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It was a mixed week for crypto, with BTC closing a wide but widening gap across sectors. DePIN and Games led a remarkable recovery after a difficult year, where L2s, RWAs and savings transactions continued to decline while outflows remained buoyant.
To add awareness to the new year, we’ve rounded up the weekend’s reading of stablecoin yields, payment methods, interoperability and the hottest news of the past year.
With a shortened trading week due to the holidays, attention shifts to the performance of crypto last week. BTC ended the week up 1.6%, although the performance of altcoins remained mixed.
Big moves can come as a surprise. DePIN and Games led all sectors with 13.1% and 12.6% respectively. These have been two of the weakest performers in 2025, down -79.5% and -81.3% year-on-year, making the recovery visible.
The power of DePIN was driven by FIL and RENDER, which rose 22% and 13% during the week and together account for 49% of the index. Sports followed a similar trend, with IMX up 11%, making the sector the biggest lifter.
At the bottom, L2s and RWAs remained, falling -2.67% and -0.84% for the week. The weakness of L2 was led by MNT and ZORA, down -5.7% and -6.4%. At the same time, other L2 nouns such as OP, ARB, and ZK posted gains between 10% and 20%, which shows a significant difference within the field. RWAs were pressured by the pull of Gold after its strong run this year, with PAXG and XAUT both down -3.4%.
Legs remain strong. As of Dec. 31, ETFs had net inflows of $417.8 million, nearly eclipsing the $428.2 million inflows recorded the previous day.
The digital economy continues to feel the pressure, with mNAV increases continuing. MSTR and BMNR are now trading at mNAV levels of 0.69 and 0.85, underscoring the stress of asset trading as the new year begins.
Reviews given at the end of the year
Neutrl: Unlocking Institutional OTC Yields for Stablecoins
Blockworks Research has discovered that Neutrl brings OTC arbitrage into a stablecoin wrapper, offering market yields that are less dependent on investment funds than existing manufacturing dollars. Early and double-digit yields for sNUSD indicate strong demand, supported by deep token opening pipelines and OTC opportunities through STIX. A key requirement is the deployment of risk to OTC companies, where risks are concentrated in integration, operations and capital management. If the yield holds as TVL grows, Neutrl can show the strength of the original Athena in a more protective form.
Crypto Card Moats
Polaris Fund earns that crypto cards and neobanks have reached a real value as profits move away from payments and tokenization to infrastructure, compliance and financial control. This analysis shows that strong moats come from having the basics in place such as management systems, fixed costs and deep integration, not investment returns. Infra rail providers and DeFi card providers gain huge profits through recurring payments and the shared economy, while CeFi distributors face marginal pressure. As regulations increase, growth will favor players who manage licensing, regulatory and compliance rather than consumer incentives.
25 Figures That Explain How LayerZero Will Help Crypto in 2025
LayerZero gets it that 2025 marked the transition of integration from theory to the foundation of crypto. The data shows assets and stablecoins are increasingly distributed across multiple chains, with connections that facilitate the speed of assets, capital flows and global opportunities. Instead of competing with individual chains, crypto now functions as an interconnected network where value flows freely to where it is needed. Adopting a message-based transfer and open source framework reduces costs and friction, making middleware services feel more like software than money. Compatibility is no longer a problem, but a consistent layer that supports scale.
2025: The News of the Year Moved Faster
Tiger research has found that 2025 was described with fast-paced myths that created interest faster than it could be proven, which led to fatigue and skepticism. Most of the news quickly disappeared, but a small part turned into real events that pushed the market forward, especially when the availability of products was easy and visible. Memecoins showed how users can scale quickly, and how complex transactions can be done without being held back. Efforts like InfoFi highlighted incentive-driven growth but revealed challenges and reliability. A clear advance came when crypto showed the fullness of the market, including stablecoins, prediction markets and payment rails, showing that a stable price emerges only when news meets real needs.
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