Market Insights, Stablecoin Growth, and Institutional Adoption Analysis.

| "This is the year the world came onchain." - a16z crypto

After weathering market downturns and political uncertainty, crypto has crossed a maturation threshold that few could have predicted just three years ago.

The industry's total market capitalization surpassed $4 trillion for the first time, while active users grew to between 40-70 million, a figure that, while impressive, pales in comparison to the 716 million people who now own crypto assets. The industry seems to be leaving its adolescence behind and entering a new phase. One where crypto becomes integrated into the “fabric” of the global economy.

Perhaps nothing signals this maturation more powerfully than the explosive growth of stablecoins, which have evolved from tools for crypto speculation into the backbone of a new global payments system. Stablecoins processed an astonishing $46 trillion in total transaction volume over the past year, with $9 trillion in adjusted volume after filtering out bot activity and artificial inflation.

To put this in perspective, this adjusted figure is more than five times PayPal's annual throughput and represents over half of Visa's volume! Stablecoins accomplish this by moving dollars across borders in under one second for under one cent. Monthly stablecoin transaction volume reached nearly $1.25 trillion in September 2025 alone, and this activity was largely uncorrelated with the broader crypto trading volume, indicating genuine real-world use rather than speculation. Besides that, stablecoins now hold over $150 billion in U.S. Treasuries, making them the 17th largest holder globally, and over 1% of all U.S. dollars now exist as tokenized stablecoins on public blockchains. As foreign central banks reduce their Treasury holdings for the first time in 30 years, holding more gold than U.S. debt, stablecoins are projected to grow 10-fold to $3 trillion by 2030, presenting a sustainable source of demand for U.S. debt and paradoxically strengthening dollar dominance through decentralized technology.

The infrastructure improvements underpinning crypto's maturation are nothing short of revolutionary when viewed through a multi-year lens.

Blockchains now process over 3,400 transactions per second, representing a 100-fold increase from just five years ago when the figure was fewer than 25 transactions per second. This throughput now rivals the Nasdaq's completed trades and matches Stripe's global payment processing on Black Friday, and - funny enough - it's being achieved at a fraction of historical costs, with transaction fees on Ethereum Layer 2 networks plummeting from around $24 in 2021 to less than one cent today!

Solana has emerged as a high-performance leader with its native applications generating $3 billion in revenue over the past year, while planned upgrades are expected to double the network's capacity by year-end. Ethereum has successfully executed its scaling roadmap by migrating most economic activity to Layer 2 solutions like Arbitrum, Base, and Optimism, making Ethereum-linked blockspace abundant and cheap. Cross-chain interoperability has advanced significantly through bridge protocols like LayerZero and Circle's Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol, with Hyperliquid's canonical bridge alone processing $74 billion in volume year-to-date. Privacy technologies are experiencing a renaissance, with Zcash's shielded pool growing to nearly 4 million ZEC, Railgun surpassing $200 million in monthly transactions, and even the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control lifting sanctions on Tornado Cash.

But perhaps most notably from this report is the fact that the institutional embrace of crypto in 2025 represents a complete reversal from the skepticism and outright hostility that characterized previous years. Traditional financial giants including BlackRock, Fidelity, JPMorgan Chase, Visa, and Mastercard are no longer watching from the sidelines, since they’re offering crypto products directly to consumers alongside traditional equities and bonds.

Alongside the institutions, the United States have also undergone a remarkable policy transformation that has revitalized builder confidence and positioned America as a leader rather than an adversary in crypto innovation. The passage of the bipartisan GENIUS Act established a framework for stablecoins, while the House approval of the CLARITY Act addressed market structure and digital asset oversight, signaling cross-party consensus that crypto is here to stay.

Crypto serves different needs in different contexts

The geographic and demographic distribution of crypto adoption reveals fascinating patterns about how different parts of the world engage with the technology.

Mobile wallet usage, a strong indicator of onchain activity, is growing fastest in emerging markets like Argentina (which saw a 16-fold increase over three years amid an escalating currency crisis), Colombia, India, and Nigeria (regions where crypto provides practical solutions to currency instability and limited access to traditional financial infrastructure).

Meanwhile, web traffic analysis shows that interest in tokens skews more toward developed nations, particularly Australia and South Korea, where activity appears more focused on trading and speculation rather than practical financial utility.

In developing economies, crypto represents a genuine financial infrastructure providing access and stability, while in developed markets it's often viewed as an investment asset class.

Bitcoin's journey to an all-time high above $126,000 reinforces its growing acceptance as a store of value among investors, still representing more than half of crypto's total market capitalization. However, when examining "real economic value" (a measure of how much users actually pay to use blockchains rather than just market cap), Hyperliquid and Solana account for 53% of revenue-generating economic activity, representing a significant departure from Bitcoin and Ethereum's historical dominance and suggesting that chains facilitating actual economic activity are gaining ground.

What about Crypto’s Builder Ecosystem?

Crypto remains mostly multichain with distinct strengths emerging across different platforms.

Ethereum, combined with its Layer 2 networks, was the top destination for new developers in 2025, benefiting from its mature ecosystem, extensive tooling, and first-mover advantages in smart contract development.

Solana has become one of the fastest-growing ecosystems with builder interest increasing 78% over the past two years, driven by founders attracted to its high performance and low fees for consumer applications.

Bitcoin also continues to command developer attention despite its more limited programmability, reflecting its status as the most secure and decentralized network.

An interesting trend is that while memecoin launches exploded to over 13 million in the past year, monthly launches dropped 56% from January to September 2025, suggesting this phenomenon may be cooling as regulatory clarity paves the way for more productive blockchain use cases. Similarly, while NFT market volume remains far below its 2022 peak, the number of monthly active buyers has been growing, signaling a shift from speculation to genuine collecting behavior enabled by cheaper blockspace on chains like Solana and Base.

Key Takeaways of the a16z State of Crypto report

All the necessary components for mainstream integration have been assembled, and 2025 marks the moment when potential becomes reality.

• The infrastructure is ready, having achieved transaction speeds and costs that rival traditional financial systems.
• The distribution is in place, with major financial institutions and fintechs integrating crypto into their offerings and bringing hundreds of millions of potential users onchain.
• Regulatory clarity is arriving through bipartisan legislation that provides builders and institutions with the certainty they need to move forward confidently.
• Stablecoins have demonstrated undeniable product-market fit as the fastest, cheapest way to move dollars globally, and are projected to grow 10-fold while strengthening U.S. dollar dominance even as traditional Treasury demand weakens.
• The convergence with AI opens trillion-dollar opportunities in agent economies, decentralized compute, and proof-of-human systems.
• Real-world asset tokenization is bridging crypto and traditional finance, while DePIN is reimagining physical infrastructure coordination.

Seventeen years after Bitcoin's creation, crypto is leaving its adolescence and entering adulthood. The question is no longer whether crypto will integrate into the mainstream economy, but how quickly that integration will occur and which applications will drive the next wave of hundreds of millions of users onchain.

The foundation has been laid, the obstacles have been cleared, and 2025 will be remembered as the year the world truly came onchain.

FAQ

1. What is the a16z State of Crypto 2025 Report about?

The a16z State of Crypto 2025 Report analyzes how crypto reached maturity, highlighting stablecoin growth, stronger regulation, and major institutional adoption, focusing on how blockchain technology is becoming a core part of the global financial system.

2. How big is the crypto market in 2025?

According to the a16z State of Crypto 2025 Report, the total crypto market capitalization surpassed $4 trillion in 2025. This marks a major milestone driven by expanding user adoption, new blockchain infrastructure, and the entry of global financial institutions.

3. What new regulations are shaping the crypto industry?

Two major U.S. laws, the GENIUS Act and the CLARITY Act, created clear legal frameworks for stablecoins and digital assets. These regulations encourage innovation while giving investors and developers more confidence in the crypto market.

4. Which countries are leading crypto adoption?

Emerging economies such as Argentina, India, Colombia, and Nigeria are seeing the fastest crypto adoption rates. Residents use digital assets for everyday payments, savings, and protection against inflation, showing crypto’s growing real-world value.

5. Which blockchain ecosystems are growing fastest?

Ethereum remains the leading platform for developers, while Solana has grown rapidly thanks to low fees and high-speed performance.