Just finished reading a16z's 2025 State of Crypto report, sharing a few key data points and thoughts:

1) The annual trading volume of stablecoins reached $46 trillion, three times that of Visa. Even after removing noise data like bots, it still stands at $9 trillion, which is five times that of PayPal.

This means that stablecoins are no longer simply competing with a payment company; they are reconstructing the entire dollar circulation system. This helps explain why the U.S. government suddenly changed its attitude towards crypto; they realized that stablecoins are a digital weapon to solidify the dollar's hegemony. It also explains why Tether is building Plasma and Stable, and why PayPal is supporting KiteAI to develop AI payment infrastructure—it's all about competition and confrontation.

2) The adoption of crypto by institutions is experiencing a full-blown explosion: BTC and ETH ETF holdings have reached $175 billion, with an annual increase of 169%. Traditional finance and tech giants like Visa, BlackRock, JPMorgan, and Stripe are collectively entering the space.

This shift was somewhat unexpected. With the passage of the GENIUS Act and Circle's billion-dollar IPO, the market landscape has shifted from crypto trying to break out to traditional finance actively entering the space to compete for ecological positions, completely reversing the power dynamics.

3) Usage differentiation between emerging markets and developed markets: Wallet usage in Argentina has surged 16 times over three years, while South Korea and Australia are focused on MEME speculation.

It's interesting that small and medium developing countries value crypto for its "anti-inflation + cross-border payment" functions to make a living, while developed countries focus on the speculative attributes of "high volatility + arbitrage opportunities." Clearly, the former represents true mass adoption.

4) The integration of AI and crypto is accelerating: Protocols like x402 provide payment standards for AI agents, predicting that the AI agent economy will reach $30 trillion by 2030.

This figure sounds exaggerated, but the recent breakout performance of the nof1 arena has made everyone realize that the energy generated by AI agents autonomously managing assets and executing trades can be immense.

5) The on-chain economy is flourishing: DEX accounts for 20% of spot trading volume, perpetual contracts have increased eightfold annually, the RWA market is at $30 billion, and DePIN is expected to reach $3.5 trillion by 2028.

Crypto is penetrating from pure financial speculation into real-world applications. RWA injects real business profits into on-chain yield, and DePIN reconstructs physical infrastructure with tokens, among other things. The trend indicates that the purely token-subsidized internal circulation has become ineffective, while sustainable business models that profit from protocols, token buybacks (dividends for holders), and robust on-chain financial management are maturing. This will also be an important reference for selecting valuable targets in the future.

6) Prediction markets + privacy technology: Polymarket/Kalshi trading volume has increased fivefold, nearing historical highs, while privacy coins like Zcash and Railgun are leading ZK technology back to the mainstream.

Many thought prediction markets would cool down after the elections, but instead, trading volume surged fivefold in 2025. This indicates that prediction markets are not just about "betting on elections," but are becoming a new way to uncover real market expectations, from sports events to economic indicators, especially in the pre-market crypto space, where any event with uncertainty can be priced. The resurgence of privacy through "compliance" needs may also bring new opportunities for ZK technology to return to the mainstream.

Note: The above only highlights important data and content that I found interesting; the original text also covers many topics such as Ethereum L2 strategy, the rise of the Solana ecosystem, and the transformation of the NFT market. If you're interested, you can read the full report.

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