From humble beginnings to the pinnacle: A review of the milestones that defined the 2025 crypto market landscape.

2025 is destined to leave a significant mark on global financial history, being hailed as the "Year Zero of Sovereign Integration" for the crypto asset industry. If 2024 was the "Wall Street Moment" brought about by Bitcoin ETFs, then 2025 marks the formal leap of digital assets from mere financial speculation tools to strategic geopolitical bargaining chips and national reserve assets. The core driving force behind this transformation stems from the dramatic shift in the US administration—after taking office, the Trump administration, through the historic move of establishing a "strategic Bitcoin reserve," completely rewrote the underlying logic of global currency competition.

This year saw a series of watershed events in the regulatory landscape: the signing of the GENIUS Act granted stablecoins the legal status of the US dollar; the World Liberty Financial (WLFI) project, directly funded by the Trump family, broke down the boundaries between politics and DeFi; and the pardons of Ross Ulbricht and CZ marked the end of the feuds in the cryptocurrency "grassroots era" and the beginning of a new order.

This article will review what I personally consider to be 10 landmark events in the crypto industry in 2025.

These events constitute the “irreversible points” of 25 years of industry development—the decisive moments that have completely changed market structure, regulatory environment, or technological paradigm.

1. A Geopolitical Shift: The Establishment of the US Strategic Bitcoin Reserve

The most significant and far-reaching event of 2025 will undoubtedly be the formal establishment of the "Strategic Bitcoin Reserve" by the US government. This policy is not only to fulfill President Trump's campaign promise to "make America the global crypto capital," but also to fundamentally reverse the US's repressive policies toward crypto assets over the past few years, elevating them to the status of a national strategic resource as important as gold and oil.

1.1 Policy Origin and Implementation Mechanism

President Trump signed an executive order shortly after taking office, and on March 6, he formally signed a directive to establish a reserve. The core logic of this directive is to acknowledge that Bitcoin may play the role of "digital gold" in the future global financial system.

In practical terms, the authorities adopted a "confiscation-as-reserve" strategy—stopping the auction of approximately 200,000 bitcoins previously seized by judicial authorities (such as in the "Silk Road" and Bitfinex cases), and transferring them to a newly established "Digital Asset Reserve" for permanent holding. Furthermore, the executive order instructed the Treasury and Commerce Departments to develop a "budget-neutral" strategy for increasing holdings, meaning the U.S. government has effectively transformed from the largest potential seller into a long-term holder of this asset class.

1.2 The "Lummis Project" and the Legislative Game

Senator Cynthia Lummis has reintroduced the Bitcoin Strategic Reserve Act, proposing to use Federal Reserve surplus funds to purchase 1 million Bitcoins (approximately 5% of the total supply) over five years and hold them for at least 20 years. While somewhat far-fetched and sparking heated debate in Congress, the early implementation of the executive order is at least a good start.

1.3 Domino Effect at the State Level

The federal government's shift in attitude has sparked a "digital arms race" among the states. As of December 2025, 16 states have either put related legislation on their agendas or entered the discussion stage.

• Texas: First to make a $5 million "exploratory" purchase through the Comptroller General's office.
• New Hampshire: The passage of HB 302, authorizing the state treasury to invest its reserves in digital assets, marks a significant breakthrough in the state government's approach to financial management.

2. The End of Regulation: The GENIUS Act and the "Dollarization" of Stablecoins, the Arrival of MiCA

The GENIUS Act, signed into law on July 18, 2025, is a concrete manifestation of the extension of the US dollar. This act marks the formal inclusion of stablecoins into the federal banking regulatory system, ending the era of the "wild west," spearheaded by USDT.

2.1 Ending the regulatory vacuum

The GENIUS Act essentially established a unified regulatory framework at the federal level:

The 100% reserve requirement mandates that issuers hold 100% of their assets in "high-quality liquid assets" (cash and short-term U.S. Treasury securities) as reserves, directly excluding commercial paper and improving credit quality.

The end of algorithmic stablecoins: This effectively bans the issuance of algorithmic stablecoins that cannot be backed by 1:1 physical assets.

2.2 The full entry of the banking system

The bill allows banks and their subsidiaries to issue stablecoins, sparking a frenzy of investment on Wall Street.

Visa's strategic move: Visa quickly announced the launch of USDC settlement services based on the Solana blockchain in the United States, leveraging the legal certainty provided by the legislation to massively integrate stablecoin settlements.

JPMorgan's on-chain fund: launched the Ethereum-based tokenized money market fund (MONY) as a preview of banks exploring compliant stablecoin issuance.

2.3 Europe's MiCA has finally arrived.

The EU's Crypto-Asset Market Regulation (MiCA) was fully implemented in early 2025, becoming the world's first comprehensive regulatory framework covering 27 countries with unified standards. It eliminated regulatory fragmentation within the region through a "passport" system, forcing non-compliant stablecoins out of the European market and establishing a new benchmark for global compliant operations.

3. The President's Token: The Rise of Trump and World Liberty Financial (WLFI)

On January 17, just three days before Trump was sworn in as President of the United States, Trump launched his own memecoin, $TRUMP. Regardless of how much the Trump family profited from it, this move not only exacerbated the already precarious liquidity of the Solana meme but also directly ignited the "celebrity coin" effect. A private dinner in April further propelled this farce to its climax.

This isn't the end. World Liberty Financial (WLFI) is another powerful weapon from the Trump family. Bearing the "presidential halo," it's not just a DeFi protocol, but a symbol of the deep ties between Trump's political brand and crypto capital.

Led by the Trump family, WLFI aims to "democratize finance." After multiple rounds of financing, and even setting up a corresponding DAT before its listing, WLFI officially went public on September 1, 2025.

At its opening, FDV surged to over $30 billion, but subsequently plummeted. Beyond the public outrage sparked by the price crash, the project generated considerable controversy, particularly regarding allegations that foreign capital (such as Justin Sun and Aqua 1) might be using token purchases for disguised political donations. Some argue that WLFI's emergence marks a complete destigmatization of cryptocurrency and introduced millions of MAGA supporters to DeFi wallets for the first time; others believe it makes the supposedly decentralized crypto industry more "centralized," causing the entire market to regress.

4. Institutional Explosion: The approval of Solana and XRP ETFs, and the proliferation of clone DATs.

2025 was a year of remarkable performance for altcoins, but also a year of widespread adoption of altcoin ETFs. With the SEC adopting more pragmatic "general listing standards," Solana and Ripple finally crossed the regulatory hurdle. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) passed new standard listing rules, shortening the approval window for crypto ETFs from 240-270 days to just 75 days. This institutional change directly ushered in the "altcoin ETF era," with spot ETFs of assets such as Solana, XRP, and Litecoin subsequently receiving rapid approval, marking the institutional leap of crypto assets from single-asset products to diversified investment portfolios.

4.1 Solana ETF: Establishing the "Third Pole"

The application for the Solana ETF saw a glimmer of hope in the second half of 2025, with the market anticipating a very high probability of approval. This became the core driver of SOL's strong price performance in 2025, as institutional investors began to view it as the only "investment-grade" public blockchain asset besides BTC and ETH.

4.2 Ripple ETF: From "Securities" to "Commodities"

With the dust settling on the Ripple vs. SEC lawsuit, the listing of the XRP ETF became the biggest turnaround of 2025. The REX-Osprey XRP ETF (XRPR) went public on September 18. This symbolized a regulatory "amnesty" for legacy issues, pushing the price of XRP above $2 and signaling to the market that it could enter the mainstream system after compliance rectification.

4.3 The Frenzy of Counterfeit DATs

Strategy's frenzy in the first half of the year showed the market another possibility, leading to a surge of imitators. From well-known coins like ETH, HYPE, BNB, and AVAX to smaller-cap altcoins, everyone is eager to jump on the bandwagon. However, their motives differ; some aim to attract larger capital inflows, while others simply seek marketing publicity. In today's market where NAV < 1, will this trigger a reckoning? Undoubtedly, this has caught the radar of traditional capital and unprecedentedly established the normalization of "crypto-stock linkage."

This gives tokens and their extensions such as DeFi, NFT, VE, staking, and buyback more possibilities.

5. Rapid Evolution of Infrastructure: Upgrades to Firecanver, Pectra, and Fusaka

5.1 Solana Firedancer

In December 2025, the Firedancer verification client developed by Jump Crypto was launched on the Solana mainnet. This was the first verification node software rewritten in C++ by a third party, achieving a TPS exceeding 1 million in the test environment. It brought crucial client diversity to Solana, eliminated the risk of single points of failure, and laid the foundation for giants like Visa to join.

5.2 Ethereum Pectra and Fusaka Upgrades

The Pectra upgrade, implemented in May 2025, significantly improved the usability of Ethereum.

• Staking threshold optimization: The maximum effective staking balance for validators has been increased to 2048 ETH, reducing the operating costs for large institutions.
• Account abstraction: The introduction of the "programmable wallet" function allows ordinary accounts to have smart contract functions, which greatly reduces the user entry barrier.

The Fusaka initiative, scheduled for December 2025, primarily aims to "fix" the value capture chain between L1 and L2; in other words, L2 will have to "pay tribute" to L1. EIP-7918 introduces a "floor price" mechanism—a price increase. It stipulates that the base fee for Blobs will no longer be allowed to fall indefinitely to 1 wei. Instead, the minimum price of Blobs will be pegged to the L1 execution layer gas price. If implemented as planned, this will generate significant revenue for ETH.

6. Maturation of Corporate Equity: Circle, Kraken, and HashKey IPOs

In 2025, the performance of crypto companies in the capital market proved the maturity of the industry, forming a three-pronged listing pattern in the United States, Hong Kong and South Korea.

6.1 Circle IPO: The First Stablecoin to Go Public

USDC issuer Circle successfully IPO'd on the NYSE on June 5, 2025, under the ticker symbol CRCL. It raised over $1 billion, valuing the company at approximately $8 billion. Its success demonstrates Wall Street's recognition of the long-term value of stablecoins as payment networks, marking the most significant industry IPO since Coinbase. (This article skips Bullish.)

6.2 Kraken: Valuation Repair and Transformation

While Kraken did not complete its IPO in 2025, it raised $800 million in pre-IPO funding, valuing the company at $20 billion. Following a settlement with the SEC, Kraken successfully transformed into a full-fledged institutional brokerage and plans to go public in 2026, challenging Coinbase's dominance.

6.3 HashKey Group IPO: Hong Kong's First Compliant Stock

In the East, HashKey Group officially listed on the Main Board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEX) on December 17, 2025. HashKey raised approximately HK$1.67 billion (approximately US$215 million) in this IPO, reaching a market capitalization of approximately US$2.5 billion.

Milestone Significance: This marks the first listed licensed cryptocurrency exchange group in Hong Kong and even Asia. HashKey's successful listing validates the effectiveness of Hong Kong's "Digital Asset Centre" policy and pioneers financing for Asian cryptocurrency companies in the local capital market.

6.4 Bithumb seeks US IPO; Upbit fully acquired by Naver.

The South Korean crypto market has also seen its own exit from the market, with the top two exchanges announcing their IPO plans this year.

7. The Revolution at the Settlement Layer: The Emergence of Visa, USDC, and RWA

In 2025, RWA tokenization and on-chain payment settlement will enter a stage of large-scale implementation.

7.1 Visa selects Solana

In December 2025, Visa announced the official launch of USDC settlement services based on the Solana blockchain in the United States. This move signifies Visa's recognition of the capabilities of high-performance public blockchains as a global clearing layer, integrating blockchain into the core global payment network.

7.2 Scaling up Tokenized US Treasury Bonds

Tokenized US Treasury bonds (such as the BUIDL fund), driven by giants like BlackRock, saw explosive growth in 2025 and gradually became collateral for DeFi protocols. This bridged the gap between TradeFi interest rates and the DeFi market, significantly improving capital efficiency.

8. A wake-up call for security: The $1.5 billion Bybit hack

On February 21, 2025, the Bybit exchange suffered the largest hack in its history, losing up to $1.5 billion worth of ETH.

Lazarus Group compromised the computer of a developer at multisignature service provider Safe, injecting malicious code that altered the front-end UI. The Bybit team unknowingly signed transactions that transferred funds to the hackers.

This incident shocked the entire industry, propelled the shift from single multi-signature to MPC and hardware-level strategy engines, and became a significant catalyst for the US to push for anti-money laundering provisions in the GENIUS Act.

This hacking incident also revealed to the industry the invisible hand between exchange "alliances," and the apparent competition was just a misunderstanding.

9. The extremes of market cycles: the "10/11 event" and the massive leverage cleanup

The market in 2025 experienced a rollercoaster ride from extreme frenzy to brutal market shakeout, with the "October 11th Incident" becoming a watershed moment for the year's market performance.

Driven by the Trump victory and the building of strategic reserves, Bitcoin hit an all-time high of approximately $126,000 on October 6. However, the market subsequently experienced a sharp reversal.

October 11th became the most terrifying day in the secondary market in 2025. On this day, BTC and ETH retraced by 10%, some altcoins almost fell to zero, the overall market was in complete chaos, the entire market was bloodbathed, and Binance even made the world's largest payout in this regard.

With "smart money" being wiped out, frequent reports of market makers collapsing, and only a tiny amount of buy orders remaining on the order book, panic spread rapidly. In the following days, a chain reaction of liquidations totaling approximately $150 billion erupted across the network, and the price of Bitcoin quickly retreated to the $85,000 range. The "10.11 incident" is considered the starting point of a "cooling-off period" for the second half of the 2025 bull market; it cleansed out speculative capital that relied excessively on leverage, and the situation was extremely dire.

10. The Amnesty of the Century: Ross Ulbricht and the Return of CZ

In 2025, the crypto industry witnessed a turning point in the lives of two iconic figures, which was seen as a symbol of a kind of "reconciliation" between the US government and crypto fundamentalism and the early days of exchanges.

10.1 Ross Ulbricht granted amnesty

On January 21, 2025, President Trump signed a pardon the day after his inauguration, announcing the unconditional release of Ross Ulbricht, the founder of Silk Road. Ross Ulbricht had been sentenced to double life imprisonment for creating the darknet marketplace Silk Road and had already served 12 years. In the eyes of the crypto community, he was considered a martyr of libertarianism.

This amnesty fulfilled Trump's campaign promise and was seen as a huge victory by libertarians and early Bitcoin adopters, symbolizing that the government no longer views code writers as "drug lords" but rather acknowledges the historical limitations and contributions of early internet explorers.

10.2 CZ's Liberation

In October 2025, CZ also received his pardon. CZ's return (although he may no longer serve as CEO) and Ross's freedom mark the complete end of the "wild west" era in the crypto industry.

These two amnesties are not merely changes in individual fates, but also suggest that under the new geopolitical and capital landscape, former "outlaws" can be reintegrated into "mainstream" society through the manipulation of capital, public opinion, and politics.

Conclusion: From Speculation to Foundation

Looking back at 2025, from Bitcoin becoming a (prospective) national reserve, to the listing of HashKey and Circle, and the amnesty of Ross and CZ, all events point in the same direction: the full institutionalization of crypto assets.

Former rebels have been co-opted, and former marginalized assets have become national wealth. 2025 is not the end of the cycle, but the beginning of "crypto realism." In this new era, code remains law, but law has finally learned how to coexist with and even utilize code.

postscript

If there's anything that can truly excite people, it's probably...

11. The trend of "Bitcoinization" of global corporate balance sheets is established.

By the end of 2025, over 200 listed companies and funds held approximately 5.1% of the total Bitcoin supply. Besides MicroStrategy (holding over 670,000 Bitcoins), "Digital Asset Finance (DAT)" companies, including several fintech firms, have attracted a cumulative inflow of $92 billion. Bitcoin has evolved from a solitary gamble by individual companies into a standardized allocation tool for enterprises to hedge against inflation and optimize capital structure.