If you only
watched the price ticker this year, you might think 2025 was just another
boom-and-bust cycle. Bitcoin (BTC) roared to $126,000, headlines screamed about
“digital gold,” and then the inevitable gravity of Q4 set in, bringing
all of us back down to earth.
A lot was
happening behind the charts. From Washington and policy shifts, through London
prime brokerage desks, to European regulation. Here are the top five stories that shaped the cryptocurrency market in 2025 and
that also matter for the CFDs industry:
1. Ripple’s $1.25 Billion
Infrastructure Play
For years,
crypto companies were content to stay in their lane, but Ripple Labs smashed
that convention in April. By acquiring Hidden
Road Partners for $1.25 billion, the blockchain payments firm bought a seat at the adult table of
global finance.
Brad Garlinghouse, CEO, Ripple; Source: LinkedIn
“We are at an inflection point for the next phase of digital asset adoption, the US market is effectively open for the first time due to the regulatory overhang of the former SEC coming to an end, and the market is maturing to address the needs of traditional finance,” said Brad Garlinghouse, CEO of Ripple.
The deal
gives Ripple a massive prime brokerage network and the ability to handle credit
and clearing for traditional assets. Mid-sized FX and CFD brokers are looking
nervously at their liquidity providers, realizing that the entities powering
their trade execution might soon be owned by the very crypto giants they used
to view as niche competitors.
How companies should approach Europe for crypto license? “Once an entity has a MiFID licence, extending it to include a MiCA licence is indeed a simpler process,” revealed CySEC Chair.
2. The U.S. Government Turns “Hodler”
The
regulatory frost in the United States evaporated this year. The pivot began in
March with an executive order creating a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, halting the
sale of seized assets. But the real structural change came in July. President
Trump signed the GENIUS Act
into law, finally
giving stablecoin issuers a federal playbook.
This ended
the era of “regulation by enforcement” that had paralyzed the sector.
For the first time, U.S. institutions had clear rules of the road, and the
government itself legitimized Bitcoin as a sovereign store of value.
- This New Bitcoin Price Prediction Shows BTC Will Hit “Only” $150K in 2026
- Gold Price Prediction 2026: WGC Warns of 20% Crash Risk
The
psychological impact on the market was immediate, signaling that the world’s
largest economy was officially open for digital asset business.
3. Bitcoin’s $126,000 Ceiling
Market
optimism, fueled by the friendly regulatory stance, pushed Bitcoin to a record high of
roughly $126,000 in early October. The rally was a textbook “Trump Trade,” driven by the
strategic reserve announcements and relentless inflows into spot ETFs.
🚨 TOM LEE JUST SAID LIVE ON CNBC 🚨
BITCOIN IS GOING TO $126,000 IN THE NEXT 60 DAYS!!! 💥🚀#Bitcoin #Crypto #TomLee #BTC #Bullish #CryptoNews #CryptoMarket pic.twitter.com/6sjd7tLI6o— Crypto News Hunters 🎯 (@CryptoNewsHntrs) December 1, 2025
But trees
don’t grow to the sky. As the year closes, we’re seeing a harsh 30% correction,
dragging prices back toward the $90,000 handle. The pullback serves as a
reminder that even with sovereign backing, these markets remain ferociously
volatile, rewarding the patient but punishing the latecomers who bought the
top.
Paul Howard, Wincent
“Setting a new all-time-highs (ATHs) for BTC was a welcome
event for the industry, dusting off ghosts from the past and demonstrating that
despite all the setbacks, Bitcoin continues to win interest,” Paul Howard, the Director at Wincent, commented for FinanceMagnates.com. “The advent of new ETFs such as Solana has opened the asset class to new
participants and provided opportunities for hedging and wider involvement from
financial institutions.”
4. MiCA’s Full Weight
Reshapes European Operations
While the
U.S. moved toward deregulation, Europe’s crypto market underwent a “hard
reset” in 2025 as the Markets
in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation took full effect.
The full
“Crypto-Asset Service Provider” (CASP) regime mandated that brokers
segregate client assets with unprecedented rigor and adhere to strict new rules
on stablecoin . Exchanges were forced to delist non-compliant
“Asset-Referenced Tokens” (ARTs) that lacked proper EU authorized
issuers, including USDT, significantly narrowing the range of tradable assets
available to European retail clients compared to their global counterparts.
MiCA has
officially been in force for a year, but it continues to spark controversy, and
not all countries have implemented it yet. The regulation has generated significant
debate, including in Poland.
5. Crypto Exchanges Want a
Slice of the CFD Market
For a
decade, FX brokers profited by adding crypto CFDs to their platforms. In 2025,
the crypto exchanges returned fire. Major venues started aggressively offering
CFDs on traditional assets, blurring the distinction between “crypto
exchange” and “broker.”
Bybit was
arguably the most aggressive mover in 2025. They didn’t just add a few stocks. They
fully integrated a “TradFi” account that links directly to
MetaTrader 5 (MT5).
Moreover, Bitget
rebranded itself in mid-2025 as a “Universal Exchange” (UEX),
explicitly dropping the “Crypto Exchange” moniker in some marketing
materials. Moreover, in December, the platform launched a private beta of the
Bitget TradFi offering, allowing users to trade CFDs using USDT as a
margin.
I wrote
about Bitcoin prices on FinanceMagnates.com almost every single week, covering both
the sharp gains in the first part of the year and the steep declines in
recent months, including
the so-called death cross and the risk of a correction toward $74,000.
So what
could 2026 bring? According to my latest
technical analysis, the outlook points to a gradual recovery of losses, a
return to all-time highs, and a move into a price discovery phase. Support may
come from strong gold prices and a persistently weak U.S. dollar.
What do
other experts think about Bitcoin? Peter Brandt, a Wall Street and trading
veteran, argues that the price could slide by as much as 80%, potentially
falling to around $25,000. He outlined this view in one of his recent posts on
X.
Bitcoin investors, do you know:
1. Bull cycles have experienced exponential decay
2. BTC’s bull cycles have undergone parabolic advances
3. The violation of previous parabolas have all declined <80%
4. The current parabolic advance has been violated20% of ATH = $25,240 pic.twitter.com/0hWAaEd6Dy
— Peter Brandt (@PeterLBrandt) December 14, 2025
Optimists,
however, remain active in the market. Fundstrat predicts Bitcoin could be worth
ten times more, about $250,000, by the end of 2026, driven by inflows into spot
Bitcoin ETFs.
Until
recently, similar forecasts were shared by Goldman Sachs and Standard
Chartered, although
both later cut their targets from $250,000 to $150,000 following a 30% drop
from this year’s all-time high.
2025
brought many changes to the cryptocurrency market, and 2026 will certainly try
to match them. It will certainly not be irrelevant for the CFD industry.
If you only
watched the price ticker this year, you might think 2025 was just another
boom-and-bust cycle. Bitcoin (BTC) roared to $126,000, headlines screamed about
“digital gold,” and then the inevitable gravity of Q4 set in, bringing
all of us back down to earth.
A lot was
happening behind the charts. From Washington and policy shifts, through London
prime brokerage desks, to European regulation. Here are the top five stories that shaped the cryptocurrency market in 2025 and
that also matter for the CFDs industry:
1. Ripple’s $1.25 Billion
Infrastructure Play
For years,
crypto companies were content to stay in their lane, but Ripple Labs smashed
that convention in April. By acquiring Hidden
Road Partners for $1.25 billion, the blockchain payments firm bought a seat at the adult table of
global finance.
Brad Garlinghouse, CEO, Ripple; Source: LinkedIn
“We are at an inflection point for the next phase of digital asset adoption, the US market is effectively open for the first time due to the regulatory overhang of the former SEC coming to an end, and the market is maturing to address the needs of traditional finance,” said Brad Garlinghouse, CEO of Ripple.
The deal
gives Ripple a massive prime brokerage network and the ability to handle credit
and clearing for traditional assets. Mid-sized FX and CFD brokers are looking
nervously at their liquidity providers, realizing that the entities powering
their trade execution might soon be owned by the very crypto giants they used
to view as niche competitors.
How companies should approach Europe for crypto license? “Once an entity has a MiFID licence, extending it to include a MiCA licence is indeed a simpler process,” revealed CySEC Chair.
2. The U.S. Government Turns “Hodler”
The
regulatory frost in the United States evaporated this year. The pivot began in
March with an executive order creating a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, halting the
sale of seized assets. But the real structural change came in July. President
Trump signed the GENIUS Act
into law, finally
giving stablecoin issuers a federal playbook.
This ended
the era of “regulation by enforcement” that had paralyzed the sector.
For the first time, U.S. institutions had clear rules of the road, and the
government itself legitimized Bitcoin as a sovereign store of value.
- This New Bitcoin Price Prediction Shows BTC Will Hit “Only” $150K in 2026
- Gold Price Prediction 2026: WGC Warns of 20% Crash Risk
The
psychological impact on the market was immediate, signaling that the world’s
largest economy was officially open for digital asset business.
3. Bitcoin’s $126,000 Ceiling
Market
optimism, fueled by the friendly regulatory stance, pushed Bitcoin to a record high of
roughly $126,000 in early October. The rally was a textbook “Trump Trade,” driven by the
strategic reserve announcements and relentless inflows into spot ETFs.
🚨 TOM LEE JUST SAID LIVE ON CNBC 🚨
BITCOIN IS GOING TO $126,000 IN THE NEXT 60 DAYS!!! 💥🚀#Bitcoin #Crypto #TomLee #BTC #Bullish #CryptoNews #CryptoMarket pic.twitter.com/6sjd7tLI6o— Crypto News Hunters 🎯 (@CryptoNewsHntrs) December 1, 2025
But trees
don’t grow to the sky. As the year closes, we’re seeing a harsh 30% correction,
dragging prices back toward the $90,000 handle. The pullback serves as a
reminder that even with sovereign backing, these markets remain ferociously
volatile, rewarding the patient but punishing the latecomers who bought the
top.
Paul Howard, Wincent
“Setting a new all-time-highs (ATHs) for BTC was a welcome
event for the industry, dusting off ghosts from the past and demonstrating that
despite all the setbacks, Bitcoin continues to win interest,” Paul Howard, the Director at Wincent, commented for FinanceMagnates.com. “The advent of new ETFs such as Solana has opened the asset class to new
participants and provided opportunities for hedging and wider involvement from
financial institutions.”
4. MiCA’s Full Weight
Reshapes European Operations
While the
U.S. moved toward deregulation, Europe’s crypto market underwent a “hard
reset” in 2025 as the Markets
in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation took full effect.
The full
“Crypto-Asset Service Provider” (CASP) regime mandated that brokers
segregate client assets with unprecedented rigor and adhere to strict new rules
on stablecoin . Exchanges were forced to delist non-compliant
“Asset-Referenced Tokens” (ARTs) that lacked proper EU authorized
issuers, including USDT, significantly narrowing the range of tradable assets
available to European retail clients compared to their global counterparts.
MiCA has
officially been in force for a year, but it continues to spark controversy, and
not all countries have implemented it yet. The regulation has generated significant
debate, including in Poland.
5. Crypto Exchanges Want a
Slice of the CFD Market
For a
decade, FX brokers profited by adding crypto CFDs to their platforms. In 2025,
the crypto exchanges returned fire. Major venues started aggressively offering
CFDs on traditional assets, blurring the distinction between “crypto
exchange” and “broker.”
Bybit was
arguably the most aggressive mover in 2025. They didn’t just add a few stocks. They
fully integrated a “TradFi” account that links directly to
MetaTrader 5 (MT5).
Moreover, Bitget
rebranded itself in mid-2025 as a “Universal Exchange” (UEX),
explicitly dropping the “Crypto Exchange” moniker in some marketing
materials. Moreover, in December, the platform launched a private beta of the
Bitget TradFi offering, allowing users to trade CFDs using USDT as a
margin.
I wrote
about Bitcoin prices on FinanceMagnates.com almost every single week, covering both
the sharp gains in the first part of the year and the steep declines in
recent months, including
the so-called death cross and the risk of a correction toward $74,000.
So what
could 2026 bring? According to my latest
technical analysis, the outlook points to a gradual recovery of losses, a
return to all-time highs, and a move into a price discovery phase. Support may
come from strong gold prices and a persistently weak U.S. dollar.
What do
other experts think about Bitcoin? Peter Brandt, a Wall Street and trading
veteran, argues that the price could slide by as much as 80%, potentially
falling to around $25,000. He outlined this view in one of his recent posts on
X.
Bitcoin investors, do you know:
1. Bull cycles have experienced exponential decay
2. BTC’s bull cycles have undergone parabolic advances
3. The violation of previous parabolas have all declined <80%
4. The current parabolic advance has been violated20% of ATH = $25,240 pic.twitter.com/0hWAaEd6Dy
— Peter Brandt (@PeterLBrandt) December 14, 2025
Optimists,
however, remain active in the market. Fundstrat predicts Bitcoin could be worth
ten times more, about $250,000, by the end of 2026, driven by inflows into spot
Bitcoin ETFs.
Until
recently, similar forecasts were shared by Goldman Sachs and Standard
Chartered, although
both later cut their targets from $250,000 to $150,000 following a 30% drop
from this year’s all-time high.
2025
brought many changes to the cryptocurrency market, and 2026 will certainly try
to match them. It will certainly not be irrelevant for the CFD industry.
