13 WTF Moments of the Year: Crypto Edition 2025

The story of cryptocurrency’s rise to mainstream popularity is one of the most bizarre in history. Created by an anonymous, shadowy figure named Satoshi Nakamoto—who now belongs to the richest people in the world—the technology is now a darling of financial bros, altruistic leftists, white supremacists, Political dissidents in the Balkans, West African entrepreneursand Redditors convinced Satoshi was in fact an alien.

So it’s not surprising that 2025 started with US President Donald Trump launching a meme coin just days before his inauguration. And it just got weirder from there, from college students betting on whose cum was the fastest, to betting on which competitive dancer could twerk the hardest.

Let’s raise our glasses and pour one for the 13 greatest WTF moments from this surreal year in crypto.

1. Literal shit coins

Crypto developers pay you for everything these days, even your poop.

In August, a new app appeared that allowed users to pay Solana-based POOP tokens in exchange for photos of their bowel movements. The ostensible idea was that by documenting people’s caca, the app could provide actionable insights and advice on how to improve their gut health.

Of course, this being crypto, the app had to make money, and its alleged purpose was to sell your data to research institutions, insurance companies, or health supplement companies. The app hoped it could collect the largest and most detailed fecal dataset in the world, which could help advance the next phase of junk science.

2. A symbolic dinner

President Donald Trump launching a meme coin would have been enough to make this list. Trump then organizing a dinner because the top holders of that meme coin would also have been eligible. But someone making another meme coin inspired at that dinner?

Okay, sure, why not? An anonymous participant in the Trump meme coin dinner created a Solana meme coin from his phoneand shared videos from inside the exclusive event on Telegram. In that chat, the meme coin creator showed Trump dancing to the famous gay anthem “YCMA,” Justin Sun poses for a photo, and of course the food.

Unfortunately, the DINNER token failed to gain much traction. It reached a paltry market cap of $450,000 before crashing and burning, becoming one of the millions of meme coins to become yet another. dog dinner.

3. A token for your twerks

A guy from California created a crypto-powered competitive twerking contest.

Viewers could vote by sending gifts that could be purchased via crypto, and by betting via a crypto sportsbook. Although the first heats were more like popularity contests than sporting events, the founder of Tworking from home said his goal is to make the competition a legitimate sports competition, similar to the UFC.

Congratulations to dancer Laura Cintron, who won the competition and took home a $10,000 cash prize.

4. Chill House isn’t that chill

Absurdist Pumping fun-created meme coin Chill House went on a social media rampage in October, bashing all the biggest founders and influencers in the space — which somehow managed to pump the token.

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Chill House bit the hand that made the pumping fun possible and even called Pumping fun co-founder Alon Cohen a “cakeNaturally, some took the bait, including Pollak, who riffed on the story, while others, including Buterin, ignored the troll.

5. The Jack Off 500

Two students took care of it “samples” of their semen, which were then pitted against each other in one of the most viral and disgusting moments of the year. It almost goes without saying that people could bet on the race via a crypto sportsbook.

Obviously it’s not weird enough, the event was such a success that a second Cum racing event was sponsored by major blockchain Solana, featuring a top livestream influencer iShowSpeed present.

But was it courage? It turns out that the race that was broadcast was actually a dramatic computer-generated visualizationnot the actual tax. Which, now that I think about it, was probably for the best.

6. Dumpster diving for dollars

James Howells suffered one of the biggest losses of the year when his local Welsh council rejected his bid to buy a landfill for $3 million at the beginning of the year. Why did he want to take over the dump? Well, 12 years ago his then girlfriend, now mostly his ex-girlfriend, threw away his hard drive containing a crypto wallet with 8,000 Bitcoin in it –worth more than $774 million at the time of the council’s rejection.

In April, Los Angeles-based production company Lebul purchased exclusive rights to tell his story through a documentary. And as summer came to an end, Howells quit his decade-long pursuit of hard drive recovery.

Now he’s trying one Bitcoin layer 2 network that would be supported by his legal ownership of the funds, despite not having access to them. Is it crazy enough to work? Everything is possible in cryptocurrency.

7. Get buzz and influence people

A little known X user known as Buzzlamic Jihad helped pump up the price Aptus in February, after months of spamming Aptos related memes. His slogans ‘Aptos looks good here’, ‘movement not yet priced in’ and ‘sidelined?’ This year they quickly became important crypto memes.

When the influencer became a mascot for the network, Aptos decided to bring him on board as an official advisor.

It turns out Buzz was always more than just a shitposter. He told it Declutter that he owned a growth marketing company specializing in Facebook advertising and claimed to have made millions from the venture. The icing on the cake is that his mentors during this period were none other than Chase Herro and Zak Folkman, who later co-founded the Trump-backed World freedom financial.

8. You too can create a treasure chest

Amid the digital asset treasury trend (or bubble, depending on who you ask) lingerie mixed fighting competition created its own crypto treasury. It started with $2.23 million in Bitcoin; later approximately $65,000 value of Dogecoin was added to the greenhouse.

“Is it jumping on a trend a bit? Of course,” Shaun Donnelly, founder and CEO of Lingerie Fighting Championships, told me Declutteradding that “we need to get in the game now while we still can because if some of the projections come true, there may come a point where you just can’t get into the market anymore.”

9. Lone Star agents lasso a Bitcoin ATM

Police in Texas used power tools open a Bitcoin ATM to recover $32,000 after a local family said they had run out of money. Yes, you read that right: the family was tricked into paying some hackers $32,000, but instead of trying to figure out who the real thieves were, the agents smashed open a BTC ATM, took the money and refunded the victims.

Bitcoin Depot, the ATM owner, said that the “rogue law enforcement officers” were merely “creating a new victim” by damaging the company’s property and taking their money. Strangely enough, the long arm of the law made it happen similar movements in Arkansas, Iowa and elsewhere, apparently believing that Bitcoin Depot is liable by facilitating the transactions. The courts, however disagree.

10. Melania bolognia

Go ahead, Donald. Not to be outdone by her husband, US First Lady Melania Trump in January launched her own meme coin. But in a twist, her venture degenerated into a legal and technical farce involving Argentine President Javier Milei, a class-action lawsuit and a million-dollar “oopsie.”

The drama started when Melania’s token in a large-scale lawsuit against fraud and extortion filed in April (and amended in October). Investors alleged that Meteora co-founder Benjamin Chow was secretly setting up a “constellation of scam coins,” using high-profile figures like Melania and Milei as bait to lure buyers.

Things got even stranger in October. Just days after the lawsuit, Chow accused his own platform, Meteora, of running a “pump-and-dump” scheme Aaccidentally dropped $1.2 million worth of tokens straight to the wallets at the heart of the scandal.

11. BOOM head shot

Has crypto learned its lesson? don’t play with fireworks? Apparently not.

Controversial British content creator Sam Pepper fired Roman candle-style fireworks into the crowd during the Diwali festival in New Delhi, India. “HEADSHOT,” someone shouted from behind the camera, as a young girl was apparently hit directly in the eye and rushed to hospital.

Pepper claimed to have sent someone to the hospital with the victim to pay for her hospital expenses, although YouTuber Raj Chauhan is traveling claims the family has not seen any of that money.

12. Dogwifhat, but not with Sphere

Popular Solana meme coin Dog hat confirmed, retracted and then implied that it would be advertised on the Las Vegas Sphere via social media, causing the token to jump double digits in one day. “Officially confirmed. Viva hat Vegas,” reads a now-deleted X message, accompanied by a photo of the mascot wearing the Sphere as a hat.

But after that Declutter wrote about the post, Sphere PR reached out to say that, actually, there was no agreement to advertise Dogwifhat on the Sphere. Indeed, the venue’s team was “saddened” that the meme coin was using its name for “fraudulent purposes.”

The Dogwifhat team quickly retreated from their position and everyone refunded who had helped raise $700,000 for the hopeful advertising campaign.

13. You must be joking

Jeff Yu, the creator of an AI musician, faked his death and created a supposedly posthumous legacy coin Legacoinaccompanied by a long blog post. The token rose to a market cap of $105 million before crashing 87% in just an hour.

Just days later, Yu was found alive at his parents’ home.