In 2025, Bitcoin surpassed $100,000, marking its transition from speculative trading to long-term institutional adoption. Banks and governments began to view Bitcoin as a strategic reserve asset.
The GENIUS Act established a unified payment stablecoin framework in the United States, requiring 1:1 reserve backing, stricter issuer qualifications, and stronger consumer protection measures.
The total tokenization of on-chain real-world assets (RWA) exceeded $30 billion, primarily driven by U.S. Treasury bonds and private credit. Companies like BlackRock, JPMorgan, and Apollo integrated RWA into the DeFi market.
The monthly trading volume of on-chain perpetual contracts surpassed $1 trillion, with platforms like Hyperliquid achieving speeds and depths comparable to centralized exchanges.
This year, Bitcoin crossed the $100,000 threshold, symbolizing much more than a speculative frenzy. Once seen as a speculative asset, Bitcoin has now become a structural component of the global financial system. In 2025, the focus shifted from speculation to substantial progress in infrastructure, regulation, institutional investment, and technology.
This article outlines the most representative cryptocurrency events of the year.
Spot Bitcoin ETFs brought Bitcoin into the portfolios of asset managers, pension funds, and corporate finance departments, surpassing the retail market. Daily ETF inflows became an important indicator of market confidence. Unlike previous cycles driven by high leverage, professional investors maintained a sustained focus on Bitcoin in 2025.
Banks began trading Bitcoin on their own balance sheets. Italy's largest bank, Intesa Sanpaolo, conducted its first proprietary Bitcoin trade in January 2025, purchasing €1 million worth of Bitcoin as an experimental measure. Some countries are also exploring strategic Bitcoin reserves, holding the asset long-term as part of national reserves.
On March 6, 2025, U.S. President Trump signed an executive order establishing a strategic Bitcoin reserve, supported by confiscated Bitcoin. The Czech National Bank also announced it is considering including Bitcoin in its strategic reserves.
Did you know? Bitcoin mining companies are collaborating with energy producers to benefit from stabilizing the grid and monetizing excess electricity.
In 2025, stablecoins evolved from mere trading tools to regulated payment and settlement assets. The GENIUS Act was signed into law on July 18, establishing the first comprehensive federal framework for payment stablecoins.
The law clarifies that qualified payment stablecoins do not fall under securities, creates a unified federal licensing and regulatory system for issuers, and requires sufficient 1:1 reserves backed by high-quality, highly liquid assets such as cash and short-term U.S. Treasury bonds. It also mandates regular public disclosures of reserve composition to ensure transparency and consumer protection.
Only approved entities that meet qualification standards (such as subsidiaries of insured deposit institutions) can issue stablecoins. These issuers must meet strict capital, liquidity, and risk management requirements. Additionally, the act includes provisions to protect holder rights in the event of issuer bankruptcy.
While the GENIUS Act draws on earlier proposals, it further strengthens financial stability safeguards and addresses the fragmentation of the monetary system by establishing a clearer and more coordinated regulatory framework for digital dollar payments.
In 2025, the tokenization of real-world assets (RWA) moved from pilot phases to institutional mainstream, with on-chain value surpassing $30 billion, achieving a 300%-400% growth over three years, with U.S. Treasury bonds and private credit becoming the main drivers of institutional adoption.
The BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL) launched in March 2024, bringing U.S. Treasury bonds on-chain through tokenization. Currently, BUIDL's total locked value across multiple blockchains has exceeded $2 billion, with interest distributed daily, supported 1:1 by real-world assets.
The advantages of RWA tokenization include fractional ownership, 24/7 liquidity, and cross-chain interoperability through protocols like Chainlink CCIP. Institutions like JPMorgan and Apollo are integrating RWA into decentralized finance (DeFi), further blurring the lines between traditional finance and blockchain.
Did you know? Tokenized U.S. Treasury bonds have become one of the fastest-growing categories in DeFi, providing users with low-risk on-chain yields.
In October 2025, the monthly trading volume of DeFi perpetual contracts surpassed $1 trillion, bringing platforms like Hyperliquid to the level of centralized crypto exchanges. The average daily trading volume of decentralized perpetual contracts that month was approximately $45.7 billion, while on-chain open positions rose to $16 billion. This growth reflects a trend toward stable market positions rather than fleeting speculative behavior.
Hyperliquid launched the HIP-3 upgrade in October, enabling permissionless market creation through staking 500,000 HYPE tokens. This update facilitated decentralized listings and incentivized innovation in new asset classes like stocks and RWA. Sub-second matching speeds and deep liquidity further narrowed the gap between centralized and decentralized exchanges.
This year, Ethereum solidified its foundational position in the blockchain ecosystem through key upgrades and increasing institutional adoption. The "Pectra" upgrade launched in May, doubling blob capacity, reducing layer two fees, and enhancing throughput, while raising the validator staking cap from 32 ETH to 2048 ETH, significantly improving validation efficiency.
In July 2025, the spot Ethereum ETF attracted a net inflow of $12.1 billion, led by the BlackRock iShares Ethereum Trust (ETHA), demonstrating strong institutional demand. Related rulings from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission brought regulatory clarity, positioning Ethereum as a compliant infrastructure for DeFi and RWA, strengthening its role as a resilient settlement layer for Web3. The upcoming Fusaka upgrade in December is expected to further optimize PeerDAS functionality, reinforcing Ethereum's long-term competitiveness.
Did you know? An increasing number of enterprises are adopting private or hybrid Ethereum chains for supply chain tracking and settlement process management.
Solana's narrative underwent a significant transformation in 2025. Once criticized for network outages, it has now made tremendous strides in reliability and performance. The launch of the new validator client, Firedancer, improved redundancy and processing capacity, reflecting Solana's relentless pursuit of large-scale, high-reliability operations.
Similarly, this year, Solana gained favor among institutions and the derivatives market, with several leading compliant platforms launching futures and options products based on Solana, expanding hedging and arbitrage opportunities previously limited to Bitcoin and Ethereum. This development solidified Solana's important position in high-frequency application scenarios such as on-chain trading, gaming, and consumer services.
The industry recognized once again in 2025 that security remains a significant challenge. As of November 11, over $2.17 billion had been stolen this year, surpassing the total losses for all of 2024. A significant portion of this came from a $1.5 billion hacking incident targeting Bybit by North Korea.
As cryptocurrencies gradually integrate into the global financial system, security vulnerabilities are no longer isolated incidents but potential systemic risk issues. Attackers' methods are becoming increasingly sophisticated, evolving in tandem with the industry's own technological advancements. This year, AI-driven attacks and complex supply chain vulnerabilities prompted the entire industry to strengthen cybersecurity measures.
Related: According to a survey, one-third of young investors have changed advisors due to cryptocurrency investments.
Original article: The Most Important Crypto Moments of the Year
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