Morning Minute: a16z’s ‘State of Crypto 2025’ Highlights Growth & Key Trends

Morning Minute is a daily newsletter written by Tyler Warner. The analysis and opinions expressed are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of Decrypt. Subscribe to the Morning Minute on Substack.

GM!

Today’s top news:

• Crypto majors rebound another 1-2%; BTC at $111,000
• Trump pardons CZ; brief bounce in BNB eco tokens
• JPMorgan to allow spot crypto collateral for institutional clients
• Meteora’s MET token debuts, settles around $570M fdv
• MegaETH shares new MEGA utility, tokenomics leak

📊 a16z’s State of Crypto 2025

Price action may have been mostly sideways so far in 2025.

But 2025 isn’t a hangover year—it’s the year crypto goes mainstream.

At least, that’s what a16z is saying.

📌 What Happened

Andreessen Horowitz released its 2025 State of Crypto on Wednesday with a clear message: crypto has leveled up.

Literally, with their estimated number of monthly active crypto users growing to 40M-70M, up 10M from last year as the total crypto market cap passed $4T.

The report pairs narrative with data (and a live dashboard) covering institutional adoption, stablecoins, faster/cheaper chains, RWAs, and the crypto–AI crossover.

Here’s a brief TL;DR of the key trends from the report:

• Stablecoins went mainstream.
  • Rising on-chain payment volume and cleaner methodologies have helped make stablecoins a credible settlement rail for consumers and businesses, and now more than 1% of all U.S. dollars exist as stablecoins on public blockchains
• Blockchains got faster and cheaper.
  • L2s and new infra drove costs down and throughput up, widening the design space for consumer apps
• AI x crypto converged.
  • The dawn of AI agent integration into crypto is here, with autonomous agents, provenance, and payments as natural touchpoints where blockchains provide identity, incentives, and markets for AI.
• The US Crypto market structure matured.
  • The GENIUS Act and the CLARITY Act have shown bipartisan consensus that crypto is thriving and here to stay in America
  • DEX share, perps, and prediction venues evolved alongside better compliance plumbing; a16z frames this as market depth—not just noise.
• Blockchain infra is “almost” ready
  • Massive improvements in blockchain processing power have enabled a wave of new apps like perps and prediction markets and have driven DEX (Decentralized exchange) volumes up and to the right

The written report also came with a very nice data visualization dashboard, which showed a few other key trends:

• Crypto onchain TVL is back near 2021 ATHs and ETH is leading the way
• Mobile wallet users have risen steadily and now leveling out around 40M
• Ethereum, Base and Solana are leading for developer focus
• DeFi is still the dominant builder app category along with infra
• AI and Privacy are leading blockchain technology trends (AI with 52%!)
• The US is dominating geographic builder density along with Europe

🧠 Why It Matters

People often associate crypto with negative activities (money laundering) or focus on the bad headlines more than the good.

It’s refreshing to see a16z’s annual report to refocus on all the positive things happening in crypto.

And 2025 has truly been a banner year.

• The institutions are finally here, and they’re here because of all of the development work (and political work) put in over the past years.
• Stablecoins are booming and might just be the US’s answer to the debt crisis and US dollar debasement.
• The regulatory environment is more friendly than ever and builders are finally building in the US again.
• And we are at the dawn of the AI x Crypto intersection, a trillion dollar sector.

Crypto is as exciting as it’s ever been. Don’t lose the plot…

🌎 Macro Crypto and Memes

A few Crypto and Web3 headlines that caught my eye:

• Crypto majors are green and rebounding; BTC +1% at $110,800, ETH +2% at $3,940, BNB +2% at $1,120, SOL +1% at $191
• MYX (+14%), VIRTUAL (+13%), ZEC (+11%) and WLFI (+11%) led top movers
• Stocks and crypto flipped green yesterday ahead of Oct 30th meeting between Trump in Xi in South Korea
• JPMorgan announced plans to allow institutional clients to use Bitcoin and ETH as collateral for loans
• Trump pardoned Binance founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao
• An alleged “Trump insider” whale closed a $200M Bitcoin short and booked fresh profits, bringing its lifetime total to $100M+ on Hyperliquid
• Revolut won a MiCA license in Cyprus and hinted a stablecoin could be next
• Ledger introduced its new Nano Gen 5 wallet, with features and a redesign from Apple designer Susan Kare
• Trezor launched the “quantum-ready” Safe 7 hardware wallet

In Corporate Treasuries / ETFs

In Memes

• Meme coin leaders are green; DOGE +1%, Shiba +1%, PEPE +3%, PENGU +1%, BONK +3%, TRUMP +1%, SPX +6%, and FARTCOIN +9%
• 4 rebounded 29% to $113M; SANTA jumped 170% to $14M leading Base movers; ZaraAI jumped 600% to $3M on Sol
• TIBBIR jumped another 10% to $370M and nearing a new ATH

💰 Token, Airdrop & Protocol Tracker

Here’s a rundown of major token, protocol and airdrop news from the day:

• Meteora debuted its MET token, falling 36% to $0.57 and a $570M fdv
• MegaETH tokenomics leaked, showing 10B token supply and a whopping 53.3% for “KPI staking rewards;” more details expected from the team today
• Robinhood listed Hyperliquid’s HYPE token for trading, the first CEX to do so

🚚 What is happening in NFTs?

Here is the list of other notable headlines from the day in NFTs:

• NFT leaders were red again on Thursday; Punks -1% at 37.9 ETH, Pudgy -1% at 6.94, BAYC +1% at 7.2 ETH; Hypurr’s -1% at 1,210 HYPE
• GLHFers (+50%) were a notable top mover after the surprise NFT Strategy announcement
• Cambria Islands led volume on the day, opening at 0.15 ETH floor
• A Victor Wembanyama NBA Top Shot Moment sold for $20,000 last night after his 40-point season debut