{"id":57843,"date":"2025-12-25T10:40:21","date_gmt":"2025-12-25T03:40:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hbbgroup.net\/from-stablecoins-to-incumbents-vcs-map-crypto-value-in-2025\/"},"modified":"2025-12-25T10:40:21","modified_gmt":"2025-12-25T03:40:21","slug":"from-stablecoins-to-incumbents-vcs-map-crypto-value-in-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hbbgroup.net\/vi\/from-stablecoins-to-incumbents-vcs-map-crypto-value-in-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"From stablecoins to incumbents, VCs map crypto value in 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"<div data-testid=\"html-renderer-container\">\n<p data-ct-non-breakable=\"undefined\">After a year of regulatory change and uneven market performance, crypto investors are reassessing where value accrued in 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In a recent podcast, Pantera Capital partner Mason Nystrom, Hash3 co-founder Hootie Rashidifard and Variant partner Alana Levin identified incumbents, such as Robinhood, alongside stablecoin companies and prediction markets as this year\u2019s top performers.<\/p>\n<p>According to Nystrom, incumbents benefited from acting once the regulatory environment became clearer. He pointed to Robinhood, which he said had taken a cautious stance toward crypto in recent years before moving <a href=\"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/news\/robinhood-200-million-acquisition-bitstamp\" rel target=\"_self\" title=\"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/news\/robinhood-200-million-acquisition-bitstamp\">more aggressively in 2025<\/a>, adding that incumbents \u201chave done an excellent job getting ahead of where the puck is skating\u201d as clarity emerged.<\/p>\n<p><template data-ct-widget=\"buzzsprout\" data-buzzsprout-podcast-id=\"2040516\" data-buzzsprout-episode-id=\"18123316\"><\/template><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/news\/stablecoins-300-billion-market-cap-47-growth-ytd\" rel target=\"_self\" title=\"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/news\/stablecoins-300-billion-market-cap-47-growth-ytd\">Stablecoins were another clear winner<\/a>, according to Rashidifard, who pointed to rapid growth in transaction volumes and issuer profitability, noting that \u201cTether is the most profitable company on the planet per employee.\u201d He said:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cIn 2022-2023, no one was touting their stablecoin-founded project as the cool thing in their portfolio, and now people are like, \u2018oh wow, that\u2019s a really sticky interesting business,\u2019 and not just because it generates revenue, but because it actually provides value to some end customer.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Variant&#8217;s Levin highlighted <a href=\"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/news\/cz-yzi-labs-prediction-market-opinion-beats-kalshi-polymarket\" rel target=\"_self\" title=\"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/news\/cz-yzi-labs-prediction-market-opinion-beats-kalshi-polymarket\">prediction markets<\/a> as one of the fastest-growing categories of 2025, saying platforms such as <a href=\"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/news\/kalshi-300-million-raise-prediction-markets-140-countries\" rel target=\"_self\" title=\"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/news\/kalshi-300-million-raise-prediction-markets-140-countries\">Kalshi<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/news\/polymarket-us-launch-10b-valuation-prediction-markets\" rel target=\"_self\" title=\"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/news\/polymarket-us-launch-10b-valuation-prediction-markets\">Polymarket<\/a> have moved past earlier doubts about wash trading and election-only activity.\u00a0She said:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cI think a year ago both Kalshi and Polymarket were under a billion dollar valuations, and then to see the Intercontinental Exchange invest $2 billion into Polymarket this year, that\u2019s like mind-blowing.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><em><strong>Related: <\/strong><\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/news\/polymarket-odds-lighter-airdrop-surge-hyperliquid-lit-usdc\" rel target=\"_self\" title=\"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/news\/polymarket-odds-lighter-airdrop-surge-hyperliquid-lit-usdc\"><em><strong>Polymarket bets surge on Lighter airdrop as Hyperliquid lists LIT<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n<h2>Losers in the space in 2025<\/h2>\n<p>The venture capital executives also pointed to clear losers, citing both individuals and institutions that weighed on the crypto industry this year.<\/p>\n<p>Levin singled out Do Kwon, the co-founder of Terraform Labs, as a defining individual loser. Do Kwon <a href=\"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/news\/do-kwon-sentenced-prison-guilty-plea\" rel target=\"_self\" title=\"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/news\/do-kwon-sentenced-prison-guilty-plea\">was sentenced to 15 years in prison<\/a> On Dec. 11 after pleading guilty to wire fraud and conspiracy charges tied to the Terra collapse, which erased roughly $40 billion from the crypto market in 2022.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Rashidifard pointed to the \u201cBiden-era\u201d US Securities and Exchange Commission as a broader institutional loser, arguing that years of <a href=\"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/news\/lessons-operation-chokepoint-hearings\" rel target=\"_self\" title=\"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/news\/lessons-operation-chokepoint-hearings\">aggressive enforcement<\/a> produced little lasting benefit.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><iframe width=\"100%\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ry9MI57Pbjs?start=\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>He described the period as \u201chostile for politicized reasons that made no sense,\u201d saying it drove founders overseas before policy shifted in 2025 following the departure of former SEC Chair Gary Gensler. He added that the passage of the GENIUS Act and a crypto market structure bill signaled a broader change in the government\u2019s approach.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/news\/stablecoin-genius-act-donald-trump-signing\" rel target=\"_self\" title=\"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/news\/stablecoin-genius-act-donald-trump-signing\">GENIUS Act<\/a>, passed in July, established a federal framework for stablecoin issuance, reserves and regulatory oversight in the United States, while the market structure bill has been delayed after the <a href=\"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/news\/us-crypto-market-structure-legislation-delayed-until-2026\" title=\"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/news\/us-crypto-market-structure-legislation-delayed-until-2026\">Senate Banking Committee postponed<\/a> markup hearings until 2026.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Magazine: <\/strong><\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/terraform-labs-do-kwon-bitcoin-price-choppy-action-hodlers-digest\/\" rel target=\"_self\" title=\"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/terraform-labs-do-kwon-bitcoin-price-choppy-action-hodlers-digest\/\"><em><strong>Do Kwon sentenced to 15 years, Bitcoin\u2019s \u2018choppy dance\u2019: Hodler\u2019s Digest, Dec. 7 \u2013 13<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n<p><template data-name=\"subscription_form\" data-type=\"crypto_biz\" label=\"Subscription Form: Crypto Biz Newsletter\"><\/template><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After a year of regulatory change and uneven market performance, crypto investors are reassessing where value accrued in 2025.\u00a0 In [&hellip;]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":57844,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[220],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-57843","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tien-dien-tu"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hbbgroup.net\/vi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57843","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hbbgroup.net\/vi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hbbgroup.net\/vi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hbbgroup.net\/vi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hbbgroup.net\/vi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57843"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hbbgroup.net\/vi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57843\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hbbgroup.net\/vi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hbbgroup.net\/vi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hbbgroup.net\/vi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hbbgroup.net\/vi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}