In review: 2025 was a big year for cryptocurrency. Cryptocurrency payment users grew 24.8%, to 4.9 million US adults, per our forecast. Between institutional buy-in and unprecedented support at the highest levels of the US government, the crypto market hit record highs—before plummeting in the final months of the year.

Below, we take a closer look at the defining crypto trends from 2025:

1. The GENIUS Act drives institutional buy-in

• The GENIUS Act ushered in regulatory clarity. With guidelines in place, payment players, financial institutions, retailers, and cryptocurrency projects embraced stablecoins to speed up transaction rates, lower fees, and simplify cross-border payments.
• Klarna said that it would launch a stablecoin.
• Zelle is exploring a stablecoin to power remittances. 
• Fiserv launched its own token, FIUSD, and JPMorgan issued the JMPD deposit token.
• And Citi and Coinbase struck a partnership to build out the bank’s crypto infrastructure.

Our take: Banks are interested in stablecoins to maintain their payments dominance despite disruptive technologies, making partnerships to build out crypto-friendly infrastructure more essential than ever. 

Large retailers—think Walmart, Amazon, Starbucks—may also consider stablecoin-based transactions to avoid interchange fees at checkout. And gig economy staples like DoorDash could embrace stablecoins for faster driver payouts. 

2. Payee preference drives crypto payments.

• 35.4% of crypto users paid with cryptocurrency due to the request of the seller, more than any other reason, per a report from the Federal Reserve of Kansas City.
• This finding suggests that cryptocurrency still faces an uphill battle in mainstreaming itself as a payment method rather than an investment asset for consumers. 

Our take: Crypto proponents likely want to reverse this sentiment as they build out stablecoin acceptance within their merchant platforms and develop crypto wallets. 

However, most consumers are skeptical of cryptocurrency as a payment option, requiring these players to increase incentives for change to happen.

3. Remittances

• Cross-border payments offer the most promising application for cryptocurrency, helping remittance senders avoid fees and sending money to loved ones overseas faster.
• Legacy players like MoneyGram and Western Union have incorporated stablecoins into their remittances businesses, while newcomers like SoFi and Zelle explored crypto-powered cross border payments after the passage of the GENIUS Act.

Our take: Until consumer sentiment shifts on crypto, remittances will dominate stablecoin use cases. Major banking partners like Zelle’s intent to explore cross-border payments threatens to upend legacy players’ market share, maximizing ease by letting users move money right within their banking app.

4. Crypto winter 

• Bitcoin, Ether, and XRP’s values plunged in November after October valuation highs. Realized losses approached levels not seen since the FTX crisis.
• Unlike in 2022, those losses are hardly contained to the financial fringes. Large hedge funds suffered their steepest losses in three years, and investors have pulled billions out of ETFs from providers like BlackRock.

Our take: Crypto gained mainstream momentum, but its volatility hasn’t changed. For banks and crypto infrastructures, this unpredictability kneecaps efforts to integrate crypto as an accepted currency at the point-of-sale.