The author of this article, Charlie, is the former Vice President of Strike, a cryptocurrency unicorn (involved in El Salvador's Bitcoin bill and responsible for Bitcoin and stablecoin payment businesses in Latin America), a macro analyst at Franklin Templeton, a trillion-dollar fund, and an early member of Adyen North America, a global payment giant. He currently serves as a cryptocurrency strategic advisor to multiple listed companies, startups, and investment institutions.
In 2025, when we look back on human history, it may be regarded as the watershed year for crypto going mainstream.
This year, we not only have new narratives to tell but also mature business models that can be scaled up, and recognized laws and regulations that legitimize us in the mainstream market.
There are structured ETFs and DATs, regulated US dollars (stablecoins, tokenized deposits), regulated institutions (Wall Street), secondary markets themselves (Nasdaq), and even the White House and Capitol Hill – all making a forward-looking judgment: the benefits of moving traditional finance and commerce onto the crypto track are worth bearing the operational and compliance risks we previously worried about.
If 2024 was the 'Return of the Crypto King' year (arguably a 'king-maker,' to some extent a key factor in Trump's election), then 2025 will undoubtedly be the year of 'Crypto Going Mainstream.'
Below, I’ll discuss what I consider to be the top...