Digital Assets 2025 Year In Review

To borrow a sporting analogy, 2025 was a game of two halves for digital assets, with a dramatic shift changing a result that seemed like a foregone conclusion.

However, unlike most sports, this second half took place entirely in the fourth quarter, as digital assets in a way fell victim to their success of the last few years; now large enough to be meaningfully impacted by macroeconomic shocks, yet still novel enough to be treated as a risk-off asset during uncertainty

The Market

To be precise, the “second half” began on October 10th, as unexpected new 100% tariff threats towards China from Trump triggered widespread financial shock globally resulting in the largest single-day volume liquidations (over $19 billion in 24h) in the history of digital assets.

The event wiped out over 1m leveraged traders and led to market makers scaling down engagement with the market, resulting in constrained liquidity heading into year end, and left Bitcoin to lag behind stock markets (and traditional store of value assets like gold and silver) for the first time in years. While BTC was up 35% before the correction, the subsequent decline led to closing the year down 6%, at appx $87,500.

However, let’s not concentrate too much on how the year ended – it’s worth remembering how the first three quarters (and the first nine days of Q4!) unfolded, as it tells the story of a maturing asset class increasingly embraced by institutions, investors and even sovereign nations.

On the 6 October, Bitcoin reached its current record high of $126,200 (per Coinmarketcap data), and spent half the year trading above $100,000 – breaking these levels firmly in May and remaining there until mid-November. At least six separate runs towards new highs across the year, including its $126,000 peak, showcased the sustained growth and momentum for BTC, rather than a singular isolated spike.

Despite Q4’s decline, Bitcoin has remained well above annual lows logged in April, indicating increased acceptance of the asset class even with current headwinds.

ETFs continued to exhibit strong performance, albeit lagging slightly behind 2024’s total inflows. BlackRock’s IBIT broke several records, spot Ether ETFs experienced their strongest inflows to date, as ETH reached new highs, and late-year launches of new altcoin ETFs (including Solana and XRP) reached respective volumes.

Beyond price action, the industry’s foundations continued to strengthen. Total market capitalisation peaked ~$4.2tn in October with several major digital assets logging new record highs, including Ether ($4,900), BNB ($1,300), and Solana ($260).

Even long-time sceptics like Vanguard and JPMorgan, moved to meet client demand, and by November, over 55% of hedge funds reported exposure to the asset class.

Outside of the markets, 2025 can be broken down into three pillars of development and adoption; Regulation, Stablecoins, and Tokenisation.

Regulation

Crypto VC specialists Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) declared 2025 as “the year of institutional adoption” and they believe a key catalyst for this increased institutional appetite was the regulatory clarity created by the new Republican administration in the United States. Whilst the Biden administration adopted an approach of regulation by enforcement (and alleged industry debanking), Donald Trump vowed to make USA “the Crypto Capital of the World” with a national crypto stockpile, and his cabinet rapidly moved to realise that ambition.

The US government now boasts its own “Crypto Czar”, David Sacks, a crypto-friendly SEC chair, Paul Atkins, a very recent CFTC chair appointee with crypto task force experience, Michael Selig,  and has hosted numerous crypto roundtables between industry and regulators.

The CFTC launched its own crypto sprint under acting chair Caroline Pham (who has since taken a job offer in the crypto industry) and the SEC launched an innovation exemption and generic ETF standards to remove red tape and barriers to digital asset product launches.

The CLARITY Act, focusing on digital asset market structure, passed through the House of Representatives with broad bipartisan support, and is currently being debated in the Senate, with a tentative January 15th date reported for the markup of the bill. Unlike the previous administration’s favour towards the SEC, the CLARITY bill proposes the bulk of market oversight powers to the CFTC.

Although the US dominated reporting on regulation, there were significant developments elsewhere across the globe. The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority confirmed in December that they are making stablecoin frameworks a “priority” for 2026. In the EU, MiCA (Markets in Crypto Assets) regulation went live, Hong Kong launched its own stablecoin framework, Singapore’s Digital Token Service Provider (DTSP) regime went live in June, the UAE’s Virtual Asset Regulatory Authority recognised digital assets as a valid payment in employment contracts, and trading powerhouse South Korea began debates on its own Digital Asset Basic Act (DABA).

What emerged in 2025 was a globally coordinated shift, with regulation moving from uncertainty to infrastructure. As 2026 unfolds, the regulatory groundwork laid in 2025 positions digital assets to move decisively from promise to permanence within the global financial system.

Stablecoins

Why stablecoins finally went mainstream in 2025

Stablecoins experienced a pivotal year in 2025, underpinned by the passing of the GENIUS (Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins) Act, legitimising the asset class and setting specific frameworks for issuance; including 1:1 reserves without rehypothecation, monthly audits, eschew interest payments, provide consumer bankruptcy protection, and comply with institutional AML and KYC standards.

The GENIUS Act has boosted the stablecoin sector significantly; with the world’s largest and most influential economy endorsing the new category. One of the biggest beneficiaries was stablecoin issuer Circle, whose USDC stablecoin already met GENIUS standards, leading to a wildly-successful IPO in June, which saw its shares trading at nearly 7x launch price before pulling back.

A16z commented that this is the year stablecoins went mainstream with the sector’s market capitalisation increasing more than 50% from $205bn on January 1st to $308bn at the end of December, per DeFi llama data.

Narratives around stablecoins also shifted meaningfully in 2025 with institutions that had previously argued that crypto threatened the US dollar, (including Deutsche Bank, the IMF, and the ECB) have now stated that stablecoins could support dollar hegemony and preserve the USD’s status as a global reserve currency.

US Dollar-denominated stablecoins continue to dominate overall stablecoin volumes, but other nations have taken notice; in early December, reports emerged of 10 European banks (including ING, UniCredit and BNP Paribas) working on a jointly-issued coin, and Euro-denominated stablecoin market capitalisation has doubled since the region introduced its MiCA regulations.

Stablecoin issuers have also become systemically important holders of government debt, collectively ranking as the 17th-largest holders of US Treasuries, surpassing many sovereign nations. Industry leader Tether had a strong year despite ongoing scrutiny around transparency and GENIUS compliance. While its flagship USDT remains non-compliant, the firm announced plans for a new GENIUS-aligned stablecoin, USAT, custodied by Cantor Fitzgerald.

Adoption of stablecoins has been driven by numerous factors beyond speculation and short-term hedging amongst digital asset traders. They have grown in popularity across inflation-ravaged countries as a hedge against local devaluation, and data from Tether revealed that it settled $156bn of payments worth under $1,000, indicating adoption as a direct means of exchange. A16z calculated that on an adjusted basis (removing bot activity), annual volumes are $9tn, up 87% and five times more than PayPal processed.

As stablecoins enter their next phase, their trajectory will be shaped less by innovation alone and more by policy choices, issuer resilience and their interaction with existing financial systems.

Tokenisation

Tokenisation didn’t move markets in 2025. It moved institutions.

Blackrock’s CEO Larry Fink put it simply this year: “Tokenisation can greatly expand the world of investable assets beyond listed stocks and bonds”, as he believes that the tokenisation of every financial instrument stands before us, with blockchain serving as a transformative tool for investment efficiencies and democratisation.

In 2025 Blackrock moved beyond rhetoric and into early implementation – its onchain money-market fund BUIDL passed the $100m dividends payout landmark just a couple of days ago, and reached a peak of almost $3bn this year. Bloomberg reported that the finance giant is planning to tokenise all of their ETFs, aligning with Fink’s vision on the future of finance.

JP Morgan was another major institution to join the tokenisation fray, launching an onchain money market fund (token name: MONY) in mid-December and it was the first global systemically important bank to do so on a public blockchain (Ethereum). Meanwhile, its own permissioned Kinexys blockchain continues to transact over $3bn in volume per day, and launched tokenised deposits for clients, working alongside Singaporean banking giant DBS.

We also saw the market begin to shift too.

Clearing House DTCC received approval to tokenise real world assets, including securities, with an initial pilot for tokenised treasuries to launch on the Canton blockchain. In September, Nasdaq publicly proposed tokenised stocks and the new SEC Chair, Paul Atkins described tokenisation not as a decade-out vision but something the market could see in years.

2025 saw tokenisation move firmly global with Dubai launching a program to put title deeds on chain, enabling fractional property ownership. Pakistan and Binance signed a deal to tokenise potentially $2bn in state assets, Bhutan launched an official tokenised gold instrument, and a Japanese developer launched a $75m tokenised property programme.

As it stands today, approx. $30bn real-world assets now sit on-chain, a four-fold increase from just two years ago.

Overall, even though a challenging Q4 soured investor sentiment, 2025 still proved to be a successful year for the digital asset industry, featuring major institutional adoption, regulatory advances, and greater real-world usage than ever before, laying the foundations for further expansion of the industry.

Onwards to 2026!

This yearly financial roundup is for informational purposes only and is not financial, investment, or legal advice. Information is based on public sources as of publication and may change. Consult a professional before acting.