VC Review of 2025 Crypto Value Flows: Stablecoins, Prediction Markets, and "Established Players" Emerge as the Biggest Winners
TL;DR
VCs highlight stablecoins, prediction markets, and established players as 2025's crypto winners, with stablecoins gaining profitability and value, prediction markets growing rapidly, and incumbents like Robinhood expanding. Failures include individual cases like Do Kwon and institutional issues like the SEC's enforcement.
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[VC Review of 2025 Crypto Value Flow: Stablecoins, Prediction Markets, and Established Players Emerge as Biggest Winners] According to Mars Finance, on December 25th, after a year of increasingly clear regulatory environments and divergent market performance, several top venture capitalists began reassessing the value distribution of the crypto industry in 2025. In a recent podcast, Pantera Capital partner Mason Nystrom, Hash3 co-founder Hootie Rashidifard, and Variant partner Alana Levin unanimously agreed that stablecoins, prediction markets, and traditional finance and internet "incumbents" are the biggest winners this year. Nystrom pointed out that established companies like Robinhood acted swiftly after regulatory clarity emerged, significantly accelerating their crypto expansion in 2025, "predicting very well where the puck would go." Rashidifard stated that stablecoin trading volume and profitability have both exploded, with "Tether becoming one of the most profitable companies per capita." He emphasized that stablecoins now not only generate profits but also truly provide fundamental financial value to end users. Levin lists prediction markets as one of the fastest-growing sectors in 2025, with Kalshi and Polymarket having shed accusations of "volume manipulation" and "election betting." She specifically mentions the impressive $2 billion investment ICE made in Polymarket this year. From the perspective of those who have failed: On an individual level, Levin names Do Kwon, co-founder of Terraform Labs. His 15-year prison sentence in December for fraud related to the Terra crash is considered a landmark failure in the industry. On an institutional level, Rashidifard argues that the SEC during the "Biden era" was a systemic failure; its long-term hardline enforcement failed to yield real regulatory results and instead forced many entrepreneurs to leave. He points out that with Gensler's departure, the passage of the GENIUS stablecoin bill, and the advancement of market structure legislation, the US government's attitude towards the crypto industry has fundamentally shifted by 2025.