In 2025, the US crypto sector was in a very confident mindset. The sector suddenly had political goodwill, less scrutiny, and a series of policy moves that many executives had thought were impossible after years of legal pressure, unclear regulations, and public doubt. For an industry that has always relied on momentum and hope to survive, the year seemed like a long-awaited confirmation. But there is a deeper worry that is starting to come out: the fundamentals for long-term stability are still not in place, and 2026 may not be as forgiving.
The change started almost right away when Donald Trump took office for the second time. His administration swiftly signaled a warmer attitude toward digital assets by undoing some of the tight rules that the previous government had put in place. One of the first modifications came from the Securities and Exchange Commission, which took back crypto accounting advice that corporations had called unrealistic and harsh. The government also dismissed a number of high-profile litigation that were initiated during the Biden administration against big exchanges like Coinbase and Binance. For a lot of people in the sector, these measures were the end of what they saw as regulation by enforcement.
These actions were not just for show. They have real implications on the whole financial system. Bank authorities made it simpler for banks to hold digital assets and offer associated services by relaxing the regulations for how traditional financial institutions work with crypto companies. A few years ago, it would have seemed impossible for certain crypto businesses to get conditional permission for bank licenses. These reforms, together with the legalization of new crypto-linked financial products and the government’s intention to create a bitcoin stockpile, helped push bitcoin to new all-time highs and sparked renewed interest in digital assets among the general public.
It looked like the momentum couldn’t be stopped from the outside. Venture funding came back slowly but surely. Institutional investors who had been sitting on the sidelines started to test the waters again. During years of regulatory uncertainty, it was hard for crypto companies to talk openly about growth, recruiting, and long-term strategy. Critics, on the other hand, said that fast expansion without clear rules may put investors at danger and make the whole financial system weaker.
People in the sector have become more cautious about their hopes. Executives agree that 2025 brought some big wins, but the hardest problems are still not solved. The lack of detailed laws about how the crypto market should work is still a big problem. Companies still don’t know how future administrations or regulators will interpret existing laws because there are no clear federal standards that say which digital assets are securities, commodities, or something else entirely.
Miller Whitehouse-Levine, CEO of the Solana Policy Institute, stated at a Reuters NEXT event, “This year’s been a good year for crypto, even though there’s still a lot of work to do.” His response is in line with what a lot of policy leaders and founders think. The relief people feel in 2025 is real, but it is also weak.
Trump’s ties to the cryptocurrency business have been a big part of what has made this climate what it is. He actively supported the industry during his campaign, promising to be a “crypto president” and making digital assets a key part of American innovation. Trump’s own family getting involved in crypto businesses brought the industry even more into the political mainstream. This has made it hard to tell the difference between policy, business, and personal investment, which fans and critics still argue about.
The sector has also been quite involved in politics. Crypto businesses and executives gave more than $245 million to help candidates that were perceived as friendly to blockchain and digital assets during the 2024 election cycle. The purpose for many donors was simple: to have legal clarity that accurately represents how crypto works, rather than forcing it into frameworks that were designed decades ago for regular securities markets.
In the middle of 2025, that effort paid off when the House of Representatives passed a big law that attempted to make the structure of the crypto market clearer. The law suggested ways to figure out whether a token should be considered a security, a commodity, or something else entirely. For the first time, there was a real effort to write down differences that the business has been asking for since it began.
But once the bill got to the Senate, things slowed down. Lawmakers still disagree on important parts of the bill, including those about anti-money-laundering controls and how to regulate decentralized finance systems. DeFi, which lets people trade and lend crypto without going via a middleman, is hard for authorities who are used to keeping an eye on centralized institutions. Some senators say that tighter protections are needed to stop illegal activities, while others worry that restrictions that are too strict could stifle innovation.
Because of this parliamentary gridlock, businesses are stuck in an uncomfortable holding pattern. Even if enforcement pressure has gone down, the lack of permanent legal definitions means that policy changes in the future could quickly undo the advances made today. A lot of companies are now looking ahead to early 2026, when the SEC is anticipated to look at a “innovation exemption” that might temporarily free them from some regulatory restrictions. These kinds of exemptions seem promising, but they are limited by nature and can alter.
In a larger sense, people may regard 2025 as a turning moment instead of an end point. The year showed how swiftly the crypto business may benefit from political agreement, but it also showed how much that success still depends on laws that haven’t been passed and regulators’ discretion. People’s views are also changing. Some people think that crypto’s expanding role in the financial system is unavoidable, while others are still cautious because they remember prior market crashes and high-profile failures.
