Original Title: The top 12 crypto winners of 2025: who got it right this year?

Original Author: Oluwapelumi Adejumo, CryptoSlate

Original Translation: Saoirse, Foresight News

If 2024 was the “Year of Crypto Recovery,” then 2025 was the year the industry’s infrastructure was finally recognized.

This year, the emerging industry started with cautious optimism in January and ended in December with clear federal regulatory support.

The result was a complete shift in the industry narrative from “cryptocurrency equals casino” to “cryptocurrency is capital market infrastructure.”

During this time, trading volume moved on-chain, policy-making entered the White House’s purview, and major asset management firms no longer hesitated—Vanguard’s stance shift earlier this month being the most vivid proof as the company allowed cryptocurrency ETFs on its platform.

However, in this year, despite record inflows and legislative victories, the gains were not evenly distributed among all participants.

The winners of 2025 are not just the assets that experienced price surges, but also the protocols, personalities, and products that have fundamentally secured their position in the future financial landscape.

Based on CryptoSlate’s analysis, here are the 12 clear winners of this year and their significance:

1. The United States and the Trump Administration

Discussing the cryptocurrency landscape of 2025 cannot ignore the immense impact of the U.S. stance shift. For years, the cryptocurrency industry has been in a “ready to exit at any moment” state, considering Dubai or Singapore as potential safe havens.

However, in 2025, the U.S. firmly closed this “exit door,” and all industry stakeholders welcomed this change. Therefore, this victory belongs not only to the U.S. jurisdiction but also to the top-tier core forces driving this shift.

In less than 12 months, the government led by the 47th U.S. President, Trump, achieved many of the cryptocurrency industry’s longstanding demands, effectively “reeling in the digital asset economy” domestically.

A series of executive orders supporting multiple digital assets set the tone, with strategic victories reflected at the specific strategy level:

The July 18th signing of the "GENIUS Act" provided a federal-level definition for stablecoins for the first time;

The March release of the "Strategic Bitcoin Reserve" executive order sent a clear signal to global sovereign wealth funds — digital assets have become a critical issue at the national security level.

Crucially, by driving leadership changes at the U.S. SEC and CFTC, the Trump administration dispelled the fog of "regulation through enforcement."

Essentially, Trump's series of actions set the stage for the U.S. to "become the global cryptocurrency center."

2026 Outlook: Consolidation of U.S. Hegemony

It is expected that the U.S. will actively promote its newly established industry standards. In addition, the executive order that took effect on January 1st explicitly prohibits the issuance of a central bank digital currency (CBDC), clearing the way for private sector innovation: the future dollar will still move towards digitalization, but the issuers will be Tether, Circle companies, various banks, and not the Federal Reserve.

2. U.S. Spot ETF

(Represented by IBIT, including ETH, SOL, XRP ETF camps)

As a primary tool for institutions to enter the cryptocurrency market, cryptocurrency spot ETFs not only "survived the second year" in 2025 but also thrived even in the case of poor Bitcoin performance.

The iShares Bitcoin Trust Fund (IBIT) under BlackRock has become one of the top ten ETFs in terms of inflows in the U.S., with its inflows even surpassing traditional giants such as the Invesco QQQ Trust Fund and the SPDR Gold Trust Fund (GLD), which is the most direct proof.

IBIT Cumulative Net Inflows (Source: SoSo Value)

In addition to Bitcoin, Ethereum spot ETF has also consolidated its position, becoming the "default entry channel" for wealth management institutions — making debates like "not your keys, not your assets" irrelevant among institutional investors.

September is a key turning point: the SEC approved the "Generic Listing Standards." This technical but crucial policy victory significantly reduces the approval process for future products, no longer requiring a separate 19b-4 filing for each new code.

Subsequently, the market saw a plethora of new products focusing on other digital assets (such as Solana, XRP), all of which have also performed strongly this year.

2026 Outlook: Product Diversification and Risk Mitigation

With Vanguard Group opening the cryptocurrency ETF channel on December 1, a surge of "basket of assets ETFs" and "covered call options ETFs" is expected. A more developed options market will begin to lower realized volatility, ultimately making cryptocurrency as an asset class acceptable to conservative pension funds.

3. Solana (SOL)

In 2025, Solana completely shed the label of "high-risk beta asset," and the old narrative of "fast but fragile" is now history.

Simultaneously, Solana also accomplished the most challenging transformation in the cryptocurrency industry this year: transitioning from a "meme coin casino" to a "global market liquidity layer."

While maintaining its leadership position in the cultural realm, CoinGecko data shows that Solana has been the world's most watched blockchain ecosystem for two consecutive years (2024-2025).

Today's Solana network no longer revolves solely around speculative tokens but has become a "hub of efficient capital."

According to Artemis data, Solana has become a core liquidity layer: its on-chain SOL-USD trading volume has exceeded the sum of SOL spot trading volumes on Binance and Bybit (two of the top three centralized exchanges by global trading volume) for three consecutive months.

Solana's on-chain trading volume exceeds the spot trading volume of Binance and Bybit (Source: Artemis)

Essentially, Solana has positioned itself as the "primary venue for activities sensitive to transaction execution speed." Its competitors are no longer just Ethereum but rather traditional financial market platforms like Nasdaq.

2026 Outlook: On-Chain Price Discovery Goes Mainstream

This "on-chain shift" in trading volume marks a structural change: price discovery is transitioning from centralized exchanges to on-chain. In 2026, Solana will no longer be a "high-risk beta network" but rather the primary venue for high-frequency, stablecoin-denominated trades.

4. Ethereum Layer 2 Network Base

If Solana's strength lies in "speed," then Ethereum Layer 2 Network Base, owned by Coinbase, excels in "user reach."

The Base has become the "default choice for consumer apps and stablecoin experiments" by leveraging the massive existing user base of this U.S. exchange platform, with extremely high user stickiness.

The success of Base has proven that in the cryptocurrency industry of 2025, "user reach" is more important than "novel cryptographic technology." It has become an incubator for "mass-market crypto apps" — consumer fintech apps that use cryptocurrency infrastructure on the backend, but users are completely unaware of it. It can be said that Base is a bridge connecting the chaotic on-chain world with Coinbase's regulatory and security framework.

2026 Outlook: Rise of "Wallet-native Commerce"

It is expected that Base will become the "core engine" for Coinbase's entry into the merchant payment field next year, and "wallet-native commerce" (business activities based on crypto wallets) may become a new industry trend.

5. Ripple and XRP

After years of legal troubles, 2025 finally became the year when Ripple and XRP "regained their freedom."

The long-running legal battle between Ripple and the SEC came to a final judgment, clearing the way for institutional adoption of XRP.

As a result, XRP's narrative overnight shifted from a "litigation risk asset" to a "liquidity engine," driving its price up and paving the way for the launch of the first XRP spot ETF in November.

XRP Exchange-Traded Fund Daily Fund Flow (Source: SoSo Value)

Meanwhile, Ripple made significant acquisitions of traditional financial infrastructure this year: in just one year of 2025, Ripple invested over $4 billion in strategic acquisitions, the most notable of which include the acquisition of bulk broker Hidden Road, asset management firm GTreasury, and stablecoin infrastructure provider Rail.

These moves have thoroughly transformed Ripple from a "payment company" into a "full-stack institutional giant."

2026 Outlook: Integrating Traditional Finance and the Crypto Ecosystem

The "ETF-ization" of XRP is just the beginning. With legal risks dissipating and Wall Street products launching, 2026 will be the "year of integration": Ripple's newly acquired asset management and brokerage division is expected to start cross-promoting the RLUSD stablecoin to Fortune 500 companies, ultimately bridging the gap between the Ripple ledger and corporate balance sheets.

6. Zcash and the Privacy Coin Space

The revival of Zcash and the entire privacy coin space was the most surprising "comeback story" of the 2025 cryptocurrency industry.

As the best-performing sector in 2025, privacy coins shed the stigma of "illicit use" and became darlings of the "post-surveillance economy era."

Outstanding performance of privacy coins in 2025 (Source: Artemis)

While Zcash led this revival, the momentum encompassed the entire privacy coin space: Ethereum developers accelerated privacy-related initiatives, and other privacy solutions finally saw real-world applications on mainnets.

Furthermore, the "thawing" of the regulatory environment was evident— the SEC held its first formal meeting with privacy protocol leads to discuss building a compliance framework. Keep in mind, this was entirely unimaginable a year ago.

2026 Outlook: The Emergence of "Privacy DeFi"

In 2026, the privacy coin space is expected to see "differentiation": privacy will become a "premium feature" for compliant institutions. Wall Street will actively adopt these "selective disclosure tools" to prevent MEV (Maximal Extractable Value) frontrunning and safeguard the confidentiality of their proprietary trading strategies.

7. Asset Tokenization (RWAs)

With the strong support of a SEC-friendly stance, Real World Assets (RWAs) have transitioned from "pilot projects" to the "core infrastructure" of the cryptocurrency industry.

The SEC no longer takes a hostile enforcement approach, allowing large institutions to confidently integrate these assets without the fear of receiving a "Wells Notice" (SEC's precursor to enforcement investigations).

The BlackRock BUIDL Fund has been accepted by Binance as "off-chain collateral," marking a watershed event in the space — blurring the lines between Traditional Finance (TradFi) and the cryptocurrency market structure.

By December, the Asset Under Management (AUM) for tokenized money market funds and US Treasuries surpassed $8 billion, while the total Real World Asset (RWA) market size reached around $200 billion.

RWA Assets (Source: RWA.xyz)

Furthermore, traditional financial giants such as BlackRock, JPMorgan Chase, Fidelity, Nasdaq, and the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) have high hopes for the RWA space, aiming to enhance transparency and efficiency in the traditional financial industry through it.

As SEC Chairman Paul Atkins put it: "The on-chain market will bring greater predictability, transparency, and efficiency to investors."

2026 Outlook: Efficiency Boost through "Repo-like" Transactions

With major banks like JPMorgan Chase and BNY Mellon continuing to integrate RWA assets, a 24/7 collateral market is expected to gradually take shape, propelling the asset management scale in this space to $18 billion.

8. Stablecoins

The debate about the "crypto killer app" has settled: stablecoins are the foundational infrastructure. In October 2025, the total market cap of stablecoins exceeded $3 trillion; in September, the supply of stablecoins in the Ethereum ecosystem also hit a historical high of $1.66 trillion.

In fact, data from Token Terminal shows that the total number of stablecoin holders has reached approximately 200 million, a historical peak.

Stablecoin Holders (Source: Token Terminal)

This data indicates that the growth in the stablecoin space stems from its core capability of "cross-border, 24/7, instant settlement."

Meanwhile, legislative progress in the United States, particularly the passage of the "GENIUS Act," has provided legal certainty for banks to enter the stablecoin space.

Essentially, stablecoins are no longer just a "trading chip" but are becoming the "settlement layer" of global financial technology. As Jeremy NG, founder of Open Eden, puts it: "Stablecoins have transitioned from being a 'foundational accessory' of cryptocurrency to the 'core of financial infrastructure'."

2026 Outlook: Growth Driven by Yield

It is expected that "programmatic treasury investing" and "forex use cases" will be the key drivers of stablecoin growth, with the total stablecoin market cap projected to reach a baseline level of $380 billion in 2026.

9. Perp DEXs

On-chain derivatives fully broke through the "trust barrier" in 2025 — October saw a record monthly trading volume of $1.2 trillion.

What has set this sector up for success is its ability to attract significant volume away from centralized exchanges (CEXs): By providing "self-custody" features and a more attractive incentive mechanism, on-chain perpetual contract trading platforms have gained trader favor.

Decentralized perpetual contract exchange volume on the rise (Source: DeFiLlama)

The rise of decentralized perpetual contract exchanges (Perp DEXs) such as Hyperliquid and Aster marks the maturity of the DeFi market structure. Today, traders are willing to take on billions of dollars in smart contract risk to mitigate counterparty risk.

2026 Outlook: Intensified Fee Competition

On-chain open interest (OI) is becoming a legitimate macro risk indicator. However, there might be an intense "fee war" outbreak in 2026 as protocols compete for a share of that $1.2 trillion monthly trading volume.

10. Prediction Markets

2025 was the year "event contracts" (the core product of prediction markets) entered the mainstream U.S. market: the two dominant platforms in this space, Kalshi and Polymarket, both saw record-level trading volumes.

But the more emblematic victory lies in the fact that several traditional financial institutions and native crypto companies like Gemini and Coinbase have also entered this emerging field.

Weekly Transaction Volume Prediction Market (Source: Dune Analytics)

The prediction market has emerged as a winner by bridging the gap between 'gambling' and 'finance'. Furthermore, Polymarket has obtained a clear development path through the CFTC (Commodity Futures Trading Commission) revised framework, transforming 'event contracts' from a 'niche internet curiosity product' into a 'compliant hedging tool'.

2026 Outlook: Standardization and Scaling

Event contracts are becoming a standardized asset class. With the 'outcome economy' (financial activities around event outcomes) expected to reach a nominal value of $600 billion, crypto wallet infrastructure and USDC liquidity are poised to see significant growth.

11. Hong Kong, China

While the U.S. focuses on legislation, Hong Kong, China, has shifted its focus to 'enforcement advantage'—data attests to this. In the third quarter of 2025, Hong Kong's Exchange-Traded Products (ETP) market, by trading volume, officially surpassed South Korea and Japan to become the world's third-largest ETP market, with a daily average turnover of 37.8 billion HKD, a 150% year-on-year increase.

Hong Kong's strategy of 'attracting the industry through clear regulation' has yielded tangible results in the exchange platform space: the Virtual Asset Trading Platform (VATP) regime has evolved from a vague 'presumed licensed' state to a robust ecosystem.

By mid-2025, the Securities and Futures Commission of Hong Kong (SFC) had issued formal licenses to more global major trading platforms, bringing the total number of licensed trading platforms to 11. This move effectively brought regional institutional liquidity into a system that is 'compliant, connected to banks,' while isolating unregulated participants.

Simultaneously, the 'Stablecoin Regulations,' which came into effect on August 1, have created a 'high-quality sandbox'—as of the September application deadline, the sandbox has attracted over 30 applications.

2026 Outlook: Becoming Asia's Clearing Center

With the first batch of stablecoin licenses expected to be issued in early 2026, Hong Kong is poised to become Asia's cryptocurrency clearing center. By combining the 'world's top three ETP market' with 'licensed stablecoin infrastructure,' Hong Kong has successfully positioned itself as the 'key gateway for Asia Pacific institutional liquidity'.

12. Early Believers (Cryptocurrency Investors)

The final spot on this list belongs to the "hodlers" — the early believers in cryptocurrency.

Throughout the challenging years, early believers constantly heard that cryptocurrency was a scam, a bubble, or a dead end. They endured the industry collapse in 2022, the "Gensler era" of regulatory crackdown, and the industry silence in 2024. And in 2025, their perseverance was finally vindicated. (Gensler era: referring to Gary Gensler's tenure as the Chair of the U.S. SEC)

The significance of this year is not just about "asset price appreciation" but also about "validation of core beliefs."

As a result, these early believers successfully "raced ahead of some of the world's most renowned institutions": when BlackRock, Vanguard Group, and sovereign wealth funds made a sweeping entry into the cryptocurrency market this year, the assets they purchased were exactly what these early believers held onto during the industry's darkest days with unwavering faith.

Outlook for 2026: Transitioning from Investors to "Eco-Bankers"

As this cohort achieves "intergenerational wealth accumulation," they are not exiting the crypto ecosystem but are becoming the "bankers" of the ecosystem. It is expected that this group will become the primary liquidity providers (LP) for the new decentralized capital markets, supporting the next wave of innovation that banks have yet to comprehend.

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