Top 10 Biggest Cryptocurrency Moments of 2025

Bitcoin crossed the $100,000 psychological milestone for the first time in December 2024, reaching an all-time high of $108,135 on December 17. The milestone was driven by post-election optimism following Donald Trump's pro-crypto campaign promises, institutional ETF inflows exceeding $6 billion in a single week, and MicroStrategy's $42 billion Bitcoin treasury accumulation strategy.

Bitcoin's fourth halving event on April 19, 2024 reduced block rewards from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC, cutting daily new supply from ~900 to ~450 coins. Unlike previous cycles where price lagged the halving by months, the 2024 halving occurred while Bitcoin was already near all-time highs — demonstrating the structural demand impact of pre-approved ETF capital flows.

The SEC approved spot Ethereum ETFs in May 2024, with products from BlackRock, Fidelity, and VanEck launching in July. While flows were slower than Bitcoin ETFs due to the absence of staking yield, the approval legitimized Ethereum as an institutional-grade asset and pushed ETH above $4,000 for the first time since the 2021 bull market peak.

MicroStrategy's inclusion in the Nasdaq-100 index in December 2024 forced passive index funds to automatically purchase its stock, driving a 458% single-year gain. The company held 446,400 Bitcoin worth $44 billion, making it the world's largest corporate Bitcoin holder by a factor of ten and inspiring a wave of corporate Bitcoin treasury strategies from other public companies.

Solana recaptured the #3 spot by market cap in 2024-2025 after recovering from the FTX collapse of 2022, reaching $290 per SOL. Its high-throughput blockchain became the dominant platform for meme coins, DeFi, and the Trump-affiliated TRUMP and MELANIA token launches which generated billions in trading volume in January 2025 within 48 hours of mint.

President Trump signed executive orders in January 2025 creating a Presidential Working Group on Digital Asset Markets and halting development of a US CBDC. His administration appointed pro-crypto SEC chair Paul Atkins and moved to establish a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve — the first time a government formally considered BTC as a strategic national reserve asset alongside gold.

Coinbase's inclusion in the S&P 500 index in May 2024 marked crypto's definitive arrival in mainstream finance. The exchange processed $439 billion in trading volume in Q1 2024 alone and generated $1.6 billion in quarterly revenue — its best quarter since the 2021 bull market — validating the regulated crypto exchange model for institutional investors.

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried was sentenced to 25 years in federal prison in March 2024 after being convicted on seven counts of fraud and conspiracy. The $8 billion FTX collapse he orchestrated wiped out over 1 million customers, triggered the 2022 crypto winter, and resulted in the largest financial fraud prosecution in crypto history.

Ethereum's Dencun upgrade in March 2024 introduced proto-danksharding (EIP-4844), reducing Layer 2 transaction fees by up to 99%. Average transaction costs on Optimism, Arbitrum, and Base dropped from $0.50 to under $0.001, making Ethereum-based DeFi and NFTs economically viable for everyday users and driving a 300% increase in L2 transaction volume within six months.

Bitcoin crossed the $100,000 psychological milestone for the first time in December 2024, reaching an all-time high of $108,135 on December 17. The milestone was driven by post-election optimism following Donald Trump's pro-crypto campaign promises, institutional ETF inflows exceeding $6 billion in a single week, and MicroStrategy's $42 billion Bitcoin treasury accumulation strategy.

Bitcoin's fourth halving event on April 19, 2024 reduced block rewards from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC, cutting daily new supply from ~900 to ~450 coins. Unlike previous cycles where price lagged the halving by months, the 2024 halving occurred while Bitcoin was already near all-time highs — demonstrating the structural demand impact of pre-approved ETF capital flows.

The SEC approved spot Ethereum ETFs in May 2024, with products from BlackRock, Fidelity, and VanEck launching in July. While flows were slower than Bitcoin ETFs due to the absence of staking yield, the approval legitimized Ethereum as an institutional-grade asset and pushed ETH above $4,000 for the first time since the 2021 bull market peak.

MicroStrategy's inclusion in the Nasdaq-100 index in December 2024 forced passive index funds to automatically purchase its stock, driving a 458% single-year gain. The company held 446,400 Bitcoin worth $44 billion, making it the world's largest corporate Bitcoin holder by a factor of ten and inspiring a wave of corporate Bitcoin treasury strategies from other public companies.

Solana recaptured the #3 spot by market cap in 2024-2025 after recovering from the FTX collapse of 2022, reaching $290 per SOL. Its high-throughput blockchain became the dominant platform for meme coins, DeFi, and the Trump-affiliated TRUMP and MELANIA token launches which generated billions in trading volume in January 2025 within 48 hours of mint.

President Trump signed executive orders in January 2025 creating a Presidential Working Group on Digital Asset Markets and halting development of a US CBDC. His administration appointed pro-crypto SEC chair Paul Atkins and moved to establish a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve — the first time a government formally considered BTC as a strategic national reserve asset alongside gold.

Coinbase's inclusion in the S&P 500 index in May 2024 marked crypto's definitive arrival in mainstream finance. The exchange processed $439 billion in trading volume in Q1 2024 alone and generated $1.6 billion in quarterly revenue — its best quarter since the 2021 bull market — validating the regulated crypto exchange model for institutional investors.

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried was sentenced to 25 years in federal prison in March 2024 after being convicted on seven counts of fraud and conspiracy. The $8 billion FTX collapse he orchestrated wiped out over 1 million customers, triggered the 2022 crypto winter, and resulted in the largest financial fraud prosecution in crypto history.

Ethereum's Dencun upgrade in March 2024 introduced proto-danksharding (EIP-4844), reducing Layer 2 transaction fees by up to 99%. Average transaction costs on Optimism, Arbitrum, and Base dropped from $0.50 to under $0.001, making Ethereum-based DeFi and NFTs economically viable for everyday users and driving a 300% increase in L2 transaction volume within six months.