Crypto Adoption Breaks Records in 2025: 716 Million Investors, $46 Billion in Stablecoin Volume

In 2025, the cryptocurrency industry no longer looks like a frontier experiment — it has become a functioning global asset class, penetrating finance, technology, and macroeconomics alike. According to a16z’s latest “State of Crypto 2025” report, digital assets have reached historic levels of adoption and utility, signaling the first phase of true mainstream integration.

The New Scale of Adoption

The numbers tell the story.
Globally, an estimated 716 million people now hold cryptocurrencies — a 23 % jump year-on-year and nearly one in ten humans on Earth. Yet the report reveals a revealing split: only 40 to 70 million of those holders are active monthly users.

That gap defines the next frontier. For developers and ecosystem builders, it signals a vast, untapped user base — hundreds of millions of latent participants already onboarded financially, but not yet integrated behaviorally.

It also underscores how crypto adoption has moved beyond speculative intent. The expansion of real-world utility — from stable payments to tokenized assets — has become the defining engine of growth.

Stablecoins: The Backbone of Digital Finance

Among all subsectors, stablecoins stand out as the year’s most dynamic segment.
Over the past twelve months, dollar-pegged assets recorded a staggering $46 billion in transaction volume, outpacing the combined throughput of Visa and PayPal, and positioning themselves on par with ACH, the U.S. interbank clearing network.

Even when adjusting for organic activity — filtering out bots, wash trading, and programmatic volume — the estimate remains around $9 billion. That figure, while smaller, still rivals major fintech payment rails.

Beyond flow data, stablecoins have also entered the regulatory lexicon. Mentions of the term “stablecoin” in filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission surged from just twenty in January 2025 to more than three hundred by September, a 15-fold increase.

Stablecoins are no longer peripheral to finance — they are becoming a reportable category in capital markets.

The Rise of Public “Crypto Treasuries”

Institutional participation continues to accelerate.
A growing number of public companies now hold digital assets on their balance sheets, giving rise to what analysts term “crypto treasuries.”

These entities collectively control around 3.5 % of total Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) supply, and about 2.2 % of Solana (SOL) capitalization. This concentration of corporate ownership — once confined to tech outliers — now spans energy, manufacturing, and even consumer brands seeking balance-sheet diversification and inflation hedging.

Tokenization, DeFi, and the Expanding Economy of Code

The tokenization of real-world assets (RWAs) has passed a symbolic threshold, with more than $30 billion worth of assets now represented on-chain — a threefold increase from $9 billion in 2024.

Meanwhile, decentralized finance (DeFi) continues its metamorphosis. Networks such as Solana (SOL) and Hyperliquid (HYPE) now account for over 53 % of revenue-generating DeFi activity, reflecting a pivot toward throughput, low fees, and capital efficiency rather than speculative yield.

Blockchains Surpass Traditional Trading Venues

Perhaps the most striking data point is systemic rather than monetary:
Combined, major blockchains are now processing over 3,400 transactions per second (TPS) — exceeding the average volume of trades executed on the Nasdaq during its daily session.

That metric is more than symbolic; it encapsulates the moment when decentralized infrastructure began to match — and surpass — centralized financial speed.

The Structural Shift Beneath the Numbers

The a16z report captures a broader realignment in global finance. Crypto is no longer a parallel system; it is integrating into the architecture of traditional capital markets.

Stablecoins function as digital cash and settlement layers for institutions.

Tokenized treasuries blur the lines between fintech and fiscal policy.

Layer-1 and Layer-2 networks now operate as programmable exchanges for value, identity, and property.

Yet the true transformation remains behavioral: the mainstream investor base is growing faster than the infrastructure’s maturity. With 716 million holders and only a fraction active, crypto’s next evolution will not depend solely on price cycles, but on usability, regulation, and social trust.

In 2025, the numbers confirm it: blockchain has outgrown its narrative. What began as an asset class has become an economy.

Source: a16z — “State of Crypto 2025” (October 2025)