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After the new high, the coin slid into a drawn-out, five-month correction, bottoming near $74,500 in early April; it never dropped below that level.<\/p>\n
The main cause of the stall was likely a \u201cstop sign\u201d from the Fed<\/span> on rate cuts. At its first meeting of 2025 the central bank halted<\/a> the easing cycle, leaving its policy rate unchanged at 4.25\u20134.5%.<\/p>\n Though nearly every Fed meeting injected volatility, the rate stayed put until late July.<\/p>\n Fed chair Jerome Powell justified the hawkish stance by citing elevated inflation, unemployment and other weak micro data. Fuel was added by Mr Trump\u2019s first big international move of his second term\u2014tariffs<\/a> on a host of countries.<\/p>\n Even at December\u2019s final meeting, the Fed cited tariffs as a prime cause of America\u2019s economic stagnation.<\/p>\n The \u201ctariff war\u201d weighed on crypto too: each announcement of new countermeasures by Mr Trump triggered corrections.<\/p>\n Despite the headwinds, in April bitcoin returned to a six\u2011figure price and in May set<\/a> a new ATH at $112,000. Throughout the year the asset was underpinned by institutions and inflows into ETF<\/a>s.<\/p>\n Cumulative net inflows into US spot vehicles since their January 2024 launch reached $56.6bn. All told, the funds absorbed 6.49% of supply.<\/p>\n BlackRock\u2019s IBIT remains the segment\u2019s unchallenged leader, with $67bn under management.<\/p>\n Although there were more negative months for ETFs than in 2024, institutions and corporates showed steady interest in digital gold.<\/p>\n Summer brought another rally, as hopes of US monetary easing built. On 10 July the coin broke through<\/a> $113,000; days later it reached<\/a> $123,000. In parallel, total crypto market capitalisation surpassed<\/a> $4trn for the first time.<\/p>\n According to CoinGecko<\/a>, the peak was $4.3trn, before a retreat to around $3.05trn by year-end.<\/p>\n In August, digital gold set another ATH above $124,000.<\/p>\n Through the summer the Fed held rates at 4.25\u20134.5%, but on 17 September it voted<\/a> to cut by 25bp. That bolstered bitcoin\u2019s price, then languishing near $110,000.<\/p>\n The Fed\u2019s turn opened the way to the year\u2019s final record. On 6 October the coin hit a new high above $126,000<\/a>. Although the US government shutdown<\/a> that began in late September initially buoyed crypto, \u201cblood-red\u201d days followed the ATH.<\/p>\n 11 October entered lore as \u201cblack\u201d Saturday<\/a>. Bitcoin fell below $111,000, printing a $20,000 daily candle for the first time. Liquidations topped $19bn, the most ever. A fresh round of US tariffs on China sparked the sell-off.<\/p>\n By November, the price slipped below<\/a> the psychologically important $100,000 level.<\/p>\n The crypto fear and greed index<\/a> then fell into \u201cextreme fear\u201d for the second time that year\u2014the first came after Mr Trump\u2019s tariffs in February. The gauge remains near its lows.<\/p>\n Despite the continued easing<\/a> by the Fed and the end of the 43\u2011day shutdown<\/a>, bitcoin failed to recapture $100,000. It ended the year near $87,000.<\/p>\n Most other digital assets shadowed the bellwether, though few leading coins set ATHs.<\/p>\n Ethereum\u2019s price stalled around $3,000, losing 12% over 12 months. In August the asset set a marginal record at $4,956\u2014just a few dollars above the previous $4,889 (on Binance).<\/p>\n In early January Solana set its ATH at $293; it now trades near $120.<\/p>\n XRP tested a $3.5 peak in July; BNB hit a record $1,369 in October.<\/p>\n By late 2025 talk of a bear market<\/a> grew. Some analysts even mooted<\/a> a slide below $10,000 in 2026; others forecast<\/a> the rally would resume as institutional support strengthens.<\/p>\n Most market participants agreed the four\u2011year, halving-based bitcoin cycles have run their course<\/a>. A steadier, if less explosive, ascent now awaits.<\/p>\n If 2025\u2019s price action can be debated, its regulatory progress cannot. Much of the good news came from the US, but other countries tried to keep up.<\/p>\n First, Mr Trump partially dispelled doubts that he would renege on crypto promises. On 6 March the US president signed<\/a> an executive order establishing a national bitcoin reserve (SBR).<\/p>\n The order provides for holding assets confiscated by the Treasury in criminal and civil cases. Sales from the new fund are prohibited; the hoard will serve as a long-term store of national assets.<\/p>\n The order also creates a separate altcoin treasury, populated solely from seizures. Those assets may be sold in exceptional cases if the Treasury deems it necessary.<\/p>\n State-level \u201ccrypto reserve\u201d laws were also adopted in New Hampshire<\/a>, Arizona<\/a> and Texas<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n According to BitcoinTreasuries<\/a>, the US government holds 328,372 BTC worth $28.77bn.<\/p>\n America\u2019s move spurred others to follow. Governments that said they were weighing some form of crypto reserve included:<\/p>\n Another US milestone came in July, when Mr Trump signed the GENIUS Act<\/a>, setting rules for stablecoins and marking the country\u2019s first consequential crypto statute.<\/p>\n Lawmakers passed three significant digital-asset bills in all, including the CLARITY Act and the Anti-CBDC<\/a> Act.<\/p>\n The GENIUS Act requires full backing of \u201cstablecoins\u201d with liquid assets and annual audits for issuers with market caps above $50bn. It bars the payment of interest or other income to stablecoin holders and sets guiding rules for foreign firms in the segment.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cGENIUS Act creates a clear and simple regulatory framework to build and unlock the enormous potential of dollar-backed stablecoins,\u201d said Trump at the signing ceremony.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Under the law, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission launched<\/a> a pilot to use digital assets as collateral in derivatives markets.<\/p>\n In parallel, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation published<\/a> the first draft rules governing how banks apply to issue stablecoins. The proposal covers depository institutions that want to set up issuing subsidiaries.<\/p>\n By enacting the GENIUS Act, the world\u2019s biggest economy effectively opened the door to the legal use of dollar stablecoins. Banks and other firms can now issue and use them \u201cin the clear\u201d, a shift that should add momentum to the industry.<\/p>\n On 21 February the crypto world watched one venue\u2014Bybit. The exchange suffered<\/a> a breach of nearly $1.5bn, later labelled the largest on record.<\/p>\n On-chain sleuth ZachXBT was among the first to flag a suspicious outflow from Bybit\u2014499,395 ETH.<\/p>\n CEO Ben Zhou soon confirmed the breach. Staff said the incident occurred while moving ETH from cold multisig<\/a> storage to a hot wallet.<\/p>\n Attackers replaced the signing interface so all participants saw the \u201cright\u201d address. In reality, the hackers gained control of the Ethereum wallet and drained it by altering a smart contract\u2019s logic.<\/p>\n Mr Zhou said the platform remained fully solvent. Bybit continued to process withdrawals, albeit with delays. He also asked partners for ETH credit lines to shore up liquidity during the crisis; more than ten firms obliged.<\/p>\n The next day researchers at Arkham Intelligence reported<\/a> the involvement of North Korea\u2019s Lazarus Group. The FBI confirmed<\/a> it.\u00a0<\/p>\n The thieves quickly laundered the proceeds via mixers and other services, swapping some mETH and stETH into ETH on decentralised exchanges. They split 10,000 ETH across 36 addresses and bridged into other networks.<\/p>\n They laundered the lot in roughly ten days.<\/p>\n Thanks largely to Bybit, 2025 was Lazarus\u2019s banner year. Per Elliptic<\/a>, losses tied to the outfit reached $2bn\u2014more than double 2024\u2019s tally.<\/p>\n Because they \u201cserviced\u201d the stolen Bybit funds, a scandal erupted around the multichain protocols THORChain<\/a> and ParaSwap\u2014critics demanded they refund fees earned on laundering transactions. Under accusations of links to the hackers, the eXch<\/a> platform shut down.<\/p>\n In the aftermath, the community floated<\/a> an Ethereum state \u201crollback\u201d to restore the loot\u2014inviting comparisons with The DAO\u2019s 2016 hack.<\/p>\n Most opposed a fork, so the funds look lost for good\u2014despite Bybit\u2019s CEO saying they had the ability to trace<\/a> more than half of the haul.<\/p>\n Per the exchange\u2019s tracker<\/a>, over 90% of the assets have \u201cgone dark\u201d (~$1.28bn). Roughly 5% are frozen; 4% remain analysable.<\/p>\n The platform paid 13 white-hat hackers a total of $2.33m for help tracking and intercepting flows.<\/p>\n Overall, Bybit weathered the hack: user funds were unharmed, operations continued, and borrowed assets were soon repaid. There were no major collapses or bankruptcies\u2014credit to the exchange and to a market that avoided panic.<\/p>\n After criticism of 2024\u2019s slow pace, Ethereum\u2019s developers shipped two major upgrades.<\/p>\n On 7 May the network activated<\/a> Pectra\u2014the chain\u2019s biggest hard fork by number of proposals. It bundles improvements aimed at usability and efficiency.<\/p>\n The sweeping update contains 11 key EIP<\/span>s. A notable change is added wallet functionality that simplifies use and recovery.<\/p>\n EIP\u20117702 integrates account abstraction<\/a> (AA) and a new transaction type that temporarily endows addresses with smart\u2011contract capabilities, reverting to their original state afterwards. That makes Ethereum more approachable for everyday users.<\/p>\n Other highlights include:<\/p>\n By year-end, smart-account authorisations under EIP\u20117702 topped 5.9m\u2014evidence of strong interest from exchanges, wallets and dapps<\/span>.<\/p>\n AA\u2019s arrival, however, also spurred phishing. Criminals mass\u2011deployed malicious contracts that granted control over victims\u2019 wallets.<\/p>\n On 3 December developers successfully deployed<\/a> Fusaka on mainnet. It introduces foundational upgrades for scalability, efficiency and security.<\/p>\n Fusaka includes ten proposals. Chief among them is EIP\u20117594, which adds the PeerDAS protocol. It lets validators check small fragments rather than whole BLOB<\/span>s\u2014improving data availability across the ecosystem.<\/p>\n The upgrade also more than doubles the L1 gas limit, which could lift throughput to 12,000 TPS<\/span>.<\/p>\n Other changes include:<\/p>\n There were hiccups. Soon after Fusaka\u2019s rollout the popular consensus client Prysm crashed, which knocked offline<\/a> a slice of validators.<\/p>\n Meanwhile the Ethereum Foundation set a course<\/a> to simplify user experience. Its research finds usability shortcomings to be the sharpest pain point for retail and institutional clients alike.<\/p>\n Vitalik Buterin also pointed<\/a> to this bottleneck. Ethereum\u2019s roadmap concedes the network remains too hard for mainstream users. The goal: make it as intuitive and seamless as a typical web app.<\/p>\n In December the protocol set a throughput record of 32,950 TPS after including L2 data from the decentralised exchange Lighter.<\/p>\n Even so, price performance underwhelmed many. Despite steady ETF inflows and falling exchange balances, ETH sits well below its peaks.<\/p>\n Bitwise\u2019s call for $7,000<\/a> in 2025 missed by a mile. Lofty expectations for ETH\u2019s price not only slowed its momentum but also buried hopes<\/a> for an altseason.<\/p>\n Easier US crypto rules opened equity markets to players long seen as \u201cunwelcome\u201d.<\/p>\n One of the first was Circle. The co\u2011issuer of USDC took place<\/a> on 5 June on the NYSE under ticker CRCL. Post\u2011IPO<\/span> valuation was $6.9bn. Circle sold 34m shares at $31, raising about $1.05bn.<\/p>\n At the peak the stock traded above $260, putting Circle\u2019s market value above that of USDC\u2014it exceeded<\/a> the stablecoin\u2019s own.<\/p>\n In summer Tron listed<\/a> on Nasdaq via a reverse merger with already\u2011listed SRM Entertainment, rather than an IPO.\u00a0<\/p>\n Next, the exchange Bullish went public<\/a>. On 14 August it sold 30m NYSE\u2011listed common shares at $37, raising about $1.03bn.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n At the highs BLSH traded up to $118.\u00a0<\/p>\n On 12 September Gemini listed<\/a> via a sale of 31.5m class A shares at $25. The offering totalled about $787.5m; the exchange raised $425m.<\/p>\n Trading under GEMI on Nasdaq, the stock set an ATH at $45.<\/p>\n Firms announcing listing plans included:\u00a0<\/p>\n With many organisations already mapping their path to market, 2026 will likely see more integration of crypto with public equities\u2014through traditional exchanges too.<\/p>\n Softer rules globally propelled stablecoins, as institutional legitimisation broadened their appeal. Already sizeable, their market cap set new records in 2025.<\/p>\n Per CoinGecko<\/a>, the total rose from $205bn to $312bn over 12 months. Dollar\u2011pegged coins account for $304bn.<\/p>\n According to TRM Labs<\/a>, stablecoin transfers topped $4trn in 2025, an all\u2011time high\u2014several times those of Visa or Mastercard.<\/p>\n Illicit crypto use fell by around 60% year on year.<\/p>\n Analysts noted growing retail use<\/a> of stablecoins; payments giants kept pace:<\/p>\n Gold\u2011backed stablecoins also surged. By December the segment\u2019s market cap surpassed<\/a> $4bn, up almost $3bn in a year.<\/p>\n The leader is XAUT by Tether<\/a> at about $2.2bn, or half the market. Paxos Gold (PAXG) holds second with $1.35bn. Together they control nearly 90% of the sector.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n A separate 2025 trend was tokenisation<\/a> and RWA<\/a>. The segment\u2019s market cap exceeded $19bn.\u00a0<\/p>\n Across 429 products there are more than 590,000 holders. The largest niche is private credit, followed by US Treasuries.<\/p>\n Standard Chartered estimates tokenised assets will rise<\/a> to $2trn by 2028. The bank\u2019s head of research, Geoffrey Kendrick, argues that stablecoins\u2019 rise laid the groundwork.<\/p>\n In 2025, interest in crypto reserves spread from governments to corporates. The pioneer for five years has been Strategy, Michael Saylor\u2019s firm\u2014with 672,497 BTC worth over $58bn, per BitcoinTreasuries<\/a>.<\/p>\n But last year dozens of firms began copying Strategy\u2019s approach. If the pioneer can still justify its buys, newcomers drew plenty of questions.<\/p>\n In all, 211 companies are accumulating bitcoin. They hold about 1.08m BTC\u2014roughly $95.5bn\u2014or 5.1% of supply.<\/p>\n Meanwhile spot bitcoin ETFs hold around 1.37m BTC ($112.5bn), or 6.57% of supply. Institutional vehicles thus control over 11% of the float.<\/p>\n A further 67 firms added Ethereum to their balance sheets, amassing 6.81m ETH worth $19.9bn (5.6% of circulating supply).\u00a0<\/p>\n ETH ETFs hold 61m coins worth $17.9bn\u20145.07% of supply.<\/p>\n Eighteen organisations also hold Solana: 18.3m SOL worth $2.25bn (2.97% of supply).\u00a0<\/p>\n Some firms are also accumulating BNB<\/a>, Chainlink<\/a>, Dogecoin<\/a>, Hyperliquid<\/a>, Sui<\/a> and other assets.\u00a0<\/p>\n Problems for DAT<\/span> companies began<\/a> after autumn\u2019s correction: summer valuations often traded at 3x or even 10x premia, but the downturn pushed the median mNAV<\/span> below one. Strategy\u2019s stands near 0.8.<\/p>\n By year-end the growth of corporate crypto reserves slowed sharply<\/a>; some experts likened the trend to a bubble. Coinbase Institutional called<\/a> the corporate-bitcoin-reserve boom a key systemic risk.<\/p>\n![\"image\"](\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/img-8ce0b492a69f85ed-2245526032873515.webp\")
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State bitcoin reserves and the GENIUS Act\u00a0<\/h3>\n
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The biggest hack on record<\/h3>\n
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Important Ethereum upgrades<\/h3>\n
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An IPO cascade<\/h3>\n
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Trends<\/h2>\n
Stablecoinisation<\/h3>\n
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Strategy\u2019s imitators<\/h3>\n
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