The cryptocurrency market ended 2025 bruised but resilient after a turbulent year marked by record prices, violent sell-offs, landmark regulation and the largest exchange hack in the sector’s history.
Bitcoin once again set the tone for the broader market. It began the year trading near US$92,000 before surging to successive all-time highs, driven by strong institutional demand and sustained inflows into spot exchange-traded funds.
The world’s largest cryptocurrency first broke above US$109,000 ahead of the US presidential inauguration, then climbed to a peak above US$126,000 in early October. During the summer rally, total cryptocurrency market capitalisation briefly exceeded US$4 trillion for the first time.
Analysts attributed the gains to increased participation by asset managers, pension funds and corporate treasuries, which helped provide a structural base for prices even as volatility increased.
That momentum proved fragile. Shifts in US monetary policy expectations, renewed global trade tensions and heavy use of leverage triggered repeated market reversals.
In October, a sharp sell-off wiped out more than US$19 billion in leveraged positions in a single day, according to market data, the largest liquidation event on record. By November, bitcoin had fallen below US$100,000, and sentiment indicators slid into what traders describe as “extreme fear”.
Bitcoin ended the year near US$87,000, well below its peak but still far above levels seen before 2024.
Regulation emerged as one of the year’s defining themes. In the United States, authorities established a national bitcoin reserve using seized digital assets and passed long-awaited legislation providing a legal framework for stablecoins.
More Read
The new rules allow banks and regulated financial institutions to issue and use dollar-pegged tokens, a move widely seen as accelerating the integration of crypto into the traditional financial system.
Similar policy discussions gained traction in Europe and parts of Central Asia, while global stablecoin market capitalisation rose above $300 billion, reinforcing their growing role in payments, remittances and settlement.
Security concerns returned to the forefront in February, when a major cryptocurrency exchange suffered a breach that resulted in losses estimated at nearly US$1.5 billion.
Investigators later attributed the attack to North Korean hackers, making it the largest theft in the history of the crypto industry. The incident reignited debate over exchange security, decentralisation and accountability, though broader market contagion remained limited.
Despite the scale of the breach, customer funds across most platforms were not affected, helping to prevent a wider loss of confidence.
On the technology front, Ethereum rolled out two major network upgrades aimed at improving scalability and user experience, though its token underperformed the broader market in price terms.
More Read
Crypto firms also moved closer to mainstream finance, with several companies listing on public equity markets, signalling deeper ties between digital assets and traditional capital markets.
By year’s end, the crypto sector appeared more regulated, more institutionalised and more resilient than in previous cycles. While volatility and risk remain central features, the events of 2025 reinforced crypto’s place as a permanent if still unstable fixture of the global financial system.
