Crypto weekly is authored by maaria bajwa and david blumenfeld
January 3rd was the 17th anniversary of the first ever bitcoin transaction. The technology and ideals behind bitcoin can be traced back to the infamous cypherpunk listserve of the 1990s, whose contributors included crypto pioneers like Hal Finney and Adam Back. In honor of the cypherpunks, we have made an archive of the listserve emails available here.
2025 PRICE CHANGE
- Crypto Market Cap ($3.05T): -10%
- BTC ($87,520): -6%
- ETH ($2,967): -11%
- SOL ($125): -34%
- UNI ($5.62): -57%
- OP ($0.27): -85%
- COIN ($226): -9%
- Tether Mkt Cap ($187B): +35%
- USDC Mkt Cap ($76B): +74%
2026 PRICE CHANGE: YTD:
- Crypto Market Cap ($3.24T): +6%
- BTC ($92,605): +6%
- ETH ($3,162): +7%
- SOL ($135): +8%
- UNI ($5.89): +5%
- OP ($0.32): +18%
- COIN ($237): +5%
- Tether Mkt Cap ($187B): 0%
- USDC Mkt Cap ($75B): -1%
- BTC / ETH Dominance: 57% / 12%
2025 YEAR IN REVIEW
January
- President-elect Donald Trump’s meme coin $TRUMP launched on Solana and saw its market cap soar to over $12 billion in 24 hours. Major exchanges like Coinbase and Binance said they intended to list the token on their platforms. Link. Link. Link. Link.
- President Donald Trump signed an executive order banning the creation of a US central bank digital currency and ordered banking services for crypto companies be protected (in response to the “Operation Chokepoint 2.0” scandal). He also formed a working group tasked with proposing new digital asset regulations and the creation of a national cryptocurrency stockpile. Link. Link.
- The SEC reversed Staff Accounting Bulletin 121, which required banks to account for cryptocurrencies it custodied as a liability on their balance sheet. The resolution had been vetoed by President Biden last year. Link.
- President Donald Trump pardoned Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht, who was sentenced to life in prison in 2015. Silk Road, founded in 2011, was an online black market that accepted bitcoin as its exclusive payment option. Link.
February
- Memecoins MELANIA and TRUMP are down 90% and 75% respectively, collectively losing over $12 billion in market value since their launch after Trump's inauguration. Link.
March
- The SEC announced it is dropping investigations against Coinbase, Consensys, Uniswap, Robinhood, Gemini and is seeking a pause in its investigation against Tron founder Justin Sun. Link. Link. Link. Link. Link. Link.
April
- The US Senate confirmed Paul Atkins as the new SEC chair in a 52-44 vote. Link.
- The SOL-to-ETH price ratio reached an all-time high as Solana gained 10% while Ethereum fell 10% in the past week. Link.
May
- Yuga Labs sold the CryptoPunks IP to the Infinite Node Foundation, a nonprofit focused on preserving digital art that was founded by Ribbit Capital’s Micky Malka. Link.
- Coinbase disclosed that personal data from 69,461 individuals was compromised in a December 2024 breach, which eventually led to a ransom demand of $20 million. Compromised data included user social security numbers, names, email addresses, and account balances. Link.
June
- The SEC said staking activities on proof-of-stake blockchains do not constitute security transactions, clearing the way for ETFs to offer crypto staking. Link. Press Release.
- USDC stablecoin issuer Circle (“CRCL”) raised $1.1 billion in a 3x oversubscribed IPO that valued the company at $8.7 billion. Circle shares rose 247% in the first few days of trading and held a fully diluted market cap of around $21.6 billion by COB Friday. Circle’s USDC made up about 29% of the stablecoin market at the end of March. Link. Link.
- Stripe agreed to acquire crypto wallet provider Privy, building on the company’s recent acquisition of stablecoin infrastructure firm Birdge. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Link.
July
- President Trump signed the GENIUS Act into law, creating the first major federal regulatory framework for stablecoins requiring full backing by U.S. dollars and annual audits for issuers over $50 billion market cap. Link.
August
- Fintech giant Stripe is launching its own blockchain project called Tempo to be led by crypto VC Paradigm cofounder Matt Huang. Link. Link.
- Ethereum, the world’s second largest cryptocurrency, rose above $4,500 for the first time since December on the back of a growing number of publicly traded Ether-focused treasury firms. Link. Link.
- Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the US would not be buying bitcoin for its strategic reserve, and would instead accumulate bitcoin through future seizures on top of the $15 to $20 billion of bitcoin it already holds. Link. Link.
September
- The Commerce Department will begin publishing economic statistics, starting with GDP figures, on the blockchain as part of the Trump administration's broader push to integrate cryptocurrency and blockchain technology into government operations. Link. Link. Link. Link.
- The total amount of bitcoin held by public companies passed 1 million BTC worth about $111 billion, driven by companies like MicroStrategy. Link.
- The Trump family gained approximately $5 billion in paper wealth after their cryptocurrency venture World Liberty Financial launched public trading of its WLFI token. Link.
October
- Crypto markets experienced their most severe liquidation event after President Trump announced a 100% tariff on China, with over $19 billion in positions wiped out and bitcoin plummeting to $104,00 before recovering to $112,000. The severity of the drop was amplified by excessive leverage in DeFi. Perpetual swaps platform Hyperliquid saw $10 billion in liquidations and decentralized exchange Uniswap saw $9 billion in trading volumes. Link. Tweet.
- Intercontinental Exchange, the owner of the New York Stock Exchange, will invest up to $2 billion in crypto-based prediction marketplace Polymarket at an $8 billion valuation. Link.
- Crypto M&A activity has surged to record levels of $10 billion in Q3 2025, marking a thirty-fold increase from the previous year. Link.
November
- Over $1 trillion was wiped out as Bitcoin plunged to its lowest level in seven months, with the total cryptocurrency market capitalization dropping from its peak of $4.3 trillion to around $3.2 trillion. Link.
- The Bitwise Solana Staking ETF, the first spot Solana ETF, launched despite the ongoing government shutdown. Link.
- Stablecoin transaction volume on Ethereum reached a record $2.82 trillion in October. Link.
- 55% of hedge funds hold crypto-related assets, up from 47% last year, with funds allocating an average of 7% of AUM to the asset class. Link.
- The number of active addresses on Solana fell to a 12-month low 3.3 million as the memecoin frenzy of the last year has gradually declined. Link.
December
- The US DoJ is seeking a 12-year prison sentence for Terra founder Do Kwon for the $40 billion fraud that led to the collapse of the TerraUSD stablecoin. Link. Link.
- Three key issues are holding up the progress of the crypto market structure bill in the U.S. Senate, including disputes over stablecoin yield, conflicts of interest, and DeFi protections, making a committee markup unlikely before the end of the year. Link.