
The year 2025 is set to be highly dramatic for the cryptocurrency industry. Changes in policies, prices, security, and market structure are making this year an important milestone in the history of crypto development. From the policy shift of the Trump administration to the Bitcoin price hitting an all-time high, and the $1.4 billion hacker incident involving Bybit, multiple events are shaping market sentiment and capital flow.
In early 2025, after Trump returned to the White House, he sent clear friendly signals towards encryption currency. This includes supporting Bitcoin mining, advancing a stablecoin legislative framework, and adopting a relatively lenient regulatory attitude towards encryption innovation. These policies significantly boosted market risk appetite in the short term, leading to a wave of rise in crypto assets overall.
However, the impact of policies is not solely positive. With the increasing uncertainty of trade policies, fiscal deficits, and the trend of the dollar, the encryption market has also experienced a phase of correction, indicating that crypto assets are still deeply influenced by the macro environment.
Under multiple favorable factors, Bitcoin repeatedly refreshed its historical highs in 2025, once breaking through the 120,000 USD mark. Continuous net inflows of ETFs, the ongoing effects of the halving cycle, and institutional allocation demand are the core drivers pushing the price rise.
However, the high-level market is also accompanied by severe fluctuations. During certain periods, Bitcoin experienced a significant daily pullback, triggering discussions in the market about the “top risk.” This intense volatility reflects the market of 2025, which includes both long-term capital allocation and short-term speculative forces at play.
Another significant feature of 2025 is the frequent actions of OG Whales. Some Bitcoin addresses that have been dormant for years are activated during the price rise phase, drawing market attention. The transfers and cashing out behaviors of these long-term holders are often seen as potential top signals.
Although the Whale has not triggered a systemic sell-off, its capital flow has significantly increased market volatility during certain time periods. This also reminds investors that on-chain data will still be an important tool for assessing market sentiment in 2025.
By mid-2025, the concept of DAT (Digital Asset Tokenization) rapidly gained popularity. From real-world assets being put on the blockchain to the tokenization of financial products, DAT is seen as a key bridge connecting traditional finance and the encryption world. In a short period, a large number of projects surged in, and the prices of related tokens quickly rose.
However, as the quality of projects diverges and regulatory scrutiny tightens, the DAT frenzy gradually cools down. Some projects lacking real asset backing have quickly fallen back, and the market is beginning to reassess the sustainability of the “narrative-driven market.”
One of the most impactful events of 2025 was the hacker attack on Bybit, which resulted in approximately $1.4 billion in losses. This incident became one of the highest loss security incidents in encryption history.
The investigation shows that hackers did not intrude through traditional vulnerabilities but instead exploited human trust weaknesses in the multi-signature process to carry out social engineering attacks. This incident again exposes that even leading trading platforms still have risks in complex permission management and internal process security.
In an environment where high returns and high risks coexist, the investor sentiment in 2025 is clearly more polarized. Some long-term investors choose to continue holding core assets, such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, while short-term traders frequently enter and exit the market amid high volatility.
The Bybit hacker incident and the burst of the DAT bubble have also prompted more users to re-evaluate asset custody, security diversification, and risk control, driving an increase in the usage of cold wallets and self-custody tools.
Looking back at 2025, the encryption industry has undergone critical tests in terms of policy, price, and security. It is foreseeable that in 2026, the market will pay more attention to the compliance process, infrastructure security, and real application implementation.
For investors, understanding macro policies, paying attention to on-chain data, and avoiding blindly chasing trends may become more important long-term strategies in the future. The experiences and lessons left in 2025 will continue to influence the development direction of the next stage of the encryption market.











