VC review of the 2025 crypto value flow: stablecoins, prediction markets, and "veteran players" emerge as the biggest winners

On December 25th, after a year of gradually clarifying regulatory environments and market performance divergence, several top venture capital firms have begun reassessing the value attribution 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 financial and internet “incumbents” are the biggest winners this year. Nystrom pointed out that established companies like Robinhood quickly moved once regulations became clearer, significantly accelerating their crypto strategies in 2025, “well predicting where the hockey puck is headed.” Rashidifard stated that trading volume and profitability of stablecoins have both exploded, “Tether has become one of the highest per capita profit companies.” He emphasized that stablecoins are now not only profitable but also genuinely provide fundamental financial value to end users. Levin listed prediction markets as one of the fastest-growing sectors in 2025, with Kalshi and Polymarket shedding doubts about “volume manipulation” and “only betting on elections.” She specifically mentioned: Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) invested $2 billion in Polymarket this year, which is shocking. From the perspective of failures: on an individual level, Levin named Terraform Labs co-founder Do Kwon. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison in December for fraud related to the Terra collapse, regarded as a landmark failure case in the industry. On an institutional level, Rashidifard believes that the U.S. SEC during the “Biden era” is one of the systemic failures; long-term strict enforcement has not yielded actual regulatory results but has driven many entrepreneurs overseas. He pointed out that with Gensler’s departure, the passage of the GENIUS stablecoin bill, and the advancement of market structure legislation, the U.S. government’s attitude toward the crypto industry has fundamentally shifted in 2025.