What stood out to us from the latest Binance Research is how far the space moved away from pure speculation and into real infrastructure. Activity didn’t disappear, it just matured.
Bitcoin’s role changed the most. Price strength held even as base-layer activity cooled, which tells you liquidity and velocity moved off-chain. ETFs, custody, and institutions stepped in. Over $21B flowed into spot BTC ETFs, dominance stayed near 60%, and corporate and institutional holdings crossed 1.1M BTC. This looks less like a trade and more like a macro asset now.
DeFi also hit a turning point. In 2025, top protocols generated $16.2B in real revenue, more than Nasdaq and CME combined. Even more interesting, RWA TVL surpassed DEX TVL for the first time. Collateral is shifting from volatile assets to tokenized treasuries and credit, which changes how risk and yield work onchain.
Stablecoins might be the biggest signal of all. $33T in annual transaction volume, nearly double Visa. Market cap crossed $300B, and usage stayed resilient even during risk-off periods. They’ve clearly become the default settlement and access layer for crypto, not just a trading tool.
BNB Chain is a good case study of where things are heading. It handled 15 to 18M daily transactions while also hosting institutional RWAs like BlackRock’s BUIDL. Retail scale on one side, TradFi-grade products on the other. That balance is hard to pull off, and it shows what real adoption looks like.
Looking ahead to 2026, this isn’t about predictions. It’s about how the market is actually structured now. Crypto is now macro-led, institutions are participating through regulated rails, and value is shifting toward apps, wallets, and real usage. Less noise, more allocation.
If you want a data-led view of what actually worked in 2025 and why that matters for 2026, the full Binance Research report is worth reading 👉🏻 https://www.generallink.top/en/research/analysis/full-year-2025-and-themes-for-2026/
This isn’t investment advice, just signals from real usage.
