Crypto secured regulation, institutions, and adoption in 2025, but confidence never fully followed. 2025 proved crypto’s legitimacy — yet exposed how far it remains from durable, trust-driven growth.

Unsurprisingly, the former leads the latter, but the lag is (highly) variable.

2025 started out with some market uncertainty. But once Liberation Day was past us, things rose pretty smoothly through the rest of the year. 2026 is looking to be a much more wild ride.