In the third quarter, attackers continued to exploit security flaws in WinRAR, while the total number of registered vulnerabilities grew again. In this report, we examine statistics on published vulnerabilities and exploits, the most common security issues impacting Windows and Linux, and the vulnerabilities being leveraged in APT attacks that lead to the launch of widespread C2 frameworks. The report utilizes anonymized Kaspersky Security Network data, which was consensually provided by our users, as well as information from open sources.
Statistics on registered vulnerabilities
This section contains statistics on registered vulnerabilities. The data is taken from cve.org.
Let us consider the number of registered CVEs by month for the last five years up to and including the third quarter of 2025.
Total published vulnerabilities by month from 2021 through 2025 (download)
As can be seen from the chart, the monthly number of vulnerabilities published in the third quarter of 2025 remains above the figures recorded in previous years. The three-month total saw over 1000 more published vulnerabilities year over year. The end of the quarter sets a rising trend in the number of registered CVEs, and we anticipate this growth to continue into the fourth quarter. Still, the overall number of published vulnerabilities is likely to drop slightly relative to the September figure by year-end
A look at the monthly distribution of vulnerabilities rated as critical upon registration (CVSS > 8.9) suggests that this metric was marginally lower in the third quarter than the 2024 figure.
Total number of critical vulnerabilities published each month from 2021 to 2025 (download)
Exploitation statistics
This section contains exploitation statistics for Q3 2025. The data draws on open sources and our telemetry.
Windows and Linux vulnerability exploitation
In Q3 2025, as before, the most common exploits targeted vulnerable Microsoft Office products.
Most Windows exploits detected by Kaspersky solutions targeted the following vulnerabilities:
CVE-2018-0802: a remote code execution vulnerability in the Equation Editor component
CVE-2017-11882: another remote code execution vulnerability, also affecting Equation Editor
CVE-2017-0199: a vulnerability in Microsoft Office and WordPad that allows an attacker to assume control of the system
These vulnerabilities historically have been exploited by threat actors more frequently than others, as discussed in previous reports. In the third quarter, we also observed threat actors actively exploiting Directory Traversal vulnerabilities that arise during archive unpacking in WinRAR. While the originally published exploits for these vulnerabilities are not applicable in the wild, attackers have adapted them for their needs.
CVE-2023-38831: a vulnerability in WinRAR that involves improper handling of objects within archive contents We discussed this vulnerability in detail in a 2024 report.
CVE-2025-6218 (ZDI-CAN-27198): a vulnerability that enables an attacker to specify a relative path and extract files into an arbitrary directory. A malicious actor can extract the archive into a system application or startup directory to execute malicious code. For a more detailed analysis of the vulnerability, see our Q2 2025 report.
CVE-2025-8088: a zero-day vulnerability similar to CVE-2025-6128, discovered during an analysis of APT attacks The attackers used NTFS Streams to circumvent controls on the directory into which files were unpacked. We will take a closer look at this vulnerability below.
It should be pointed out that vulnerabilities discovered in 2025 are rapidly catching up in popularity to those found in 2023.
All the CVEs mentioned can be exploited to gain initial access to vulnerable systems. We recommend promptly installing updates for the relevant software.
Dynamics of the number of Windows users encountering exploits, Q1 2023 — Q3 2025. The number of users who encountered exploits in Q1 2023 is taken as 100% (download)
According to our telemetry, the number of Windows users who encountered exploits increased in the third quarter compared to the previous reporting period. However, this figure is lower than that of Q3 2024.
For Linux devices, exploits for the following OS kernel vulnerabilities were detected most frequently:
CVE-2022-0847, also known as Dirty Pipe: a vulnerability that allows privilege escalation and enables attackers to take control of running applications
CVE-2019-13272: a vulnerability caused by improper handling of privilege inheritance, which can be exploited to achieve privilege escalation
CVE-2021-22555: a heap overflow vulnerability in the Netfilter kernel subsystem. The widespread exploitation of this vulnerability is due to its use of popular memory modification techniques: manipulating “msg_msg” primitives, which leads to a Use-After-Free security flaw.
Dynamics of the number of Linux users encountering exploits, Q1 2023 — Q3 2025. The number of users who encountered exploits in Q1 2023 is taken as 100% (download)
A look at the number of users who encountered exploits suggests that it continues to grow, and in Q3 2025, it already exceeds the Q1 2023 figure by more than six times.
It is critically important to install security patches for the Linux operating system, as it is attracting more and more attention from threat actors each year – primarily due to the growing number of user devices running Linux.
Most common published exploits
In Q3 2025, exploits targeting operating system vulnerabilities continue to predominate over those targeting other software types that we track as part of our monitoring of public research, news, and PoCs. That said, the share of browser exploits significantly increased in the third quarter, matching the share of exploits in other software not part of the operating system.
Distribution of published exploits by platform, Q1 2025 (download)
Distribution of published exploits by platform, Q2 2025 (download)
Distribution of published exploits by platform, Q3 2025 (download)
It is noteworthy that no new public exploits for Microsoft Office products appeared in Q3 2025, just as none did in Q2. However, PoCs for vulnerabilities in Microsoft SharePoint were disclosed. Since these same vulnerabilities also affect OS components, we categorized them under operating system vulnerabilities.
Vulnerability exploitation in APT attacks
We analyzed data on vulnerabilities that were exploited in APT attacks during Q3 2025. The following rankings draw on our telemetry, research, and open-source data.
TOP 10 vulnerabilities exploited in APT attacks, Q3 2025 (download)
APT attacks in Q3 2025 were dominated by zero-day vulnerabilities, which were uncovered during investigations of isolated incidents. A large wave of exploitation followed their public disclosure. Judging by the list of software containing these vulnerabilities, we are witnessing the emergence of a new go-to toolkit for gaining initial access into infrastructure and executing code both on edge devices and within operating systems. It bears mentioning that long-standing vulnerabilities, such as CVE-2017-11882, allow for the use of various data formats and exploit obfuscation to bypass detection. By contrast, most new vulnerabilities require a specific input data format, which facilitates exploit detection and enables more precise tracking of their use in protected infrastructures. Nevertheless, the risk of exploitation remains quite high, so we strongly recommend applying updates already released by vendors.
C2 frameworks
In this section, we will look at the most popular C2 frameworks used by threat actors and analyze the vulnerabilities whose exploits interacted with C2 agents in APT attacks.
The chart below shows the frequency of known C2 framework usage in attacks on users during the third quarter of 2025, according to open sources.
Top 10 C2 frameworks used by APT groups to compromise user systems in Q3 2025 (download)
Metasploit, whose share increased compared to Q2, tops the list of the most prevalent C2 frameworks from the past quarter. It is followed by Sliver and Mythic. The Empire framework also reappeared on the list after being inactive in the previous reporting period. What stands out is that Adaptix C2, although fairly new, was almost immediately embraced by attackers in real-world scenarios. Analyzed sources and samples of malicious C2 agents revealed that the following vulnerabilities were used to launch them and subsequently move within the victim’s network:
CVE-2020-1472, also known as ZeroLogon, allows for compromising a vulnerable operating system and executing commands as a privileged user.
CVE-2021-34527, also known as PrintNightmare, exploits flaws in the Windows print spooler subsystem, also enabling remote access to a vulnerable OS and high-privilege command execution.
CVE-2025-6218 or CVE-2025-8088 are similar Directory Traversal vulnerabilities that allow extracting files from an archive to a predefined path without the archiving utility notifying the user. The first was discovered by researchers but subsequently weaponized by attackers. The second is a zero-day vulnerability.
Interesting vulnerabilities
This section highlights the most noteworthy vulnerabilities that were publicly disclosed in Q3 2025 and have a publicly available description.
ToolShell (CVE-2025-49704 and CVE-2025-49706, CVE-2025-53770 and CVE-2025-53771): insecure deserialization and an authentication bypass
ToolShell refers to a set of vulnerabilities in Microsoft SharePoint that allow attackers to bypass authentication and gain full control over the server.
CVE-2025-49704 involves insecure deserialization of untrusted data, enabling attackers to execute malicious code on a vulnerable server.
CVE-2025-49706 allows access to the server by bypassing authentication.
CVE-2025-53770 is a patch bypass for CVE-2025-49704.
CVE-2025-53771 is a patch bypass for CVE-2025-49706.
These vulnerabilities form one of threat actors’ combinations of choice, as they allow for compromising accessible SharePoint servers with just a few requests. Importantly, they were all patched back in July, which further underscores the importance of promptly installing critical patches. A detailed description of the ToolShell vulnerabilities can be found in our blog.
CVE-2025-8088: a directory traversal vulnerability in WinRAR
CVE-2025-8088 is very similar to CVE-2025-6218, which we discussed in our previous report. In both cases, attackers use relative paths to trick WinRAR into extracting archive contents into system directories. This version of the vulnerability differs only in that the attacker exploits Alternate Data Streams (ADS) and can use environment variables in the extraction path.
CVE-2025-41244: a privilege escalation vulnerability in VMware Aria Operations and VMware Tools
Details about this vulnerability were presented by researchers who claim it was used in real-world attacks in 2024.
At the core of the vulnerability lies the fact that an attacker can substitute the command used to launch the Service Discovery component of the VMware Aria tooling or the VMware Tools utility suite. This leads to the unprivileged attacker gaining unlimited privileges on the virtual machine. The vulnerability stems from an incorrect regular expression within the get-versions.sh script in the Service Discovery component, which is responsible for identifying the service version and runs every time a new command is passed.
Conclusion and advice
The number of recorded vulnerabilities continued to rise in Q3 2025, with some being almost immediately weaponized by attackers. The trend is likely to continue in the future.
The most common exploits for Windows are primarily used for initial system access. Furthermore, it is at this stage that APT groups are actively exploiting new vulnerabilities. To hinder attackers’ access to infrastructure, organizations should regularly audit systems for vulnerabilities and apply patches in a timely manner. These measures can be simplified and automated with Kaspersky Systems Management. Kaspersky Symphony can provide comprehensive and flexible protection against cyberattacks of any complexity.
Multiple European law enforcement agencies recently disrupted Cryptomixer, a service allegedly used by cybercriminals to launder ill-gotten gains from ransomware and other cyber activities.
A trader in my Discord posted his allocation confirmations yesterday. Monad ICO: $5,000. Immunefi: $3,000. BOB: $2,000. Total investment: $10,000.
Someone asked him why he’s putting so much into ICOs when memecoins are still running. His response: “I’m not choosing between them. I’m stacking both strategies.”
Then he explained his math. If these ICOs do what Solana and Polygon did at launch, that $10,000 becomes $50,000 to $100,000 in weeks. Take half those profits. Deploy into memecoins with the gains. Suddenly you’re playing with house money on both sides.
That’s when it clicked for everyone in the chat. The whales making millions aren’t picking ICOs or memecoins. They’re using ICO allocations to generate the capital that lets them dominate memecoin plays without risk.
November 2025 is giving retail the same opportunity. Three major ICOs launching this month with legitimate institutional backing, immediate unlocks, and entry prices that VCs paid months ago. This isn’t 2017 scam territory. This is Coinbase and CoinList curating projects with real technology.
The question isn’t whether to abandon memecoins. It’s whether you want to keep buying memecoins with your initial capital, or start buying them with 10x profits from ICO allocations.
Monad: The Coinbase-Backed Layer 1 Everyone’s Fighting Over
Monad launches November 17 on Coinbase Launchpad at $0.025 per token. This is Coinbase’s first U.S.-accessible token sale since 2019. They don’t just randomly pick projects for their comeback.
The technology’s targeting 10,000 TPS with full Ethereum compatibility. Paradigm backed it with $225 million in funding. The team’s been building for years, not rushing a launch to catch hype.
Here’s the setup: $100 minimum gets you tokens at $0.025. Full unlock at token generation means immediate liquidity. If Monad captures even a fraction of Solana’s success trajectory, early allocators are looking at 10x to 20x potential.
The play is straightforward. Get allocated. Tokens unlock at launch. If it pumps 5x in the first week like most major ICOs do, you take half as profit and let the rest ride. That profit becomes your memecoin war chest while your remaining Monad position covers your initial investment.
Immunefi: The Unglamorous 10x Nobody’s Talking About
Immunefi isn’t sexy. It’s a Web3 bug bounty platform. But it protects over $60 billion in DeFi assets and has paid out $100 million in bounties. Every major protocol uses them.
The CoinList sale offers tokens at $0.01337. That’s a 73% discount to what VCs paid in the last private round. With 100% unlock at token generation, meaning no vesting overhang suppressing price.
This is the definition of asymmetric risk-reward. You’re buying essential DeFi infrastructure at better prices than institutions got, with better liquidity terms. The upside might be “only” 5x to 10x instead of 50x memecoin moonshots, but it’s 5x to 10x on something with actual revenue.
The whale strategy: allocate here for the high-probability 5x to 10x. Use those gains to size up memecoin positions where you need 50x to 100x for generational wealth. Stack strategies instead of choosing between them.
BOB: The Bitcoin DeFi Gateway Printing Early Allocators
Build on Bob launched November 10 bringing Ethereum-style DeFi to Bitcoin. One-click BTCFi. Zero-knowledge proofs. Everything Bitcoin holders wanted but couldn’t access easily.
The ICO allocated 400 million tokens across CoinList and Gate Web3. Vesting is 50% at launch, 50% over three months. Community tranche FDV started at $165 million, which is undervalued if they capture even 1% of Bitcoin’s DeFi ambitions.
Bitcoin DeFi is the narrative everyone knows is coming but nobody’s positioned for. BOB is the infrastructure play on that narrative at early-stage entry pricing. When Bitcoin DeFi actually takes off, early allocators will have multiplied their positions significantly.
The allocation window closed, but it demonstrates the pattern: get into infrastructure plays before the narrative goes mainstream. Use those gains to dominate when memecoin narratives shift.
The Capital Stacking Strategy Whales Use
Here’s what successful crypto traders figured out: you don’t choose between ICOs and memecoins. You use ICOs to generate capital, then deploy that capital into memecoins with conviction.
Example: You get $2,000 allocated in Monad. It 10x’s to $20,000 at launch. You take $10,000 profit and leave $10,000 riding. That $10,000 profit goes into three beaten-down memecoins positioned for the next rotation.
Now you’re playing both sides. Your Monad position covers your initial investment multiple times over. Your memecoin positions are pure upside funded by profits. If memecoins 5x, you just made $50,000 from a $2,000 initial allocation.
This is how small accounts become large accounts. Not by going all-in on one strategy, but by stacking multiple edge strategies that compound together.
The traders making millions in crypto aren’t the ones with perfect timing on one coin. They’re the ones with ICO allocations that fund memecoin positions that fund the next ICO cycle. It’s compound leverage across strategies.
Why November 2025 Is the Perfect Entry Point
We’re in a unique window. Bitcoin’s stable around $110,000. Major altcoins are consolidating. Memecoins had their initial run and are resetting. ICOs are coming back with institutional backing and compliance.
This creates the ideal setup for capital stacking. Get ICO allocations now at pre-market prices. Tokens unlock in late November through December. Take profits as they pump at launch. Deploy those profits into memecoins during their next accumulation phase before the December rally.
The timing gives you sequential opportunities instead of forced choices. You’re not abandoning memecoins to buy ICOs. You’re using ICO allocations to create bigger memecoin positions than you could afford otherwise.
Crypto Twitter’s narrative is “ICO is the new airdrop” but that’s incomplete. ICOs are the capital generation mechanism. Memecoins are the capital deployment mechanism. You need both.
How to Actually Execute This Strategy
Set up accounts on Coinbase Launchpad, CoinList, Gate Web3, and Legion now. These platforms curate legitimate ICO opportunities and handle compliance.
Allocate $100 to $1,000 per ICO depending on your capital base. You need USDC or USDT ready and KYC verification completed. Minimum entries are typically $50 to $100.
Don’t expect to get your full allocation request. ICOs are often oversubscribed, so you might request $5,000 and get $500. That’s fine. Even small allocations multiply significantly if the project performs.
When tokens unlock and pump at launch, take at least 50% profit. This isn’t being paper-handed. It’s locking in gains that become your memecoin allocation. Let the rest ride for longer-term upside.
Use those profits strategically. Don’t ape into whatever’s trending that day. Wait for memecoin consolidations. Enter beaten-down projects with strong communities. Give yourself the best risk-reward instead of chasing pumps.
The Infrastructure Advantage
Whether you’re stacking ICO profits into memecoin plays or thinking about launching your own projects, execution quality matters more than ever.
The gap between projects that survive cycles and projects that disappear keeps widening. Professional infrastructure, sustained volume strategies, and proper community building separate winners from losers. The capital is flowing. Being positioned to capture it requires preparation.
The Bottom Line
The path to whale status in November 2025 isn’t choosing between ICOs and memecoins. It’s stacking both strategies intelligently.
Monad, Immunefi, and BOB represent ICO opportunities with institutional backing at pre-market entry prices. If they perform like previous cycles, early allocators make 5x to 20x in weeks. Those gains become the capital that dominates memecoin positions without risking your initial investment.
My Discord trader with $10,000 in ICO allocations isn’t abandoning memecoins. He’s generating the capital to play memecoins bigger and smarter than he could with his original stack.
That’s not luck. That’s just understanding how successful traders actually build wealth in crypto. Multiple strategies. Compound leverage. Capital rotation across opportunities.
The ICO window is open this month. The memecoin rotation is coming in December. Position for both instead of choosing between them.
Someone in the group chat asked why everyone’s suddenly talking about Monad when we’re supposed to be focused on memecoin season. Fair question.
Then one of the whales dropped a screenshot. He’d secured a $3,000 allocation in the Monad ICO at $0.025 per token. His caption: “This is my memecoin bankroll for December.”
That’s when it made sense. The smartest traders aren’t choosing between infrastructure plays and memecoins. They’re using one to fund the other.
Monad launches on Coinbase Launchpad November 17 with a $2.5 billion fully diluted valuation. It’s the first major U.S.-accessible token sale Coinbase has done since 2019. The timing couldn’t be better for anyone looking to multiply their capital before the real memecoin rotation hits.
What Actually Is Monad?
Monad’s a Layer 1 blockchain that does 10,000 transactions per second while staying fully compatible with Ethereum. That’s the technical part.
The part that matters for traders: it’s backed by Paradigm with $225 million in funding, it’s got over 290 dApps already building on testnet, and Coinbase chose it as their comeback ICO after six years of silence.
The team’s from Jump Trading. They’ve been building for years, not rushing a launch to catch hype. The tech uses parallel execution to process transactions simultaneously instead of one-by-one like Ethereum. Sub-second finality. Actual institutional partnerships with Circle, Chainlink, and LayerZero.
This isn’t some random Layer 1 promising the moon. This is infrastructure that serious money believes will capture market share from Ethereum’s congestion problems and Solana’s occasional outages.
The ICO Setup That Has Everyone Allocated
November 17 to November 22. Sale runs on Coinbase Launchpad. Price locked at $0.025 per MON token.
Minimum entry is $100. Maximum is $100,000. They’re allocating up to 7.5 billion tokens, which is 7.5% of total supply. If it’s oversubscribed, they prioritize smaller bids to avoid whale concentration.
Here’s what makes this different from 2017 ICO garbage: 100% unlock at token generation on November 24. No vesting suppressing price. Full liquidity immediately. You can take profits the same day mainnet launches.
The sale uses USDC. You need KYC verification on Coinbase. It’s compliant, regulated, and accessible to U.S. retail for the first time in years.
Why This Matters for the Memecoin Rotation
Bitcoin’s holding around $110,000. Major altcoins are consolidating. Memecoins had their initial pump and are cooling off. This is the perfect setup for capital rotation.
Here’s the play everyone’s running: allocate $1,000 to $3,000 in Monad at $0.025. If it does what previous Coinbase launches did and pumps 5x to 10x in the first week, that’s $5,000 to $30,000 in gains. Take half as profit. That’s your memecoin war chest while your remaining Monad position covers your initial investment multiple times over.
The traders making serious money aren’t going all-in on one strategy. They’re stacking multiple edges. ICO allocations generate capital. That capital deploys into beaten-down memecoins positioned for the next leg up. When memecoins pump, profits rotate back into the next infrastructure play.
It’s compound leverage across strategies. You’re not choosing between Monad and memecoins. You’re using Monad gains to dominate memecoin plays you couldn’t afford otherwise.
The Ecosystem Already Has Traction
Over 290 dApps building before mainnet even launches. DeFi protocols like Kuru Exchange and Drake offering up to 50x leverage. Gaming projects like Lumiterra with AI agents and MMO gameplay. Prediction markets like KizzyMobile for social betting.
Monad’s running incentive programs with $1 million prize pools and $60 million in follow-on investments for builders. The Monad Momentum initiative rewards early mainnet users across 13+ apps with points and airdrops. This isn’t launching into a vacuum.
The institutional backing’s real. Circle’s integrating USDC. Chainlink’s providing data feeds. PancakeSwap V4 is already on testnet. These aren’t speculative partnerships. These are live integrations from protocols that move billions in volume.
If Monad captures even 5% of the market share that Layer 1s like Solana and Avalanche achieved, early ICO allocators are looking at significant multiples on their entry price.
What This Launch Means for Crypto
Coinbase bringing back public token sales after six years signals something. They’re not doing this casually. They chose Monad as their return to ICOs because they believe it has staying power.
The transparent approach matters too. Monad’s disclosing market makers publicly and using allocation mechanisms that limit concentration. If successful, this could set a new standard for how major projects launch tokens. Less insider dumping. More retail access at fair prices.
For the broader crypto space, Monad represents the next generation of EVM-compatible chains that actually work at scale. If it delivers on the 10,000 TPS promise with full Ethereum compatibility, it makes high-frequency DeFi, real-time gaming, and AI-driven applications actually viable onchain.
That expansion of what’s possible could pull capital and developers from congested networks. It could accelerate the next DeFi summer if the infrastructure can finally handle the volume. And it gives memecoin traders the exact thing they need: a high-probability infrastructure play that generates capital for higher-risk, higher-reward strategies.
How to Position for Both
Set up your Coinbase account now if you haven’t already. Get KYC verified. Have USDC ready. The sale opens November 17 at 9 AM ET.
Request your allocation. Even if you only get $500 of a $2,000 request due to oversubscription, that’s fine. Small allocations still multiply significantly if the launch performs.
When tokens unlock November 24, take at least 50% profit if it pumps. Lock in gains. That becomes your memecoin allocation. Let the rest ride for longer-term upside.
Use those profits strategically. Don’t chase whatever’s pumping that day. Wait for memecoin consolidations. Enter projects with strong communities that got beaten down. Position for the next rotation instead of the current one.
This is how small accounts become large accounts. Not by perfect timing on one coin, but by stacking multiple strategies that compound together. ICO profits fund memecoin positions. Memecoin profits fund the next ICO cycle. It’s capital rotation that builds real wealth.
The Infrastructure That Captures the Flow
When ICO capital eventually rotates through the ecosystem and into memecoins, the projects positioned to capture that flow are the ones with professional execution.
As capital flows from infrastructure plays into memecoin opportunities, having the right launch tools and volume strategies separates projects that capture attention from projects that get ignored. Professional execution isn’t optional anymore. It’s the baseline for competing.
The Real Opportunity
Monad’s ICO isn’t just another token launch. It’s Coinbase returning to public sales with their first pick in six years. It’s institutional backing meeting retail access at pre-market prices with immediate liquidity.
For memecoin traders, it’s the capital generation mechanism that funds bigger plays without risking your original stack. For the crypto space, it’s potentially the infrastructure that enables the next wave of applications that couldn’t run on current networks.
The sale opens November 17. Mainnet launches November 24. The memecoin rotation hits in December. Position for both instead of choosing between them.
The traders making millions aren’t the ones with perfect timing on one strategy. They’re the ones stacking edges across multiple strategies that compound together. That’s not luck. That’s just understanding how capital actually moves in crypto.
A friend texted me last week asking if I’d seen the Aave governance proposal. I hadn’t. He sent the link: $50 million annual buyback program. Permanent. Not a one-time thing.
My first thought was “that’s TradFi playbook stuff.” My second thought was “wait, if major DeFi protocols are buying back hundreds of millions in tokens, where does that leave the rest of the market?”
Turns out, Aave isn’t alone. EtherFi just approved a $50 million ETHFI buyback that kicks in when the token drops below $3. Across the top 12 DeFi protocols, buyback spending hit $800 million in 2025. That’s a 400% increase from last year.
The question isn’t whether buybacks work. The question is what happens to the broader crypto market when this much capital starts flowing back into protocol tokens. And more importantly, what does it mean for memecoin season?
Buybacks are exactly what they sound like. Protocols use revenue to repurchase their own tokens from the market. Buy and burn. Reduce circulating supply. Create scarcity.
Aave’s committing $50 million annually from protocol fees. That’s not a one-time pump. That’s permanent buying pressure built into their tokenomics. EtherFi structured theirs differently with a $3 price trigger, so the buyback activates automatically when the token dips, providing a floor.
The logic mirrors what public companies do in traditional markets. Apple buys back billions in stock. It signals confidence, reduces supply, and theoretically increases value per share. DeFi’s copying the playbook but with a crypto twist: most protocols are burning the tokens they buy back instead of holding them in treasury.
Over $800 million deployed across buybacks and revenue sharing in 2025 alone. That’s real capital creating real buying pressure. Keyrock’s data shows this is a 4x jump from 2024, meaning DeFi’s maturing into sustainable revenue models instead of just printing tokens for liquidity mining.
Why This Pumps More Than Just DeFi Tokens
Here’s where it gets interesting for the broader market. When major protocols start buying back hundreds of millions in tokens, that capital has to come from somewhere. Usually stablecoins or ETH sitting in treasuries.
Those buybacks create upward pressure on protocol tokens. Aave, EtherFi, and others start climbing. Holders see gains. That creates confidence. Confidence spreads across DeFi. DeFi pumping lifts the entire crypto market cap.
But there’s a second-order effect that matters more for memecoin traders: liquidity rotation. When DeFi holders take profits from buyback-driven pumps, where do they deploy that capital? Some goes back to stables. Some goes to BTC and ETH. And a lot flows into higher-risk, higher-reward plays.
That means memecoins. The same pattern we saw in 2021. DeFi summer pumps protocol tokens. Holders take profits. Memecoins get the spillover capital because that’s where the fastest multipliers happen. Buybacks in DeFi create the initial momentum. Memecoins capture the overflow.
The Infrastructure Upgrades Making It Possible
Buybacks only work if the infrastructure can handle increased activity without congestion. That’s where upgrades like ZKsync’s Atlas matter.
Atlas launched in November with over 15,000 transactions per second and 1-second finality. Vitalik Buterin endorsed it. The upgrade makes yield-bearing assets and restaking protocols way more efficient by reducing fees and speeding up transactions.
When DeFi runs smoothly, more capital stays in the ecosystem. When fees spike and transactions slow down, people exit to cheaper chains. Atlas and similar upgrades keep capital flowing within Ethereum’s ecosystem, which means buyback pressure compounds instead of leaking to competing chains.
Real-world asset tokenization is hitting $201 billion on Ethereum, with $12 billion specifically in RWAs like treasuries. ONDO Finance is leading that charge with billions in TVL after expanding to BNB Chain. That institutional capital provides the stable base that lets protocols fund buybacks without destabilizing their treasuries.
Restaking and Yield Stacking
Restaking protocols like EigenLayer are pulling over $15 billion in TVL by letting users stake the same assets across multiple networks for compounded yields. Ether.fi and Kelp DAO are in the low billions each.
This matters for buybacks because higher yields attract more capital to DeFi. More capital means higher protocol revenues. Higher revenues fund bigger buybacks. It’s a flywheel.
Yield-bearing stablecoins like fxUSD are embedding nearly 10% APY through fractional strategies. Instead of earning interest the traditional way, these stablecoins generate returns through market-neutral positions. That gives yield seekers alternatives to leaving DeFi during bear markets.
When users can earn passive income on stablecoins while waiting for the next opportunity, they keep capital in the ecosystem. That parked capital becomes the dry powder that deploys into buyback-pumped tokens or memecoins when the timing’s right.
What This Means for Memecoin Season
DeFi buybacks create the conditions for stronger memecoin runs. Here’s the pattern: buybacks pump protocol tokens, early holders take profits, that capital needs somewhere to go for 10x to 100x potential, memecoins offer exactly that risk-reward profile.
The $800 million in buybacks isn’t all hitting the market at once. It’s spread across months with different protocols executing at different times. That creates rolling waves of buying pressure lifting the entire market gradually instead of one massive spike that dumps immediately.
When Aave’s buyback lifts AAVE 20% to 30%, holders who bought lower take profits. Maybe $10 million flows out of AAVE into other opportunities. Some goes to Bitcoin. Some goes to ETH. And some goes hunting for the next 50x memecoin that hasn’t pumped yet.
Multiply that across a dozen major protocols doing buybacks simultaneously, and you’ve got hundreds of millions in profit-taking capital looking for the next play. Memecoins historically capture a significant chunk of that overflow because they’re the highest-risk, highest-reward assets in crypto.
The key difference from 2021: this time the foundation is more sustainable. Buybacks are funded by actual protocol revenues, not VC money or printed tokens. That means the pumps have more staying power instead of dumping immediately.
The Timing Setup
Bitcoin’s holding steady around $110,000. Major alts are consolidating. DeFi’s implementing buybacks with real revenue. Infrastructure upgrades are handling increased throughput. RWAs are bringing institutional capital onchain.
This is the exact setup that precedes the next major rotation. DeFi pumps first from buybacks. Then the capital cascades into smaller-cap alts. Then memecoins catch the final wave as traders hunt for asymmetric returns.
We’re in the DeFi buyback phase right now. Aave approved their program in October. EtherFi’s went live recently. More protocols are structuring similar programs for Q4 2025 and Q1 2026. That creates sustained buying pressure through the end of the year.
By December and January, when that buyback-driven momentum peaks and holders take profits, the capital rotation into memecoins should be in full swing. The traders positioning now get the best entry before the herd arrives.
How to Position for the Rotation
Watch the major DeFi protocols implementing buybacks. When they announce programs or execute large purchases, those tokens typically pump within days or weeks. That’s your signal that capital is moving.
Don’t chase the initial DeFi pump. Wait for consolidation. When protocol tokens start cooling off after buyback-driven runs, that’s when profit-taking begins and capital hunts for the next opportunity.
Have your memecoin watchlist ready. Look for projects with strong communities that got beaten down during the summer consolidation. Those are positioned to capture the rotation capital because they’re undervalued relative to their peak prices.
The strategy isn’t to abandon DeFi for memecoins or vice versa. It’s to understand the capital flow pattern and position accordingly. DeFi buybacks create the initial momentum. Memecoins capture the overflow. Stack both strategies instead of choosing one.
Building for the Next Wave
As buyback capital eventually flows through DeFi and into the broader crypto ecosystem, the memecoin projects positioned to capture attention are the ones with professional infrastructure.
When capital rotates into memecoins, visibility matters. Projects that can demonstrate consistent volume and community engagement capture the flow. Projects without proper infrastructure get ignored. As hundreds of millions from DeFi profits hunt for the next opportunity, having the right launch execution separates winners from noise.
The Bottom Line
DeFi protocols spending $800 million on buybacks isn’t just a DeFi story. It’s a catalyst for the entire crypto market. Buybacks create buying pressure in protocol tokens. That lifts market confidence. Confidence spreads. Holders take profits. Capital rotates into higher-risk plays.
Memecoins historically capture significant portions of that overflow capital because they offer the asymmetric returns that traders hunt for after securing gains in more stable assets. The pattern’s playing out again in late 2025, except this time it’s built on sustainable protocol revenues instead of printed money.
The buyback wave is happening now. The profit-taking rotation comes next. Position for both phases instead of reacting after the move already happened. That’s not timing the market perfectly. That’s just understanding how capital actually flows in crypto and being ready when it does.
Someone posted a Dexscreener screenshot in my group chat showing a token called PEPENODE up 847% in 36 hours. I assumed it was another pump-and-dump. Checked the contract. Read the docs. Realized it’s actually running AI agents that mine rewards across multiple meme ecosystems.
Not a picture of a dog with AI slapped in the name. An actual functioning product using machine learning to optimize meme coin staking yields automatically.
My first thought: this is unnecessarily complicated for a memecoin. My second thought: wait, people are making 600% APY on this while I’m holding regular PEPE hoping for another Elon tweet.
That’s when it clicked. November 2025 isn’t just another memecoin cycle. It’s the moment memecoins stopped being purely speculative jokes and started becoming speculative jokes that actually do things. AI integration, automated trading bots, prediction markets, gaming utilities. The line between “memecoin” and “functional DeFi project” is dissolving.
And the traders who figured this out early are already multiple commas ahead of everyone still chasing pure hype coins.
The AI Integration That Changes Everything
AI memecoins aren’t just branding. They’re embedding autonomous agents that scan Twitter for trending narratives, execute trades based on sentiment analysis, and even generate meme content that targets competing communities.
Projects like MemeMarketFun price attention in real time using AI agents. You’re not betting on whether a meme goes viral. You’re betting on an AI’s ability to detect signals before humans notice them and position accordingly.
PEPENODE’s mine-to-earn model uses virtual mining rigs that farm rewards from other meme ecosystems. It sounds ridiculous until you realize people are actually earning 600% APY in presale. Maxi Doge combines the dog meme everyone understands with 76% APY staking and leveraged futures trading coming soon.
This isn’t AI for the sake of AI. It’s AI solving actual problems memecoin holders have: how do I know which narrative is emerging? How do I maximize yield while holding? How do I stay ahead of trend rotations?
The memecoins integrating these features are capturing capital that would’ve gone to pure speculation plays. Because given the choice between holding a static dog coin or holding one that actively farms yield using AI, the math is obvious.
The Presale Meta That Actually Works
Presales used to be synonymous with scams. November 2025 changed that. The projects raising millions in presale aren’t promising moonshots based on hype. They’re offering functional products that happen to have memecoin branding.
Five notable presales closing this month are blending AI, gaming, payments, and social media monetization. The institutional narrative shifted hard: payment infrastructure is seeing 50x more attention than basic wallet tools.
SUBBD raised significant capital by solving content creator monetization using AI-powered social media tools. That’s not a memecoin in the traditional sense. But it’s marketed with memecoin energy and retail accessibility while delivering actual utility.
The presale math is seductive. Enter at $0.000xx, watch it list at 50x to 200x on day one. But the crucial difference now is teams are shipping products before token generation, not after. The graveyard of failed presales is still massive, but the survivors are projects that proved functionality during presale, not just promised it.
Due diligence matters more than ever. Check if the product actually works. Verify the team isn’t anonymous. Confirm tokenomics aren’t designed to dump on retail. The presales printing money are the ones that treated retail like partners, not exit liquidity.
Solana’s Memecoin Factory on Steroids
Pump.fun launched over 600,000 tokens in 2024 and 2025. That’s not a typo. Six hundred thousand. The Solana ecosystem became the undisputed memecoin creation hub because launching a token takes minutes and costs under $10.
The stat everyone cites: over 85% of launches fail within weeks. But the 15% that succeed create enough wealth that people keep trying. When entry barriers are that low, volume of attempts matters more than success rate on individual launches.
Recent viral hits on Solana follow predictable patterns. Animal themes still dominate (frogs, cats, weird creatures). Political satire coins pump around news cycles (TRUMP, MELANIA variants). Absurdist humor tokens catch fire when they hit the right cultural moment (Popfrog, Rome, Kukuli).
The platform keeps evolving too. New features focus on discoverability and utility token support. Even the “degen factory” recognizes pure speculation has diminishing returns. The memecoins surviving on Solana now are the ones with at least minimal community engagement or functionality.
For traders, this creates noise but also opportunity. The volume of launches means something’s always pumping. The challenge is filtering signal from the thousand scams launching simultaneously.
Narrative Is the Only Moat That Matters
The biggest alpha in late 2025 isn’t finding coins with the best technology. It’s finding coins with the most compelling narrative before everyone else discovers it.
Tokens tied to real-time cultural moments outperform everything. Celebrity drama, political scandals, viral Twitter trends. These create immediate attention spikes that translate to buying pressure measured in minutes, not days.
Community storytelling became the primary value driver. Coins with passionate holders who create memes, raid other communities, and maintain constant social presence survive corrections that kill lesser projects. The technical fundamentals barely matter compared to narrative strength.
This created a meta-layer where coins about coins about coins can still 10x on pure momentum. It sounds absurd. It is absurd. But it’s also how the market actually operates right now.
The debate on Crypto Twitter: is this sustainable alpha or just an increasingly sophisticated casino? The answer is probably both. Attention is genuinely scarce. Capturing it creates real value. But that value is ephemeral and rotates constantly.
The Evolution Nobody Expected
Late November 2025 feels different from previous memecoin cycles. The projects succeeding aren’t just lucky with timing. They’re combining genuine utility with memecoin energy in ways that create actual staying power.
AI agents that trade based on sentiment. Staking mechanisms that generate sustainable yield. Gaming integrations that give holders something to do beyond watching charts. Payment infrastructure disguised as memecoins. These aren’t replacing pure speculation plays. They’re carving out a parallel track.
Pure hype coins still pump. Dog pictures still go viral. But the staying power increasingly belongs to projects that give holders more than hope. They’re offering actual product-market fit wrapped in memecoin branding and retail accessibility.
The supercycle everyone predicted for 2025 isn’t ending. It’s evolving. The coins that survive into 2026 won’t be the funniest or most viral. They’ll be the ones that figured out how to blend speculation with substance.
Building the Next Generation
For those thinking about launching projects rather than just trading them, the infrastructure landscape is rapidly maturing. The gap between professional launches and amateur attempts keeps widening.
The projects capturing sustainable attention aren’t just viral memes. They’re well-executed tokens with professional volume strategies, community engagement plans, and at least minimal functional utility. The standards keep rising. The capital keeps flowing toward projects that meet those standards.
The memecoin launches succeeding in late 2025 understood this shift early. They didn’t just copy what worked in 2021. They adapted to what the market demands now: speculation with substance, hype with functionality, memes that actually do something.
The Bottom Line
AI memecoins, strategic presales, Solana’s endless launch pipeline, and narrative-driven attention capture. These aren’t separate trends. They’re different expressions of the same evolution: memecoins growing up without losing their speculative soul.
The opportunity has never been bigger. Neither has the noise. The projects printing millionaires are the ones that figured out how to combine genuine utility with memecoin energy. Pure speculation still works for quick flips. But sustainable wealth is flowing to coins that offer holders something more than a funny picture and a dream.
My group chat member who found PEPENODE at 847% gains? He’s already rotating profits into three other AI-integrated memecoins positioned for similar runs. Not because he’s smarter than everyone else. Just because he recognized the pattern shift before it became obvious.
The supercycle is evolving. The question is whether you’re evolving with it or still buying dog pictures hoping for another 2021.
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