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2025 CRYPTO HIGHLIGHTS
A Resounding Year!
Crypto mergers & acquisitions reached record levels of activity in 2025, and consideration paid grew by over seven times from last year.
Crypto private financings demonstrated the return of late stage equity investors after a very long 36-month hiatus, in spite of artificial intelligence businesses stealing the spotlight.
The Rise and Fall of Digital Asset Treasury companies (DATs)
Amazingly 221 DATs were formed and announced the intention to raise ~$145B in capital in the six months between March and September 2025. This activity trailed off quickly as the so-called multiple of net asset value (“mNAV”) premium evaporated for most.
Crypto IPOs Reemerge
Debuts by eToro, Circle, Bullish, Figure and Gemini were generally very well received but are now trading below their highs. This group, at year end, has contributed ~$37B in equity value to the public crypto markets.
The Year of Early Euphoria Returns to the Hard Work of Building Enduring Businesses
One year ago we started our State of Crypto Markets report with:
“The U.S. elections and associated expected shift in the U.S. regulatory stance have
changed everything”
This has proven accurate, however, as typical, the hard work reveals itself. By the end of Q1 2025 the tariff experiment was in full swing, creating economic uncertainty but the roller coaster turned upward in Q2 and Q3 with strong crypto asset price performance. Q4 saw a decided reversal in crypto asset values which was particularly noticeable as public equity markets continued to strengthen.
Bitcoin, Ethereum and the DeFi Pulse Index ended the year down 6%, 12% and 43% from last year’s levels, respectively. For comparison, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq were up 17% and 21%.
Building businesses is hard, long work taking years and decades. The market speaks daily and sometimes detaches from the fundamentals. We counsel founders to focus on what they can control, daily mark-to-market valuation certainly isn’t.
ARCHITECT’S STRATEGIC THEMES FOR 2026
Traditional Financial Services are Coming
Traditional banking, securities and payments businesses increasingly fully recognize the opportunity and threat. More developed and finalized regulatory guidelines will increase aggressiveness and likely result in many new product introductions and “bridge” M&A transactions by traditional players.
Crypto Doesn’t Stand Alone
Competitive dynamics are quickly shifting as traditional financial services enters the fray with their unmatched assets: clients, origination and distribution. Traditional crypto business will be expanding the aperture of the strategic planning to reflect this reality.
Crypto and Digital Assets Will Increasingly Co-Exist
While much discussed and long-in-coming, on-chain digital assets (which sometimes cross over into the securities regulatory framework) will demonstrate increasing acceptance. Stablecoins, tokenized money market funds and the efforts of companies like Figure and their HELOC products are several examples which will proliferate. As noted above, traditional financial services players have key strengths to lead here.
More Initial Public Offerings are Coming
Numerous companies are on that track for 2026 which may prove even stronger than 2025.
Late Stage Private Capital Financing Market Improves
2025 demonstrated the return of late stage equity financings at scale. It always starts with the “highest quality” businesses attracting capital but we anticipate a broader breadth of businesses will have access to growth capital in 2026.
Blockchain Continues To Move Beyond Speculation – An Important Next Step
Stablecoins are proving to be a real-world use case, with both businesses and consumers participating. What other use cases have viability and can scale? The answer continues to remain opaque.
While Volatile this Past Year, Crypto Has Delivered Exceptional Value Creation
Crypto has attracted $175B of risk capital (excluding DATs) and represents $3.7T in value, a 21.1x gain, far better than traditional venture investing. Again, this far outpaces the Internet at the same point in market development.
Eric F Risley
Founder & Managing Partner
January 4, 2026