With the arrival of the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump in early 2025, the cryptocurrency market entered a period of unprecedented regulatory support and explosive growth. Over the year, Bitcoin set new price records five times and experienced the largest crash in history. Institutional investors increased their cryptocurrency capital by hundreds of billions of dollars, while the U.S. President's family earned over $1 billion from their own crypto projects. Concurrently, the Bank of Russia prepared a concept for regulating cryptocurrencies for all categories of investors.
"RBC-Crypto" has compiled a list of key events that shaped the crypto market in 2025.
State Reserve and Regulation in the USA
With the arrival of the Trump administration in early 2025, the cryptocurrency market received a new impulse for acceptance from U.S. regulators. In one of his first decrees, Trump highlighted the development of the dollar stablecoin market as a priority and instructed the creation of a U.S. state reserve consisting of confiscated cryptocurrencies. However, the audit of the crypto assets of federal agencies, which are supposed to form the basis of the reserve, scheduled for April 5, 2025, has still not been conducted.
In July, the GENIUS Act law on cryptocurrencies was passed, regulating stablecoins and being the first law adopted in 2025 concerning the crypto market. In August, the White House published a 166-page report with regulatory recommendations, indicating that the Trump administration intends to usher in a "golden age of cryptocurrencies."
At the beginning of the year, the Trump administration took a pro-cryptocurrency stance and disbanded the special unit of the Department of Justice for cryptocurrency cases. And the Securities and Exchange Commission began dismissing lawsuits against the industry, including proceedings against the exchanges Coinbase, Kraken, Binance, and other major market participants.
Trump's Income
In 2025, with the participation of Trump, his family, and his inner circle, at least four separate cryptocurrencies plus projects in the crypto business sphere were launched. These included the American mining company American Bitcoin, co-founded and directed by the third son of President Donald Trump, Eric. Also, the company Trump Media Group CRO Strategy, which is forming a reserve of Cronos (CRO) tokens from the Cronos blockchain project, developed by the American exchange Crypto.com.
Determining the exact amounts of income received for all beneficiary groups around these projects is extremely difficult or even impossible. But according to expert estimates, Trump and members of his family received over $1 billion in pre-tax profit from cryptocurrency projects over the past year.
Institutional Demand
The trend of accumulating cryptocurrencies on corporate balance sheets as a reserve became widespread in 2025 — such organizations were called DAT-projects (Digital asset treasury). They are publicly engaged in creating and managing a cryptocurrency reserve mainly by raising debt funds, issuing shares or bonds.
For example, by the end of the year, Bitcoin reserves on the accounts of such companies exceeded 5.1% of the total emission of the main cryptocurrency or more than $95.5 billion. Ethereum companies accumulated 5% of the "ether" emission, amounting to almost $18 billion. Organizations based on Solana added over $2.3 billion to their reserves, or about 3% of the total coin supply.
The category of institutional demand also includes exchange-traded funds (ETFs) based on cryptocurrencies. Such instruments provide investors with access to the crypto market through the NASDAQ and NYSE exchanges in the form of stocks. As of December 29, the assets under management of such funds amounted to over $113 billion in Bitcoin and over $17.7 billion in Ethereum.
Whales
One of the features of this year was the activity of long-term Bitcoin investors, who sold record volumes of cryptocurrency in recent years, as stated by many analysts and key market players.
Various estimates and calculations, depending on the holding period of assets, point to tens of billions in Bitcoin changing hands over recent years.
For example, Galaxy data showed that in 2025, 470,000 BTC (about $50 billion) that had not moved for more than five years were transferred. And Bloomberg noted that in October alone, since Bitcoin's historical high of around $126.2 thousand, "old" holders sold $45 billion worth of Bitcoin.
Bitcoin's Price Peak
In 2025, Bitcoin updated its historical price record five times. The first time the price updated its peak was in January on the day of Trump's inauguration at nearly $110 thousand.
The next annual maximum was reached in May, when quotes rose to $112 thousand. A new record day occurred in July, when the price broke through $123 thousand. An attempt to overcome $125 thousand was in August, and the historical price peak occurred in early October, when Bitcoin broke through $126 thousand for the first time.
The October Crash
October 2025 became historic for Bitcoin and the cryptocurrency market as a whole. In the first week of the month, the price of the main cryptocurrency updated its record, and just a few days later, the crypto market saw the largest liquidation of trading positions — almost $20 billion in one day. On the night of October 11, cryptocurrency prices began to fall after a statement by Donald Trump about a possible increase in tariffs on products from China imported into the USA.
Two of the ten largest events in terms of trading position liquidations on the crypto market occurred in 2025. At the end of September, traders lost about $3.6 billion. This happened against the backdrop of the U.S. Federal Reserve's decision to lower the credit rate on September 17, after which markets likely expected a continuation of positive dynamics.
Regulation in Russia
The Russian market was no exception in the sphere of cryptocurrency regulation. At the end of December, the Bank of Russia announced the completion of the development of a concept for regulating the digital asset market, including cryptocurrencies. The draft of the corresponding legislative amendments has been sent to the government for approval.
According to the regulator's new concept, both qualified and non-qualified investors will gain access to the purchase of crypto assets. However, different rules and limits will apply to these two categories.
This approach signifies a substantial change from the position previously held by the Bank of Russia: previously, the regulator advocated for completely restricting access for non-qualified investors to cryptocurrency transactions.
At the same time, the Central Bank continues to monitor the crypto market. The regulator publishes in its reports estimates of the volume of operations of Russian citizens with digital assets. It also monthly includes Bitcoin in a comparative review of the profitability of various assets when investing in rubles.
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