According to the report published by Binance Research (Market Insights January 2025), the cryptocurrency market's market value soared to a historical high of $3.91 trillion in December 2024, driven by regulatory optimism, institutional adoption, and Bitcoin reaching a historical high of $108,000. However, as the Federal Reserve reduced its interest rate cut plan from four times to two in 2025, the market corrected at the end of December, with a market value evaporation of over $0.5 trillion.
Bitcoin's market value increased by approximately 123.4% over the year, becoming the seventh largest asset globally, surpassing Saudi Aramco and silver, and only behind Nvidia's performance. The main drivers include the approval of spot ETFs, Bitcoin halving, changes in monetary policy, and more supportive regulatory expectations for cryptocurrencies.
Additionally, Ethena's USDe market cap has reached $5.9 billion, surpassing DAI to become the third largest stablecoin, thanks to its high yield and application as collateral for Aave. Decentralized spot and perpetual contract trading volumes reached historical highs of $326 billion and $356 billion in December, respectively, while decentralized perpetual trading volume grew over 370% year-on-year, mainly driven by Hyperliquid.
The TVL in the DeFi sector also reached new highs, with lending protocols and liquid staking protocols reaching $55 billion and $71 billion, respectively. AI agents are gradually becoming an emerging hotspot in the cryptocurrency sector, with relevant tokens reaching billions of dollars in market cap, averaging about 100,000 exposures per day, with representative projects including the Eliza framework by Virtuals and ai16z, as well as individual agents like aixbt.
