After a yr of regulatory adjustments and uneven market efficiency, crypto buyers are reevaluating the place worth will happen in 2025.
In a latest podcast, Pantera Capital companion Mason Nystrom, Hash3 co-founder Hootie Rashidifard, and Variant companion Alana Levin cited established firms like Robinhood as this yr’s high performers, together with stablecoin firms and prediction markets.
Nystrom mentioned incumbents benefited by appearing as soon as the regulatory surroundings grew to become clearer. He pointed to Robinhood, which he mentioned had taken a cautious stance on cryptocurrencies lately earlier than shifting extra aggressively in 2025, including that incumbents have “carried out a terrific job of staying forward of the pack” as transparency emerges.
Stablecoins are additionally a transparent winner, Rashidifard mentioned, pointing to speedy progress in buying and selling quantity and issuer profitability, noting that “Tether is essentially the most worthwhile firm on the planet per worker.” he mentioned:
“In 2022-2023, nobody was touting a stablecoin-founded venture as a terrific factor of their portfolio, however now persons are considering, ‘Oh, it is a actually enticing and fascinating enterprise,’ as a result of it not solely generates income, however truly supplies worth to some finish prospects.”
Valeant’s Levin highlighted prediction markets as one of many quickest rising classes in 2025, saying platforms like Calci and Polymarket have overcome preliminary doubts about wash buying and selling and election-only exercise. She mentioned:
“I believe a yr in the past, Calci and Polimarket had been each valued at lower than $1 billion. So this yr, Intercontinental Trade is investing $2 billion in Polimarket, which is superb.”
Associated: Hyperliquid listed on LIT, Polymarket stakes surge on Lighter airdrop
Losers in area in 2025
Enterprise capital executives additionally pointed to clear losers, citing each people and entities that weighed on the crypto trade this yr.
Levin singled out Do Kwon, co-founder of Terraform Labs, because the decisive particular person loser. Do Kwon was sentenced to fifteen years in jail on December 11 after pleading responsible to wire fraud and conspiracy prices associated to the collapse of Terra, which worn out about $40 billion from the cryptocurrency market in 2022.
Rashidifard pointed to the “Biden-era” U.S. Securities and Trade Fee as a widespread systemic loser, arguing that years of aggressive enforcement have yielded few lasting advantages.
He described the interval as “adversarial for nonsensical political causes,” and mentioned it pressured the corporate’s founders abroad till coverage adjustments in 2025 following the resignation of former SEC Chairman Gary Gensler. He added that the passage of the GENIUS Act and the Cryptocurrency Market Construction Invoice sign a broader change within the authorities’s strategy.
The GENIUS Act, handed in July, established a federal framework for stablecoin issuance, reserves, and regulatory oversight in the US, however the market construction invoice was delayed after the Senate Banking Committee postponed its markup listening to till 2026.
journal: Do Kwon sentenced to fifteen years in jail for Bitcoin’s ‘intermittent dance’: Hodler’s Digest, December Seventh-Thirteenth
