Analysis: Crypto entered mainstream in 2025 but market response remained muted

In its 2026 crypto outlook report, The Block assessed that while the crypto industry achieved long-awaited progress in institutional adoption and regulatory clarity in 2025, prices largely failed to rebound and overall market sentiment remained lukewarm. Below is a CoinNess summary of the key market takeaways for 2025: - Total crypto market cap reached a record high of $4.3 trillion, but price gains were concentrated in only a handful of tokens - Layer 1 blockchains began to diverge in roles: Solana, BNB, and Hyperliquid gained attention as centers for speculative asset trading, while Ethereum strengthened its position as a data availability (DA) hub under its rollup-centric roadmap - Newly launched Layer 1 networks pursued differentiated strategies, leading to increased ecosystem specialization - Coinbase’s Layer 2 network, Base, emerged as a new market leader - Platforms targeting institutions and consumers directly launched their own Layer 2 infrastructure - Large-scale institutional adoption of real-world asset (RWA) tokenization accelerated - On-chain trading volumes were driven by derivatives and prediction markets, including perpetual decentralized exchanges (perp DEXs) - Digital Asset Trust (DAT) investment firms emerged into the spotlight - The spot crypto ETF market expanded to include assets such as Solana and Ripple - The U.S. shifted toward a more clearly defined, rules-based regulatory framework