Crypto’s massive year, in numbers
There’s never a dull year on the blockchain. As 2025 comes to a close, we’re tallying up the numbers that shaped the news this year:
Bitcoin crossed $126K for a new all-time high. Crypto’s total market cap also hit a new high-water mark.
Landmark crypto legislation helped stablecoins set new records. Regulatory clarity took a major leap this year.
Public companies added unprecedented amounts of crypto to balance sheets. Strategy held onto the number-one spot for largest corporate BTC holder.
YEAR IN REVIEW
The good, the bad, the surprising: 25 numbers that sum up crypto’s fascinating 2025
As we say every week, there’s never a dull moment on the blockchain!
This year we celebrated new all-time highs for bitcoin and the broader crypto market; the launch of a slew of new altcoin and staking ETFs; the rise of crypto treasury firms; and the passage of a landmark crypto law (which helped make stablecoins one of the year’s biggest storylines).
That said, the news wasn’t all great: 2025 also included headlines like the biggest liquidation event in crypto history, which helped make Q4 rockier than we’d all like.
But even if markets are down from their peak, they remain sky-high by historic standards, and there’s plenty of reasons to be optimistic about 2026. So happy HODL-days to you and yours. We’ll see you in the new year!
$1 trillion
Amount of perpetual futures (also known as perps) traded on decentralized exchanges in the month of September alone.
Perps allow traders to speculate on the price movements of assets — like bitcoin, ether, or other cryptocurrencies — without needing to buy the underlying assets. Many perps traders also use leverage of 10x or more, which can amplify potential gains or losses. As of September, perps accounted for nearly 70% of all of bitcoin’s trading volume in 2025.
$613 billion
Record decentralized exchange volumes set in October, led by Uniswap, which processed $170 billion.
In November, UNI surged nearly 50% after a new governance proposal to reduce the token supply using onchain revenue. If approved, the “UNIfication” initiative by key developers would “flip the fee switch” to continuously “burn” UNI tokens.
$310 billion
Total size of the stablecoin market as of Dec. 22, near all-time highs according to data from DeFiLlama.
Stablecoins became one of the key crypto storylines in 2025, following the passage of the GENIUS Act in the U.S., which creates a clear regulatory framework for tokens like the dollar-denominated USDC. And according to a Bloomberg estimate, stablecoins could handle $50 trillion of global payments by 2030.
$68.3 billion
The value of BlackRock’s flagship spot bitcoin ETF (which trades under IBIT) as of Dec. 22.
While down from its peak assets-under-management in the fall, IBIT is still one of the most successful ETFs of all time and became the fastest-ever fund to reach the $100 billion AUM mark in October. It also has reportedly become BlackRock’s most profitable product.
$47.2 billion
The total market capitalization for memecoins as of November, down from $150 billion at the end of 2024.
“Growth in 2024 was fueled by easy liquidity, viral platforms such as Solana-based token factories like Pump.fun, and politically charged narratives around the U.S. election cycle that created a vibrant, if occasionally divisive, conversation,” notes CoinDesk. Currently, Dogecoin maintains the lead as the largest meme token with a nearly $18 billion valuation.
$45 billion
Value of BTC sold by long-term holders over a 30-day period ending in early November.
The combination of long-term holders selling for profit and a market shaken by a record $19 billion crypto liquidation in October saw BTC whipsaw from all-time highs above $126,000 to below $90,000 by late December.
$42 billion
The all-time-high total value locked (TVL) in Lido Finance’s liquid staking protocol as ETH surged in August.
While Lido’s TVL has since dropped back below $30 billion, it still ranks as the second-largest DeFi protocol. Earlier this year, liquid staking gained regulatory clarity as the SEC stated that certain “Liquid Staking Activities… do not involve the offer and sale of securities.” Shortly after, in October, finance firm VanEck filed to create the first Lido Staked Ether ETF.
$19 billion
Value of leveraged positions that were liquidated in a historic 24-hour crash on Oct. 10.
“The flash crash in token prices caused collateral values to plummet momentarily, triggering massive liquidation cascades,” Marcin Kazmierczak, co-founder of crypto oracle provider RedStone, told Decrypt. “Roughly 1.6 million traders saw their positions evaporate.”
$12.1 billion
The approximate value of ETH held by BitMine, a publicly traded “Ethereum treasury firm” that has committed to buying and staking 5% of ETH’s total supply.
The firm was inspired by the BTC-holding behemoth Strategy. Strategy and BitMine currently hold more than 3% of the respective BTC and ETH supply in circulation, and BitMine has acquired all of its ETH since June.
$11 billion
The valuation of Kalshi, a leading prediction market, as of December.
The crypto-forward exchange recently launched onchain event contracts on Solana. In addition, Coinbase recently announced in-app prediction markets powered by Kalshi as a key part of its new “everything exchange” roadmap.
$4 billion
Value of crypto tokens backed by physical gold (as of Dec. 16), as investors hedge against macroeconomic uncertainty.
PAX Gold, a gold-backed token issued on Ethereum, is currently near all-time highs amid “increasing appetite for tokenized precious metals exposure,” according to The Block.
$1 billion
Total value of the five newly launched spot XRP ETFs as of Dec. 16.
Despite year-end crypto market volatility, the funds achieved thirty consecutive days of net inflows. After a recent wave of regulatory approvals, five spot XRP ETFs are currently trading in the U.S. (issued by Franklin Templeton, Bitwise, Grayscale, 21Shares, and Canary).
$832 million
Amount of Solana held by publicly-traded company Forward Industries — the largest Solana treasury firm by far.
The company has also begun tokenizing its stock on Solana itself. According to the firm, the move “marks the first time regulated public equity can be used as collateral within a live DeFi market.” According to The Block, Forward Industries holds more SOL in its corporate reserve than the next three largest competitors combined.
$12 billion
The approximate amount of venture capital funding raised by crypto startups through the end of Q3 of 2025.
While crypto venture activity is still below its 2021-22 peaks, this year is on track to outpace 2023 and 2024 in venture capital invested. Companies in the trading, exchange, and lending sector have attracted the most attention; startups in the payments, rewards, and banking sectors have seen rising activity; and companies related to NFTs, metaverse, and gaming have seen declining activity.
$443 million
Value of Harvard University’s Bitcoin ETF investment, according to its filing at the end of Q3.
That means BTC is one of the university’s five largest investment positions. This year, Emory University also reported holding nearly $42 million worth of various BTC ETFs.
$1 million
Size of the Czech National Bank’s “test portfolio” of digital assets, which became the world’s first crypto reserve built by a central bank in November.
This year saw major advances toward bitcoin being used as a reserve asset at national, state, and monetary levels. The U.S. signed an executive order to create a national BTC reserve, multiple states passed reserve bills, and Deutsche Bank predicted that global central banks will hold bitcoin as a key asset by 2030.
671,268 BTC
Total amount of bitcoin held by Strategy, worth roughly $60 billion as of Dec. 22.
The Michael Saylor-founded firm is the largest corporate holder of bitcoin by far, and pioneered the “crypto treasury” strategy that became a dominant crypto narrative in 2025.
$126,210.50
Bitcoin’s latest all-time high, which was tallied on Oct. 6.
That same week, ETH came close to a new all-time high of its own, approaching $4,800; a wide range of major altcoins saw double-digit weekly gains; and crypto’s total market cap surged to around $4.3 trillion.
2,695%
The percentage growth that the market for tokenized “real-world assets” (such as stocks, bonds, and commodities) saw in 2025.
Tokenization is widely seen as the next frontier for crypto adoption, with major institutions including BlackRock, JPMorgan, Franklin Templeton, and Fidelity all offering onchain tokenization products. Most recently, JPMorgan launched and seeded its first tokenized money market on Ethereum with $100 million this month.
1,000%
Percent gain that privacy token Zcash saw from the start of the year to its mid-November peak, making it the best-performing cryptocurrency at the time. (It later dropped from a high of roughly $741 back down below $400.)
Amid the rally, a new publicly-traded firm called Cypherpunk Technologies launched a nearly $150 million Zcash treasury. In addition, crypto asset manager Grayscale applied to create the first ZEC ETF in November.
60%
The percent of institutional investors planning to double their exposure to digital assets over the next three years, according to an October report from banking giant State Street.
“By 2030, a majority of respondents expect between 10% and 24% of their total portfolios to be tokenized,” the report said.
45%
Percent of Gen Z and Millennials who say they currently own crypto, according to Coinbase’s Q4 State of Crypto report.
The report surveyed 4,350 U.S. adults about the role crypto plays in their market strategies and found that younger investors “are more likely to see crypto as a core part of their financial future than any generation before them.”
17
Number of years ago, as of Oct. 31, that Satoshi Nakamoto’s original Bitcoin whitepaper was published.
The unassuming document began bitcoin’s journey from an experiment in decentralized online money to an asset worth around $2 trillion.
8
Number of digital currencies (including BTC, ETH, SOL, XRP, DOGE, LITE, HBAR, and LINK) that now have spot exchange-traded funds.
Following the breakout success of BTC ETFs in 2024, the crypto fund sector has grown to roughly $180 billion in total assets.
3
The number of U.S. states that passed legislation to create crypto reserves.
While Arizona and New Hampshire both have crypto-reserve laws in place, so far only Texas has actually funded its “Strategic Bitcoin Reserve.” The state treasury purchased $5 million of BTC in November, with plans to purchase $5 million more.
TOKEN TRIVIA
When is the next BTC halving expected?
A
2026
B
2027
C
2028
D
2029
Find the answer below.
Trivia Answer
C
2028
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