Macro forces, liquidity, and capital rotation into gold, silver & equities are the real drivers of 2025’s under-performance.
Crypto analyst and YouTuber Nick (of NCash) is not buying Charles Hoskinson’s latest explanation for why the market has struggled. In a new video, he reviews Hoskinson’s claim that Trump-linked meme coins “killed crypto” — then contrasts it with a fresh, high‑profile rug pull and a broader shift of capital into metals and equities.
The conversation matters because it hits a raw nerve for the industry: why retail money hasn’t returned in size, and whether political meme coins have actually derailed regulation and market structure.
Hoskinson vs. Meme Coins: Who’s Really to Blame?
Hoskinson, the Cardano founder, has doubled down in recent appearances on Scott Melker’s podcast and CoinDesk, arguing that Trump and Melania meme coins damaged crypto’s credibility and closed a rare bipartisan window in Washington.
Nick plays a short CoinDesk clip in which Hoskinson says that if “those two meme coins were not launched in January,” 2025 could have looked “extremely different,” with a better shot at passing both the “Genius Act” and the “Clarity Act.”
The market watcher frames the Trump coin launch as institutionalizing “extractivism” at the U.S. government level.
Nick partially agrees on the optics and the regulatory hit, calling Trump’s value extraction “scummy” and “a big thing that affected the market in a bad way.”
But he pushes back on the idea that meme coins are the primary reason crypto under-performed in 2025, and notes that one of the two cited bills — the “Genius Act” — did pass, while a broader clarity bill was always likely to take longer.
He’s more blunt about Cardano itself: ADA, in his view, is “kind of just a dying chain” with “not a lot going on within the network,” even if it could still ride a future alt season.
$580 Million NYC Meme Coin Blows Up in Minutes
If Hoskinson’s argument is that political meme coins are corrosive, the market just got another exhibit.
Nick highlights a new case: former New York City mayor Eric Adams’ “NYC” token. According to on‑chain data he cites, the coin briefly hit a roughly $580 million market cap before crashing 80% within minutes.
A community note on X alleges that Adams “immediately withdrew his liquidity,” which Nick characterizes as a textbook rug pull and points to an on‑chain removal of about $3.4 million in liquidity on January 12, 2026.
For him, this is exactly the sort of episode that keeps mainstream retail on the sidelines. Meme coins, he argues, are “a net negative regardless of if [they’re] successful or not”: they attract users on hype, then wipe them out.
Rotation, Liquidity & Why Crypto Really Lagged in 2025
Where Hoskinson foregrounds politics and narrative damage, Nick emphasizes liquidity and cross‑asset rotation.
He notes that while crypto went “net negative” through 2025 and into early 2026, other markets — gold, silver, and the S&P 500 — pushed to new highs. Tariffs, war risk, and tighter liquidity, in his view, explain more of crypto’s under performance than meme coins do.
To put the current metals hype in perspective, he compares returns:
* XRP: roughly 100% move in about two months from late‑2024 lows to a 2025 high
* Silver: about 665% from March 2020 lows to current levels — over six years
* Gold: about 339% from 2015 lows across nearly 11 years
His point: almost any altcoin has historically outperformed metals over similar time frames. Metals and other commodities, he says, are better seen as wealth preservation tools, not vehicles to “make you rich.”
What happened around the key October 10 sell‑off in crypto, he argues, was a rotation into “safer” assets, not the death of the asset class. Retail left after a series of blows — FTX, COVID, 2025’s policy and macro shocks, and now political meme‑coin scandals — but he expects them to return in a larger wave once crypto structurally recovers.
Why This Matters
For traders and long‑term investors, Nick’s takeaway is less about Trump specifically and more about structural behavior:
* Political meme coins and celebrity rugs are actively damaging retail trust.
* Regulation is moving, but not on the timeline many expected for 2025.
* Liquidity and macro rotation, not just headlines, are still driving the cycle.
His stance is clear but not apocalyptic: the meme‑coin chaos is “horrible for the space,” yet it’s unlikely to be the primary reason crypto hasn’t launched into a full bull market — and it probably won’t prevent one when liquidity and risk appetite turn.
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