From grassroots to the halls of power, a review of milestone events that define the 2025 crypto market landscape

2025 is destined to leave a significant mark in the history of global finance, known as the “Sovereign Integration Year” for the crypto asset industry. If 2024 was the “Wall Street moment” brought by Bitcoin ETFs, then 2025 marks the transition of digital assets from mere financial speculation tools to strategic geopolitical chips and national-level reserve assets. The core driver of this shift stems from a dramatic policy shift by the US administration—after Trump took office, through the historic establishment of the “Bitcoin Strategic Reserve,” fundamentally rewriting the underlying logic of global monetary games.

This year, a series of watershed regulatory events occurred: the signing of the GENIUS Act granted stablecoins a legitimate dollar status; the World Liberty Financial (WLFI) project, directly involving the Trump family, broke the boundaries between politics and DeFi; and the pardons of Ross Ulbricht and CZ marked the resolution of conflicts from the “Wild West era” of cryptocurrencies and the beginning of a new order.

This article will review 10 milestone events in the crypto industry in 2025 that I personally believe are of landmark significance.

These events constitute the “irreversible points” in the industry’s development in 2025—decisive moments that have thoroughly changed market structure, regulatory environment, or technological paradigms.

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

The most grand and far-reaching event of 2025 is undoubtedly the formal establishment of the “Bitcoin Strategic Reserve” by the US government. This policy not only fulfills President Trump’s campaign promise to make the US the global crypto capital but also fundamentally reverses the previous years of US restrictive policies on crypto assets, elevating them to a strategic national resource on par with gold and oil.

1.1 Policy Origins and Implementation Mechanism

President Trump signed an executive order at the start of his term, and on March 6, officially signed the directive to establish the reserve. The core logic of this directive is to recognize Bitcoin’s potential role as “digital gold” in the future global financial system.

On the operational level, authorities adopted a “confiscation-as-reserve” strategy—ceasing auctions of approximately 200,000 BTC previously seized in judicial cases (such as Silk Road, Bitfinex), transferring them into a newly established “Digital Asset Reserve” for permanent holding. Additionally, the executive order instructs the Treasury and Commerce Departments to develop a “budget-neutral” accumulation strategy, meaning the US government effectively shifted from being the largest potential seller to a long-term holder of this asset class.

1.2 “Lummis Plan” and Legislative Battles

Senator Cynthia Lummis reintroduced the “Bitcoin Strategic Reserve Act,” proposing to use Federal Reserve surplus funds within five years to purchase 1 million BTC (about 5% of the total supply), holding for at least 20 years. Although somewhat idealistic and sparking fierce debate in Congress, the prior implementation of the executive order at least set a positive precedent.

1.3 State-Level Domino Effect

The federal government’s attitude shift triggered a “digital arms race” among states. By December 2025, 16 states had put related legislation on the agenda or entered discussion stages.

• Texas: Led the way with a $5 million “pilot” purchase through the Office of the Comptroller.
• New Hampshire: Passed HB 302, authorizing the state treasury to invest reserve funds in digital assets, marking a major breakthrough in state financial management concepts.

2. The Endgame of Regulation: GENIUS Act and the “Dollarization” of Stablecoins, Arrival of MiCA

The GENIUS Act, signed into law on July 18, 2025, is a tangible extension of the US dollar. It signifies the formal inclusion of stablecoins into the federal banking regulatory system, ending the “wild wild west” era led by USDT.

2.1 Ending Regulatory Vacuum

The GENIUS Act essentially establishes a unified federal regulatory framework:

100% reserve requirement: Forcing issuers to hold 100% of “high-quality liquid assets” (cash, short-term US Treasuries) as reserves, explicitly excluding commercial paper, thereby improving credit quality.

End of algorithmic stablecoins: Effectively prohibiting the issuance of algorithmic stablecoins that cannot be backed 1:1 with real assets.

2.2 Full Entry of Banking System

The law permits banks and their subsidiaries to issue stablecoins, sparking a wave of Wall Street participation.

Visa’s strategic move: Visa quickly announced the launch of USDC settlement services on the Solana blockchain in the US, leveraging the legal certainty provided by the law to massively integrate stablecoin settlements.

JPMorgan’s on-chain fund: Launched a tokenized money market fund (MONY) based on Ethereum, serving as a prelude to the bank’s exploration of compliant stablecoin issuance.

2.3 Europe’s MiCA Finally Arrives

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

3. Presidential Tokens: The Rise of TRUMP and World Liberty Financial (WLFI)

On January 17, just three days before Trump’s inauguration as US President, Trump released his memecoin $TRUMP . Regardless of how much profit the Trump family might have gained, this act not only plunged the already fragile Solana meme liquidity into turmoil but also directly ignited the “celebrity coin” effect. The private dinner in April further pushed this farce to its peak.

It’s not over yet—World Liberty Financial (WLFI) is another major weapon of the Trump family. Under the “presidential halo,” it is not only a DeFi protocol but also a symbol of the deep integration of Trump’s political brand with crypto capital.

Led by the Trump family, WLFI aims to “democratize finance.” After multiple rounds of funding, and even before listing, it set up a corresponding DAT. On September 1, 2025, WLFI officially went public.

At launch, FDV soared over $30 billion but then sharply declined. Besides the public outrage over the price plunge, the project sparked huge controversy, especially regarding foreign capital (such as Justin Sun and Aqua 1) potentially engaging in covert political donations through token purchases. Some believe WLFI’s emergence marks the complete de-stigmatization of cryptocurrencies and introduces millions of MAGA supporters to DeFi wallets for the first time; others argue that this approach makes the supposedly decentralized crypto industry more “centralized,” causing the entire market to regress.

4. Institutional Explosion: Approval of Solana and XRP ETFs, the Popularity of Clone DATs

2025 was a year where, despite the impressive performance of altcoins, the ETF landscape for altcoins truly blossomed. With the SEC adopting more pragmatic “general listing standards,” Solana and Ripple finally crossed the regulatory chasm. The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved new listing rules, reducing the approval window for crypto ETFs from the original 240-270 days to just 75 days. This institutional reform directly ushered in the “Altcoin ETF era,” with spot ETFs for assets like Solana, XRP, Litecoin quickly approved, marking the institutionalization of crypto assets from single assets to diversified portfolios.

4.1 Solana ETF: Establishing the “Third Pole”

The application for the Solana ETF gained momentum in the second half of 2025, with high market expectations for approval. This became the core driver for SOL’s strong performance in 2025, with institutional investors beginning to see it as the only “investment-grade” public chain asset besides BTC and ETH.

4.2 Ripple ETF: From “Security” to “Commodity”

With the resolution of the Ripple SEC lawsuit, the listing of the XRP ETF marked the biggest turnaround of 2025. The REX-Osprey XRP ETF (XRPR) was listed on September 18. This signified a “pardon” from regulators for past issues, pushing XRP’s price above $2 and signaling to the market that, after compliance rectification, it could re-enter the mainstream system.

4.3 The Carnival of Clone DATs

The frenzy of Strategy in the first half of the year showed the market another possibility, leading to a proliferation of imitators—from well-known ETH, HYPE, BNB, AVAX to smaller-cap altcoins—everyone eager to catch this wave. Their purposes vary: some seek larger capital inflows, others aim for market publicity. With nav < 1 today, will they trigger their own liquidation? But undeniably, they have entered the radar of traditional capital and unprecedentedly opened the normal operation of “coin-stock linkage.”

This has expanded the possibilities for tokens and their extensions—DeFi, NFTs, ve, staking, buyback.

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

5.1 Solana Firedancer

In December 2025, Firedancer, a validation client developed by Jump Crypto, went live on the Solana mainnet. It is the first third-party validation node software rewritten in C++, with TPS surpassing 1 million in testing. It brought critical client diversity to Solana, eliminated single points of failure, and laid the foundation for giants like Visa to enter.

5.2 Ethereum Pectra and Fusaka Upgrades

The Pectra upgrade executed in May 2025 significantly enhanced Ethereum’s usability:

• Staking threshold optimization: maximum effective validator stake increased to 2048 ETH, reducing operational costs for large institutions.
• Account abstraction: introduced “programmable wallets,” allowing ordinary accounts to have smart contract capabilities, greatly lowering user entry barriers.

The Fusaka upgrade in December 2025 mainly “fixed” the value capture chain between L1 and L2—essentially, L2 must pay tribute to L1. EIP-7918 introduced a “minimum price” mechanism—raising prices. It stipulates that the base fee for Blob no longer allows unlimited drops to 1 wei. Instead, the minimum price of Blob will be linked to the execution layer Gas price of L1. If implemented as planned, this could generate substantial revenue for ETH.

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

In 2025, the performance of crypto companies in capital markets demonstrated industry maturity, forming a three-pole listing pattern in the US, Hong Kong, and South Korea.

6.1 Circle IPO: The First Stablecoin Stock

USDC issuer Circle successfully IPOed on NYSE on June 5, 2025, under the ticker CRCL. Raised over $1 billion, valuation about $8 billion. Its success proved Wall Street’s recognition of “stablecoins as payment networks,” the most important industry IPO since Coinbase. (This article skips bullishness)

6.2 Kraken: Valuation Recovery and Transformation

Although Kraken did not complete an IPO in 2025, it completed $800 million pre-IPO financing, with a valuation of $20 billion. After settling with the SEC, Kraken successfully transformed into a full-fledged institutional broker, planning to go public in 2026, challenging Coinbase’s position.

6.3 HashKey Group IPO: Hong Kong’s First Licensed Crypto Asset Exchange Group

In the East, HashKey Group officially listed on the Main Board of HKEX on December 17, 2025. The IPO raised about HKD 1.67 billion (around $215 million), with a market cap of about $2.5 billion.

Milestone: the first licensed crypto asset exchange group listed in Hong Kong and Asia. HashKey’s successful IPO validated Hong Kong’s “Digital Asset Center” policy, pioneering local capital market financing for Asian crypto enterprises.

6.4 Bithumb Seeks US IPO; Upbit Fully Acquired by Naver

South Korea’s crypto market also entered its own exit moment, with TOP2 exchanges announcing plans to go public this year.

7. The Revolution in Settlement Layer: Visa, USDC, and RWA Explosion

In 2025, tokenization of RWA and on-chain payment settlement entered large-scale implementation.

7.1 Visa Chooses Solana

In December 2025, Visa announced the launch of USDC settlement service on the Solana blockchain in the US. This move signifies Visa’s recognition of high-performance public chains as a global clearing layer, integrating blockchain into the core global payment network.

7.2 Mass Tokenization of US Treasuries

Tokenized US Treasuries driven by giants like BlackRock (e.g., BUIDL fund) exploded in 2025, gradually becoming collateral for DeFi protocols. This bridges traditional finance interest rates with DeFi markets, greatly improving capital efficiency.

8. Security Alarm: Bybit $1.5 Billion Hack

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

Lazarus Group infiltrated a developer’s computer at multi-signature service provider Safe, planting malicious code that tampered with the front-end UI. The Bybit team unknowingly signed transactions transferring funds to hackers.

The incident shocked the entire industry, prompting a shift from single multi-signature to MPC and hardware-level strategic engines, and becoming an important catalyst for the US’s anti-money laundering clauses in the GENIUS Act.

This hack also revealed the invisible hand among exchanges’ “alliances,” where surface-level competition was just a misunderstanding.

9. Market Cycle Extremes: “10.11 Event” and Leverage Cleanup

The 2025 market experienced a rollercoaster from extreme enthusiasm to brutal liquidation, with the “10.11 Event” marking a watershed.

Driven by Trump’s election effect and the establishment of strategic reserves, Bitcoin hit a record high of about $126,000 on October 6. But the market then sharply reversed.

October 11 became the most terrifying day in 2025’s secondary market. BTC and ETH retraced 10%, some altcoins nearly dropped to zero, the entire market was bloodbath, and Binance paid the largest compensation in history.

With “smart money” buried, market makers “exploding” with rumors, and order books with only tiny bids, panic spread rapidly. In the following days, about $150 billion in liquidations occurred, with Bitcoin’s price quickly retreating to around $85,000. The “10.11 Event” is seen as the “cooling-off period” for the second half of the 2025 bull market, cleansing over-leveraged speculative capital, with a very brutal scene.

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

In 2025, the crypto industry witnessed the fate turn of two iconic figures, symbolizing a certain “reconciliation” between the US government and crypto fundamentalists and early exchanges.

10.1 Ross Ulbricht Pardoned

On January 21, 2025, President Trump signed a pardon on his second day in office, unconditionally releasing Ross Ulbricht, the founder of Silk Road. Ulbricht, sentenced to double life imprisonment for creating the dark web marketplace Silk Road, had served 12 years. In the crypto community, he is regarded as a martyr of libertarianism.

This pardon 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 recognizes the limitations and contributions of early internet explorers.

10.2 CZ’s Liberation

In October 2025, CZ also received his pardon. His return (though possibly no longer as CEO) and Ross’s freedom marked the complete end of the “Wild West” era of crypto.

These pardons are not just personal fates changing but also imply that under new geopolitical and capital landscapes, former “outlaws” can be re-accepted by “mainstream” society through capital, public opinion, and political operations.

Conclusion: From Speculation to Foundation

Looking back at 2025, from Bitcoin becoming (preparatory) national reserves, to HashKey and Circle going public, to Ross and CZ’s pardons, all events point in the same direction: the full institutionalization of crypto assets.

Former rebels are now pacified, and marginal 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 leverage code.

Postscript

If there is anything that excites people, it is probably

11. The “Bitcoinization” Trend of Corporate Balance Sheets Is Established

By the end of 2025, over 200 listed companies and funds hold about 5.1% of the total Bitcoin supply. Besides MicroStrategy (holding over 670,000 BTC), many “Digital Asset Finance” (DAT) companies, including several fintech firms, have attracted a total capital inflow of $92 billion. Bitcoin has evolved from a gamble by individual companies to a standard tool for enterprises to hedge inflation and optimize capital structure.