Binance Research has published a full-year report summarising what defined crypto markets in 2025 and outlining themes for 2026.
The report outlines the most decision-useful takeaways, with emphasis on the structural signals: clearer regulatory frameworks, expanding institutional access, stablecoins scaling as settlement infrastructure, DeFi maturing into a cash-flow sector, and tokenisation moving from pilot programs to production workflows.
2025 delivered milestone achievements alongside a choppy market.
Total crypto market capitalisation surpassed $4 trillion for the first time, and Bitcoin reached a new all-time high of $126,000. At the same time, macro uncertainty, monetary policy, trade tensions, and geopolitical risk dominated market behaviour.
Binance Research describes a year defined by “data fog”, including a new U.S. administration, the Liberation Day tariff shock, and a government shutdown that obscured economic signals.
Crypto traded in a wide range, with total market value swinging between about $2.4 trillion and $4.2 trillion, and ended the year down about 7.9%.
The optimistic reading is that structural progress continued even when price action did not cooperate, and that is one of the clearest maturity signals in the report. Access, settlement rails, and regulation moved forward, and many of the strongest growth areas were tied to practical usage rather than speculation.
A useful theme for 2025 is industrialisation: the market increasingly rewards infrastructure and credible access routes.
Regulatory clarity, particularly around stablecoins, and the expansion of regulated investment products increased the number of ways institutions and sophisticated investors could participate.
At the same time, the ecosystem’s economic centre of gravity continued shifting toward compliance-friendly building blocks: stablecoins for settlement, tokenised treasuries for on-chain cash management, and applications that can monetise recurring flows rather than one-off hype cycles.
This is one reason “activity” alone became a weaker signal. The report repeatedly distinguishes between raw usage metrics and economic relevance: what matters is whether a network or protocol can capture recurring value, produce durable fees or revenue, and support reliable settlement and trading.
In 2025, Bitcoin showed a divergence between market demand and base-layer activity. BTC maintained roughly 58% to 60% market dominance and a capitalisation near $1.8 trillion, while liquidity and demand increasingly flowed through off-chain financial channels.
Two numbers in the report anchor that shift: the U.S. spot BTC ETFs have accumulated over $21 billion in net inflows, and corporate holdings have surpassed 1.1 million BTC, equivalent to about 5.5% of total supply.
At the same time, active addresses declined by about 16% year over year, and transaction counts remained below prior-cycle peaks. The point is not that the base layer is irrelevant, but that Bitcoin’s market role is increasingly defined by how it trades and is held within macro portfolios and regulated channels.
Network security continued to strengthen, hash rate exceeded 1 zettahash per second, and mining difficulty rose about 36% year over year, reinforcing the idea of sustained investment in Bitcoin’s security budget even as usage metrics normalised.
In sum, Bitcoin is moving toward the status of a liquid, institutional-grade macro asset rather than a purely transaction-led network.
DeFi in 2025 moved further away from incentives-first growth and closer to capital efficiency and compliance.
Total value locked stabilised at about $124.4 billion, but the composition of capital shifted meaningfully toward stablecoins and yield-bearing assets rather than inflationary tokens.
In parallel, DeFi’s economic output strengthened: protocol revenue reached $16.2 billion, a figure the report frames as comparable to that of major traditional financial institutions.
A major trend was tokenisation’s move from narrative to collateral. RWA total value locked reached $17 billion, surpassing DEXs, driven by tokenised treasuries and equities.
This dynamic essentially changes what backs on-chain finance. When collateral shifts toward yield-bearing, real-world instruments, DeFi becomes more closely tied to repeatable financial demand.
The report also notes that on-chain execution continued gaining relevance, with DEX-to-CEX spot trading ratios peaking near 20%.
While ratios fluctuate, the broader trend is that decentralised execution is becoming a meaningful venue for certain flows, especially as stablecoins grow and RWA collateral becomes more liquid and usable.
