Crypto Market Recap: Q3 2025

The First U.S. Crypto Laws

After years of uncertainty, digital assets are finally emerging from the gray zone, paving the way for broader institutional adoption. There were three key developments in the U.S. legislative sphere: the GENIUS Act, the CLARITY Act, and the Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act.

The GENIUS Act, signed into law in July, established the first comprehensive framework for payment stablecoins in the United States. For the first time, issuers had a clear set of rules to follow: reserves must be held in cash or short-term U.S. Treasuries, monthly disclosures are mandatory, and large issues must undergo annual audits. Perhaps most importantly, the law placed regulatory oversight in the hands of the banking system. Insured depository institutions can issue stablecoins under the supervision of their existing regulators, while certain non-bank issuers are overseen directly by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC). This ended the “gray zone” that had long surrounded stablecoins and prompted banks to begin planning their own digital dollar tokens.

Currently, we are seeing an acceleration in stablecoin supply, driven by the GENIUS Act. This increase adds more liquidity to the crypto ecosystem, fueling DeFi activity and supporting upward movements in crypto asset prices.

Almost simultaneously, the House passed the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, commonly known as the CLARITY Act. While it still needs to pass the Senate, the bill gained bipartisan support and lays out a roadmap for resolving the long-standing jurisdictional dispute between the SEC and the CFTC. Under the act, the CFTC would become the primary regulator of digital commodities such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, while the SEC would retain authority over offerings that resemble securities. For exchanges and custodians, the CLARITY Act signals a future of clearer, more predictable oversight, even as details around custody, reporting, and listing rules are still being finalized.

The Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act, passed by the House in mid-July, sent a strong political signal about the future of money itself. The bill prohibits the Federal Reserve from issuing or piloting a retail central bank digital currency, effectively ruling out a Fed-issued digital dollar in the near term. Instead, the U.S. is placing its trust in privately issued, fully backed stablecoins, the very model established by the GENIUS Act.

Together, these three legislative moves mark a turning point. Stablecoins now should operate under a clear framework, market-structure reform is moving forward, and private issuers are positioned as the backbone of the dollar’s digital future.

Global Assets Continue to Hit Record Highs

The S&P 500, gold, and Bitcoin demonstrated strong performance in Q3 2025. In addition, other metals such as silver and platinum showed significant growth, reaching multi-year highs. These market dynamics suggest a notable shift in market structure is underway, though it remains difficult to predict their long-term direction.

As the S&P 500 continues to set new record highs, concerns about market overheating are growing, raising the risk of a potential correction. However, so far there are no clear negative signals in the macroeconomic environment that would point to a break in the prevailing upward trend.

As crypto becomes more integrated into the global financial system, it can no longer be viewed as a protective instrument against an S&P 500 correction in the same way gold is. Crypto market activity is now closely tied to the performance of the S&P 500 and the broader U.S. economy.

Institutional Players Take Over Bitcoin Holdings

Bitcoin showed strong positive dynamics in Q3 2025. The asset continues to mature, attracting significant inflows from institutional investors and gradually becoming less volatile.

So far, Bitcoin has mainly traded within the $108,000–$118,000 range, with a market capitalization of around $2.25 trillion, making its price relatively stable at the current stage.

Bitcoin’s price remained relatively stable in Q3 2025 despite record demand, driven by the S&P 500’s growth. This may suggest a rotation among holders, with long-term investors taking profits while new participants enter the market.

Spot ETF inflows continue to provide strong support for Bitcoin’s price. Holders of Bitcoin ETFs tend to accumulate rather than sell, and so far, the charts show no significant signs of outflows. This trend could persist over the long term, as ETF investors are generally oriented toward long-term holding rather than short-term speculation.

So far, Bitcoin appears to be undergoing a shift in its holder structure, with the retail share gradually giving way to institutional players such as corporations, investment funds, and possibly even, behind the scenes, state-level entities.

Ethereum

Q3 2025 was a breakout quarter for Ethereum. ETH finally took out its previous ATH and posted strong upside. The catalyst came from U.S. legislative moves that pushed stablecoins and DeFi further into the mainstream. Since Ethereum remains the base layer for both, it naturally became one of the biggest winners of this regulatory shift.

Additionally, Ethereum has begun to gain ground against Bitcoin, rebounding from key support near 0.02 and breaking above its 365-day moving average. Historically, the ETH/BTC ratio has peaked at 0.08. If Bitcoin stabilizes around $120,000, Ethereum would need to reach roughly $9,600 to revisit that historical high in the ETH/BTC pair.

Institutional inflows into the Ethereum ETF are rising, though still moderate compared to Bitcoin’s ETF. This suggests considerable room for growth if Ethereum follows the classic crypto cycle, where liquidity first flows into Bitcoin, then rotates into Ethereum, and eventually spreads to altcoins.

Another key driver of Ethereum’s growth is the declining supply held on centralized exchanges, which accelerated sharply this quarter. This trend points to sustained strong demand for Ethereum.

Top Blockchain Performers in Q3 2025: Solana, BNB Chain, HyperEVM, and Avalanche

Solana leads in DEX Volume

Solana DEX volume hit $365B, an 18% increase compared to Q2, with volume holding steady around $120B per month. The network’s TVL is up over 30%, now standing at $30.5B. Both chain fees and revenue also grew QoQ, reaching $122M and $13.9M, respectively. Solana lost its lead in monthly active addresses for the first time since August 2024, surpassed by BNB Chain and Near.

Memecoins remained the main activity driver on Solana. LetsBonk.fun launchpad dominated the market in July with over 70% market share, pushing the usual leader, Pump.fun, far behind. However, Pump fun later regained dominance and now holds nearly 90% of the market share.

One notable launch in August was Jupiter Lend, a lending protocol powered by Fluid. The project attracted over $1B in TVL within just a few days and has become the #2 lending protocol on Solana.

In July, Solana rolled out a major network upgrade that increased block capacity by 20%, raising it to 60 million compute units per block. This boosted throughput and opened the door for improved scalability. Another significant upgrade, Alpenglow, is on the horizon, aiming to reduce transaction finality from around 13 seconds to just 0.1-0.15 seconds.

BNB Chain activity accelerates

It’s been a strong quarter for BNB Chain. Active addresses grew by 57% QoQ, reaching a new ATH of 52.5M. Transaction count also increased – from 892M in Q2 to 1.22B in Q3. In September, chain revenue hit $2.2M, the highest level since March. DEX volume for Q3 reached $225B, marking the highest since Q4 2021.

Most metrics saw accelerated growth in September, following the launch of Aster, a new perp DEX on BNB Chain. As a result, BNB Chain’s perps volume surged by 55% in Q3, hitting $36B.

On the development front, BNB Chain validators are proposing to halve gas fees and increase block speed to boost trading activity, and ensure long-term growth. According to proposal, for traders, market makers, and developers who are most sensitive to fees, these changes strengthen BNB Chain as the preferred chain for trading activity. At 0.05 Gwei, fees would fall to about $0.005 per transaction.

BNB gained over 50% in Q3, hit the $1,000 milestone for the first time, and set a new ATH of $1,079. The BNB Network Company (NASDAQ: BNC), a subsidiary of CEA Industries Inc., has built a portfolio of 418,888 BNB, becoming the largest corporate BNB holder.

Avalanche sees a spike in DEX Volume and TVL

September recorded the highest monthly fees for Avalanche this year – $1.47M.

The network’s TVL reached $4.4B, a new high since the summer 2022. DEX volume surged, with quarterly volume up 185% compared to Q2, hitting $37.1B in Q3, reaching a new ATH.

The surge in activity is primarily driven by growing institutional interest and a wave of new strategic partnerships. AVAX One, a crypto treasury company, aims to raise $550M to accumulate AVAX tokens and become the first publicly traded Avalanche-focused treasury entity. Additionally, the Avalanche Foundation is pursuing $1 billion across two separate deals to establish crypto treasury companies in the U.S.

HyperEVM TVL surges over 100%

In Q3, HyperEVM saw a major infrastructure advancement, with the integration of native USDC and Circle’s Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol (CCTP v2). This allowed users to bridge USDC into the chain seamlessly, eliminating reliance on wrapped versions or custodial bridges.

The move significantly boosted institutionaland retail  interest. As a result, HyperEVM more than doubled its TVL in Q3, now standing at $7.2B.

What’s more, HyperEVM continued to benefit from its deep composability with HyperCore, enabling smart contracts to tap directly into Hyperliquid’s liquidity and order book. Earlier in Q3, the deployment of CoreWriter allowed HyperEVM contracts to write data to HyperCore, completing a critical step in on-chain composability between layers.

Notably, a Hyperliquid-native stablecoin, USDH, was launched in September by Native Markets.

Altcoin highlights

HYPE reached a new ATH of $59.26, but later retraced to $45 as competition in the perps sector intensified. Recently, HLP’s fee share was reduced to 1%, with 99% of fees redirected to the Assistance Fund for HYPE buybacks. Over the past 30 days, $83M worth of HYPE has been bought back Additionally, Bitwise submitted a spot ETF proposal to the SEC for Hyperliquid, aiming to provide regulated exposure to HYPE. 

MYX became the first perp DEX token to skyrocket, gaining over 15,000% since August. The initial pump was driven by its Binance Alpha listing and anticipation of the V2 launch, while the next wave of growth came from speculative buying pressure, drawing skepticism from market analysts. A report from Rena Labs found extreme deviations across trade intensity, bid-ask spread, volume spikes, and liquidity. On-chain analysis showed that prior to token airdrop, dozens of new wallets were funded near-synchrony and claimed large allocation of MYX, raising concerns over a possible sybil attack.

ZORA made a strong 1200% run, but later pulled back to $216M market cap. The rise was caused by integration with the Base App and a Binance Futures listing.

ENA grew by over 100% in Q3, driven by the launch of StablecoinX, a publicly traded treasury company that initially raised $360M to execute a buyback and accumulation program for ENA. StablecoinX later raised another $530M, bringing its total financing to $890M – pushing Ethena's ENA treasury toward 3B tokens.

ASTER soared over 1,000% following the launch of Aster DEX, which kickstarted the real perps season. The token’s market cap quickly surpassed $4B, largely thanks to CZ, who posted several tweets in support of Aster.

Memecoins cool off, but Pump.fun is still the king

Q3 was a true rollercoaster for the memecoin trenches. July marked the first time Pump.fun was truly dethroned. LetsBonk.fun gained momentum and managed to capture the majority of memecoin traders, outperforming PF across all key metrics that month.

However, the reign of this new king was short-lived. Pump fun reclaimed leadership in August, driven by the launch of the Full Glass Foundation, the initiation of the PUMP buyback program, the introduction of creator fees, and the relaunch of livestreams.

Currently, Pump fun holds nearly 90% of the market share by volume, although overall volumes remain well below ATHs. In terms of other metrics, Pump fun generated $119M in fees in September, ranking 4th across the entire crypto space.

The memecoin sector cooled off in September as user attention shifted to perp trading. As a result, on September 28, daily volumes across all launchpads dropped to $90M, the lowest in many months, and total daily graduates fell to just 79.

DeFi is thriving: Aave sets new records, Pendle and Fluid gain momentum

Aave

Aave’s TVL jumped over 70% in Q3, rising from $42B to $74B, and further strengthening its position as the leading DeFi protocol. The growth is driven by the project’s expansion to new networks (Plasma, Linea, and others) and the increased dollar value of deposited tokens, primarily Ethereum.. It also crossed a major milestone of $3T in total deposits.

In terms of product updates, Aave Labs launched Horizon, a new lending market where institutions and other qualified users can borrow stablecoins against real-world assets (RWAs). At launch, collateral options include assets from Circle, Superstate, and Centrifuge. Horizon is currently standing at $175M TVL.

Aave also became the first DeFi protocol to reach $1B TVL on six different networks. Interestingly, the recently added chains outpaced older competitors: Plasma is now the second-largest chain on Aave with $6.6B TVL, followed by Linea with $2.2B.

Pendle

With $17M in fees, Pendle recorded its best quarter ever. The protocol’s TVL soared from $5B to $13B, before correcting back to $7B alongside broader market pullbacks. The main contributors to Pendle’s TVL are sUSDe, USDe, and kHYPE.

Pendle also formed key partnerships, integrating Kinetiq’s kHYPE and Maple’s syrupUSD into its ecosystem. In August, the team launched Boros, a platform for trading tokenized yield from perpetual funding rates. It introduced Yield Units (YUs) – synthetic assets representing future yield – enabling new ways to speculate, hedge, or earn on funding rate movements.

Fluid

In Q3, Fluid solidified its position among the top DEXs. It became the #4 DEX by volume in September with $27B, and the #2 DEX on Ethereum.

The protocol set a new ATH in quarterly fees – $22.3M, generating over $1M in revenue for three consecutive months. Fluid also expanded to Solana through a partnership with Jupiter, launching Jupiter Lend.

Additionally, Fluid introduced DEX Lite, an ultra gas-efficient DEX designed specifically for correlated asset pairs, like stablecoin/stablecoin.

Perp DEX Wars: Hyperliquid, Aster, Lighter

The recent perp DEX wars have radically reshaped the competitive landscape in just a few weeks.

The real rally began with the relaunch of Aster, a perp DEX on BNB Chain directly tied to the Binance ecosystem. Aster’s daily perp volume grew from $300M in August to a peak of $85B on September 28, while monthly volume reached $420B. In September, Aster generated $134M in fees, ranking third among all crypto projects, behind only Tether and Circle.

Other protocols like Lighter, edgeX, and Avantis are also aggressively competing for dominance and trading volume, putting pressure on the sector leader, Hyperliquid.

Amid the strengtened competition, Hyperliquid saw a 30% drop in monthly perp volume in September – $282B vs $398B in August. Monthly fees also declined from $114M to $87M. However, despite the intenfied competition, the bigger picture for HL still looks solid. Hyperliquid set new all-time records with $111M in fees in August and $294M in total fees for the quarter. In September, it ranked third by revenue across the entire crypto industry.

Deven with the volume decline, Hyperliquid remains far ahead of competitors in open interest, currently holding over 1.5x the combined OI of the next 10 protocols. This reflects genuine community belief and demand, as the platform’s volume comes organically – not driven by any points incentives.

Stablecoins: USDT & USDC, USDe supply growth, XLP launch 

The total stablecoin market cap is nearing $300 billion. Net inflows soared from $10.8B in Q2 to $45.6B in Q3, marking a 300%+ increase.

USDT remains the sector leader with a 58.7% market share, followed by USDC at 24.7%. In third place is Ethena’s USDe, holding 4.8% of the market and showing impressive growth, as its supply rose from $5.3B to $14.7B in Q3.

Ethereum remains the dominant chain for stablecoins, with $171B in circulating supply. It’s followed by Tron ($76.7B), Solana ($12.8B), and Arbitrum ($9.4B).

One of the most anticipated launches this quarter was Plasma, a high-performance L1 blockchain purpose-built for stablecoins. It offers instant, fee-free payments with institutional-grade security. At launch, over 100 DeFi projects were already deployed on Plasma. As of October 1, its DeFi TVL stands at $13.6B, ranking 4th among all chains, while its stablecoin market cap is $5.8B, ranking 6th.

Reflecting high demand, the XPL token surged over 70% in the two days following its launch, but has since pulled back close to its TGE price.

Despite the strong growth in the total stablecoin market cap, there are signs of a potential cool-off. Stablecoin transfer volume fell from $3.5T in August to $3.2T in September, and monthly active addresses dropped by 23%, down to 26 million.

Prediction markets: Polymarket vs Kalshi rivalry

Prediction markets have emerged as one of the strongest narratives in Q3, with two clear leaders – Polymarket and Kalshi – battling for dominance. Although Polymarket had held the lead for many months, the landscape is shifting. In September, Kalshi surpassed Polymarket by notional volume: $2.86B vs $1.44B. Currently, Kalshi holds a 57% market share compared to Polymarket’s 40%. One of the main reasons behind Kalshi’s rise is that iti is a fully regulated prediction market in the U.S., approved by the CFTC. Another reason is that Kalshi targets a wider audience, including non-crypto-native users, with no wallet requirement, and fiat deposits/withdrawals

As of October 1, the following statistics reflect the state of active markets on Polymarket and Kalshi:

Other players, such as Limitless, Myriad, and others, collectively hold around 3% of the market share. Notably, HIP‑4 (Hyperliquid Improvement Proposal 4) was introduced on September 16, aiming to add “Event Futures”, binary/prediction-style markets, to Hyperliquid’s perpetual trading platform.

Interestingly, prediction markets are now crossing over into mainstream culture. A recent South Park episode featured both Polymarket and Kalshi, with characters betting on everything from school lunches to geopolitical events. Notably, the exposure sparked real activity – Kalshi attracted ~$1.5M in volume tied to the episode, while Polymarket saw a more modest response.

The bottom line

Q3 2025 marked a historic turning point for crypto, with the U.S. passing its first federal crypto laws and the market responding with record-breaking growth across stablecoins, DeFi, prediction markets, and onchain trading. Institutional adoption accelerated, fueled by regulatory clarity, ETF inflows, and the rise of new infrastructure. While some sectors showed signs of cooling, the overall trajectory remains upward – crypto is no longer on the fringe, but firmly integrated into the global financial system.