In December 2025, centralized exchanges experienced a sharp slowdown across spot and derivatives, with spot volumes falling 32% versus November. Reported trading activity ranged between $990M and $1.13B, according to different accounts. DEX volumes improved late in the year and remained higher than January levels, though still below October's peak.

On January 2, 2026, MON climbed to a one-week high after a short squeeze, gaining over 17% and peaking at $0.028. According to DeFiLlama, Monad's TVL reached a record $251M with $397M in stablecoins, while Upshift says its liquidity rose over 82% to $476M.

In 2025, crypto VC-backed fundraising climbed to $39.95B, rising from roughly $11.5–$13.5B in 2024 and marking a strong recovery in capital deployment. According to monthly data for 2025, there were fewer overall rounds, but deal sizes grew, with late-stage and undisclosed funding dominating activity. Sector focus shifted away from GameFi and NFTs toward on-chain infrastructure, DeFi, AI, and RWA tokenization, while ICO and IDO volumes on Solana and BNB Chain exceeded the 2021 peak.

On January 1, 2026, BROCCOLI spiked on Binance from $0.018 to $0.16 before trading was halted, after activity allegedly tied to a market maker account. Orders up to $26M hit the thin market, and one trader said he profited $1M by flipping from leveraged longs to shorts as the price briefly climbed 10X.

In November, Lighter allocated over $24M in LIT to Jump Crypto for market‑making. According to wallet allocations, Jump Crypto received 323,956 LIT in fees and 9,284,890 LIT as liquidity, equal to 0.93% of total supply and 3.72% of circulating supply. DeFiLlama data shows daily fees fell from $1.39M to $139K in December.

At the end of 2025, stablecoins on Ethereum saw record address activity, with around 593K daily wallets transacting and more than $314B in tokens circulating. USDT kept the largest share of transactions, while USDC, as a fully regulated asset in US and European markets, moved the highest financial value over the past 12 months. Ethereum emerged as a hub for high‑value stablecoin transfers, driven by sustained demand beyond previous market cycles.

In 2025, the MSCI Blockchain Economy Index delivered a 37.03% net gain, its strongest result since 2023, while major crypto market indexes ended the year in the red. The equity-based benchmark, heavily exposed to tech, AI and US-listed blockchain-related stocks, outpaced both the MSCI World Index and S&P’s large-cap and broad digital asset gauges. Financial constituents such as Visa, Mastercard, Robinhood, PayPal and Coinbase showed mixed returns, with Robinhood’s 200% surge offsetting notable losses elsewhere.

On December 30, 2025, perpetual futures DEX Lighter launched trading for its native Lighter Infrastructure Token (LIT) after months of building activity. The token's early price discovery saw levels around $2.80, while the platform reported about $1.4B in value locked and $4.7B in daily trading volume. LIT will distribute 25% of its total supply to point farmers based on two 2025 farming seasons, fully unlocked for trading.

In 2025, Solana-focused treasury firms and exchange-traded funds accumulated more than 28M SOL, amounting to nearly 5% of the circulating supply. These entities built sizable strategic reserves, shifted toward yield within the Solana ecosystem as stock valuations retreated, and continued net ETF inflows while SOL's price remained below $130. The concentration of holdings and staking activity may shape validator dynamics and broader market sentiment heading into 2026.