The top ten key events of 2025 witnessed the industry's steady progress towards standardization and mainstreaming.
Written by: Saoirse, Foresight News
In 2025, the blockchain industry stood at a crossroads between unregulated growth and standardized development, witnessing a complex interplay of regulatory policies, the entry of tech capital, technological breakthroughs, and the exposure of market risks. From the crucial leap towards mainstream assetization to the gradual formation of a global regulatory framework, from industry restructuring driven by industry giants crossing over to the iterative upgrades of security technologies, a series of landmark events propelled the industry through a profound transformation. The following ten key events not only encapsulate the year's development but also clearly outline the trajectory of blockchain's journey from the fringes to the mainstream.
1. Bitcoin breaks through the $120,000 mark: From a speculative target to a core asset for institutional strategic allocation.
In May 2025, the price of Bitcoin continued to climb, breaking through the all-time high of $120,000. Its total market capitalization once surpassed Amazon, reaching $2.1 trillion, making it the fifth largest asset in the world. This milestone breakthrough marked the formal completion of Bitcoin's transformation into a "mainstream asset," and the large-scale entry of institutional funds reshaped the logic of global asset allocation.
This round of price increases was driven by multiple structural factors: the regulatory clarity brought about by the advancement of the US GENIUS Act significantly boosted market confidence; accelerated issuance of US Treasury bonds and the consolidation of gold at high levels prompted funds to shift towards non-sovereign inflation hedges; this was further supported by over $5 billion in net inflows into spot ETFs this year. Local governments such as New Hampshire attempted to build Bitcoin reserve frameworks, and publicly traded companies like Strategy& continued to increase their holdings, further reinforcing their "digital gold" narrative. Trump's celebratory remarks on social media fueled market sentiment, and the high-leverage trading patterns on platforms like Hyperliquid accelerated price breakthroughs. Institutions such as Standard Chartered Bank even raised their year-end targets to $200,000, creating a multi-faceted market resonance.
2. The US GENIUS Act Takes Effect: Establishing a Global Benchmark for the Regulation of Dollar Stablecoins
In July 2025, the U.S. Crypto Asset Market Structure and Investor Protection Act (GENIUS Act) officially came into effect. As the first federal-level regulatory framework for stablecoins, its implementation not only standardized market order but also strengthened the digital hegemony of the US dollar. The Act requires all issuers of dollar-denominated stablecoins to hold 100% of their assets in compliant reserve assets such as US dollars or U.S. Treasury bonds, clarifies regulatory responsibilities and licensing requirements, and ends the long-standing ambiguity in U.S. crypto regulation.
This innovative system opens up a channel for capital flows between traditional finance and the crypto market, and is expected to generate hundreds of billions of dollars in new capital inflows. By linking private stablecoins to US dollar reserves, the bill also injects liquidity into the US Treasury market, accelerates the global penetration of "digitalization of the dollar," and indirectly boosts the price of crypto assets such as Bitcoin.
From a global perspective, the enactment of the bill coincides with the simultaneous implementation of the EU's MiCA Act and Hong Kong's Stablecoin Ordinance. Economies such as Singapore and Japan are also improving their regulatory rules, resulting in a global landscape of "multipolarity and regulatory competition and cooperation" in crypto regulation.
3. Circle's NYSE listing: The "first stablecoin stock" ushers in an era of compliant capitalization for the industry.
In the first half of 2025, Circle, the issuer of USDC, successfully listed on the New York Stock Exchange, becoming the world's first "stablecoin stock." This event confirmed the commercial viability of the compliance path for stablecoin issuers and opened a new chapter in the capitalization of the industry.
The core support for this IPO comes from the regulatory certainty brought about by the U.S. GENIUS Act. Circle's disclosed reserve asset structure contains over 90% U.S. Treasury bonds, fully complying with the Act's stringent requirements for stablecoin issuance. This compliance enabled its market capitalization to exceed $30 billion on its first day of trading.
Following its IPO, Circle accelerated the expansion of its business scope, focusing on RWA (Real-World Asset Tokenization) scenarios and building "on-chain-off-chain" liquidity bridges through partnerships with traditional banks. By the end of the year, USDC's market capitalization had grown by 40%, forming a stable duopoly with USDT and setting a development model for the industry based on "regulatory compliance - capital recognition - ecosystem expansion".
4. Trump pardons CZ: A landmark event signifying the deep connection between politics and the crypto industry.
On October 23, 2025, US President Trump announced a pardon for Binance founder CZ, claiming he was a victim of "political persecution" by the Biden administration. This event highlighted a shift in US crypto policy and became a landmark moment demonstrating the deep integration of politics and the crypto industry, directly impacting the competitive landscape of leading global exchanges.
CZ had previously served four months in prison and paid a $4.3 billion fine in 2024 for violating Binance's anti-money laundering regulations. Following the announcement of the pardon, Binance's token, BNB, rose by 8% that day, and the platform's valuation more than doubled compared to before Trump's election. CZ quickly resumed his position at Binance, stabilizing the platform's operations.
The underlying interests are clearly visible: Binance assisted the Trump family business in developing the stablecoin USD1 and writing its underlying code. This pardon is seen by the outside world as a clear signal of the Trump administration's "crypto-friendly" stance. In fact, CZ is not an isolated case. Trump has previously pardoned several crypto practitioners, including the founder of Silk Road, continuously reshaping the underlying logic of US crypto regulation.
5. Trump issues Trump token: A pioneering attempt at commercializing political IP through crypto.
On January 18, 2025, two days before his inauguration, Trump announced the launch of his personal meme coin, Trump, via social media. Positioned as the "only official Trump meme," it was officially released within the Solana ecosystem. The total supply of this token is 1 billion, with only 200 million initially released for circulation. The remaining 80% is held by his CIC Digital and the "Fight Fight Fight" entity, with a 3-year unlocking plan. The official website explicitly states that it aims to "support the Trump symbol and related ideals," deliberately avoiding any mention of its investment attributes.
The market reaction after its release was extremely enthusiastic: Huobi and other platforms quickly listed it for trading on the same day, and the token price surged by 1250% to 21 USDT at one point, with its market capitalization rapidly exceeding $4 billion, ranking fourth among global Meme coins. Within just two hours of its launch, trading volume exceeded $1.3 billion, and the peak market capitalization even reached $80 billion. This fervor was a direct result of the transformation of Trump's political influence—the concentrated entry of his supporters provided short-term purchasing power. To sustain market sentiment, the official announcement later stated that the top 220 holders of tokens would be invited to a private dinner in Washington, and the top 25 would receive access to a VIP reception, linking the token to the privilege of "closeness to the center of power."
This offering triggered a chain reaction and deep controversy: on its first day of launch, it resulted in 176,000 people worldwide being liquidated, with nearly $500 million in losses; Bitcoin and Ethereum experienced simultaneous sharp fluctuations. During the market crash in March, the price of Trump fell by more than 12% in a single day, and by November it had plummeted from a peak of $75.35 to $6.25, a drop of over 90%, highlighting the speculative bubble characteristics of celebrity tokens. On the regulatory front, the SEC launched an investigation due to "questionable security status," but ultimately did not take any punitive measures. This cautious approach was interpreted as a special consideration for politically linked projects.
It is worth mentioning that the WLFI token, associated with the Trump family, was listed for trading in September 2025. The project has interests tied to the Trump family, but its liquidity was poor after listing, and its market value shrank by more than 80% compared with the issuance expectations at the end of the year. Together with the Trump token, it reflects the risks and dilemmas of commercializing political IP in crypto.
6. Thirteen Chinese departments jointly issued a document: the "strict control on the mainland + pilot program in Hong Kong" dual-track system is implemented.
In May 2025, thirteen Chinese government departments jointly issued the "Announcement on Further Regulating and Promoting the Development of Stablecoins," establishing a dual-track regulatory path of "strict domestic regulation + Hong Kong pilot program." This system design balances financial security with innovative exploration and establishes a stablecoin regulatory framework with Chinese characteristics.
The announcement clearly draws a red line, prohibiting private stablecoin transactions within China. This stance stems from concerns about financial security—the anonymous nature of stablecoins makes them vulnerable to being used for money laundering, illegal cross-border fund transfers, and other illicit activities. In 2025, a case in Shanghai involving the illegal exchange of foreign currency using stablecoins involved a staggering 6.5 billion yuan. At the same time, the announcement sends a positive signal, supporting Hong Kong's stablecoin pilot program and creating an innovative testing ground for risk isolation.
The concurrently enacted Hong Kong Stablecoin Ordinance established a stringent entry system, requiring practitioners to meet multiple standards, including HK$25 million in registered capital, 100% reserve assets, and monthly audits. This also spurred the launch of the first Solana ETF. This arrangement has attracted global Web3 projects to accelerate their entry into Hong Kong, with licensed institutions such as HashKey increasing their investment, forming a complementary "offshore innovation - onshore security" pattern with the digital yuan.
7. Enforcement of EU MiCA Regulation: World's First Licensing Review of Encryption Service Providers Initiated
In early 2025, the EU's Crypto Asset Market Regulation Act (MiCA) came into full effect, setting a precedent for unified regulation of the crypto industry and forcing global service providers to accelerate their compliance transformation. As the world's first mandatory regional crypto regulatory framework, MiCA has built a full-chain management system through refined classification and regulation.
The regulations require all crypto service providers operating in the EU to obtain licenses, disclose asset reserves and risk information, and establish customer fund segregation mechanisms to prevent platform collapses and asset misappropriation. In the third quarter of the same year, the EU launched the world's first cross-border crypto service provider licensing review, suspending the operations of 23 platforms for failing to meet reserve requirements, demonstrating the rigidity of regulatory enforcement.
While regulating the market, the MiCA Act also embodies the EU's strategic ambitions. The regulations accelerate the development of euro-denominated stablecoins, and in conjunction with the European Central Bank's digital euro pilot program, the EU is attempting to gain a voice in the global market dominated by dollar-denominated stablecoins, becoming a significant force in the multipolar global crypto regulatory landscape.
8. Naver acquires Upbit: Sets a record for the largest merger and acquisition in the industry.
In August 2025, South Korean tech giant Naver acquired Upbit, the country's largest crypto exchage, for $12 billion, setting a record for mergers and acquisitions in the industry. This transaction marked the beginning of traditional tech capital's full-scale entry into the blockchain field, reshaping the underlying logic of industry competition.
This acquisition is not a simple asset integration, but a strategic layout for ecosystem synergy. Naver deeply integrates Upbit's crypto business with its own core ecosystem such as search and payment, launching the "Web3 + Lifestyle Services" scenario, realizing the application of crypto assets in daily consumption. In just three months, it has added 2 million new users, verifying the commercial value of scenario integration.
The merger and acquisition has generated significant ripple effects in the industry: it not only sparked discussions about easing cryptocurrency regulations in South Korea, prompting the Financial Services Commission to relax restrictions on institutional investor participation, but also boosted the trading volume of the South Korean cryptocurrency market by 58% month-on-month. As the largest of the 133 merger and acquisition deals in the cryptocurrency industry in 2025, this acquisition confirms the trend of accelerated industry consolidation.
9. Bybit suffers $1.5 billion theft: the biggest security incident in the history of the crypto industry.
On February 21, 2025, the crypto industry suffered its worst security breach in history – the Lazarus Group hacked Bybit’s Ethereum cold wallet by manipulating smart contract logic, stealing assets worth $1.46 billion, far exceeding the previous record of $1 billion stolen by the Central Bank of Iraq.
This incident exposed a major vulnerability in the exchange's cold wallet protection, triggering a chain reaction in the market: the price of Bitcoin once fell below $95,000, 150,000 people were liquidated within 24 hours, and market panic caused the total market value of crypto assets to evaporate by more than $300 billion in a single day. The precision of the hacker attack also highlighted the shortcomings of blockchain technology in areas such as smart contract design and security auditing.
In response to the crisis, Bybit, leveraging its $20 billion in assets under management and financial support from Binance and Bitget, fully covered user losses, preventing a wider industry trust crisis. This incident catalyzed industry security upgrades, with major exchanges jointly launching the "Cold Wallet Multi-Signature Standard," forcing practitioners to strengthen security protections and increasing the overall security audit cost of the industry by 30%.
10. Ethereum Pectra Upgrade: Account Abstraction Technology Implemented, Ushering in a New Chapter of Widespread Application.
In November 2025, Ethereum completed the Pectra upgrade and officially activated the Account Abstraction (AA) function. This technological breakthrough solved the core pain point of blockchain user experience and cleared key obstacles for the large-scale application of Web3.
Before the upgrade, technical hurdles such as private key management and gas fee payment hindered ordinary users from entering the Web3 field. After the account abstraction function was implemented, users no longer need to remember complex private keys and can manage their accounts through familiar methods such as email and biometrics. At the same time, convenient functions such as gas fee payment and automatic execution of smart contracts are realized, greatly reducing the barrier to entry.
Technological breakthroughs quickly translated into market momentum: DeFi protocol user registrations surged by 300% within two weeks of the upgrade, wallet service provider MetaMask added over 10 million new users, and Ethereum's daily active transactions surpassed Bitcoin for the first time, reaching 1.8 million. This upgrade marks Web3's transition from a technological concept to a practical application, enabling on-chain migration for traditional scenarios such as e-commerce and social media.
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By the end of 2025, blockchain had emerged from the chaos of "losing its way," and with the resonance of regulation, technology, and capital, it had embarked on a clear and steady path of "steady progress." "The tide is high on both banks, the wind is fair, and the sail is full," having bid farewell to the growing pains of unchecked growth, the industry has ridden the winds of compliance and carried the ship of technology. In the future, it will surely write a new chapter of "sailing straight to the vast ocean" in the wave of the digital economy.
