirlwind first quarter, shaped by Bitcoin’s dominance in the crypto market and a US political climate that put digital assets back in the spotlight. Q1 delivered no shortage of storylines.

Who better to break it all down than the journalists tracking it in real time? In the latest episode of Decentralize with Cointelegraph, editorial team members sit down for an unfiltered newsroom roundtable.

Savannah Fortis, head of podcasts and EU reporter, is joined by Gareth Jenkinson, chief of multimedia; Zoltan Vardai, breaking news reporter on the EU news team; and Vince Quill, US news reporter, to reflect on Q1’s biggest stories and what they signal for the months ahead.

Memecoins, power and perception

As memecoins surged in early 2025, questions regarding their legitimacy and political entanglement intensified. For Cointelegraph’s editorial team, the frenzy wasn’t just a market quirk, it revealed deep tensions among innovation, opportunism and influence.

Jenkinson was first to comment on what the impact of US President Donald Trump and greater political memecoin frenzies may mean for the industry in the long term, saying, “I struggle to still trust what the Trump administration and his group of advisers are doing, when they are launching things like memecoins...”

“Yes, we’ve seen a much more favorable approach to the wider crypto industry, and that’s been really great. But a lot of the lobbying, from Ripple, Circle and others, was about making sure their cryptocurrencies were included in this bundle of assets the US wants to hold.”

Related: Bitcoin may hit a wall at $84K if bullish conditions don’t pick up: CryptoQuant

The team acknowledged that while regulatory clarity and institutional support have created a more stable environment for crypto companies in general since the new administration took office, that progress risks being overshadowed by spectacle.

More memes…

Trump’s big moves seem to domino into other political figures, namely Argentina’s President Javier Milei, to become entangled in a high-profile memecoin controversy that rippled far beyond national politics.

For an industry seeking legitimacy, this kind of involvement by world leaders sends a mixed message. “It’s terrible for the industry,” Jenkinson added. “Milei was supposed to be a savior for Argentina after years of hyperinflation. And now he’s launching a memecoin with a known rug puller.”

Still, the roundtable remained hopeful. “I’m an eternal optimist,” he continued. “At least we got the affirmation for Bitcoin. People now understand what it is, governments are starting to hold it. That’s how good the fundamentals are.”

Stablecoins and the altcoin fallout

While much attention has centered on Bitcoin’s institutional glow-up and the memecoin spectacle, several members of the Cointelegraph team voiced deeper concerns around emerging stablecoin legislation and the quiet moves behind it.

“One thing that I think kind of flew under the radar is that the Trump-linked World Liberty Forum actually launched a US dollar-backed stablecoin in March,” Vardai pointed out. 

“These stablecoins would fall completely in line with both requirements in the Genius Act and Stable Act... but it could really be interpreted as Trump trying to pass stablecoin legislation while having a vested interest. His World Liberty Financial is launching a lot of crypto-related products.”

The fallout from politically aligned memecoins has also weighed heavily on the broader crypto markets, particularly altcoins. “Altcoins aren’t really winning at all this quarter,” Vardai also noted.

“Memecoins have had this premature rally, and they’ve been rallying independently from other cryptocurrencies. A lot of people are concerned whether Bitcoin’s rise is going to come before Ether’s, and before any altcoin rise.”

So what defined Q1 of 2025? Tune in to the full episode to hear all of the insights! 

Listen to the full episode of Decentralize with Cointelegraph on Cointelegraph’s podcast page, Spotify, Apple Podcasts or your podcast platform of choice. And don’t forget to check out Cointelegraph’s full lineup of other shows!

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