Why 2025 was crypto’s year of wins, yet its least satisfying victory

By most conventional measures, 2025 should have been remembered as crypto’s breakthrough year. Regulation finally arrived in force. Institutional capital flowed through regulated channels. Bitcoin printed a new high. Stablecoins crossed multi-trillion-dollar volumes. On-chain markets expanded beyond native tokens into equities and commodities. And yet, as the year closes, the dominant mood is not triumph