The global crypto market closed the year 2025 under pressure as the wild last quarter of the year erased most of the gains made earlier in the year. According to report from CoinGecko, the total market cap declined by 23.7% in the last quarter of the year, erasing a total of $946 billion from the market cap for the year, which now stands at $3.0 trillion. The market declined by 10.4% for the year, which is the first annual decline since 2022.
The sell-off came after a brief rise that pushed the total cryptocurrency market to $4.4 trillion. The momentum reversed after a $19 billion liquidation on October 10, due to U.S. tariffs on China. The prices dropped significantly to late November, but then stabilized in a small range towards the end of the year.
Market Pullback Hides Record Trading Levels
Despite the price decreases, market activity remained brisk. Volatility increases pushed the average daily trading volume to a yearly high of $161.8 billion in Q4, an increase of 4.4% from the previous quarter. This occurred despite the fact that most of this activity occurred in the vicinity of the liquidation event in October.
In 2025, there was a distinct separation between crypto and traditional assets. Gold was first with a 62.6% increase, followed by U.S. stocks: Nasdaq with a 20.5% increase and S&P 500 with a 16.6% increase. Bitcoin declined by 6.4%, performing worse than both. Stablecoins increased significantly in 2025, with market value rising 48.9% to a record high of $311 billion in Q4.
Not all projects performed well in 2025. Ethena’s USDe saw a significant drop in its USDe, down 57.3% in mid-October due to a Binance depeg. On the other hand, PayPal’s PYUSD entered the top five stablecoins, up 48.4% to $3.6 billion due to YouTube rewards and an attractive 4.25% yield.
Crypto Holdings Hit Record Levels by 2026
Institutional demand increased through Digital Asset Treasury Companies, which invested at least $49.7 billion in 2025 to purchase crypto assets. This amount was invested in just the third quarter.
By January 1, 2026, the total amount of crypto assets held by these companies was $134.0 billion, a 137.2% increase from the previous year. The total amount of Bitcoin and Ether held by these companies exceeded 1 million Bitcoin and 6 million Ether, which comprised more than 5% of the total supply.
The derivatives markets increased substantially in 2025. The centralized exchanges’ perpetual futures contracts were up 47.4% to $86.2 trillion. The decentralized exchanges increased 346% to $6.7 trillion, and the prediction markets were up 302.7% to $63.5 billion.
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