VCs Pick Incumbents, Stablecoins as 2025 Crypto Winners

After a year of regulatory change and uneven market performance, crypto investors are reassessing where value accrued in 2025. 

In a recent podcast, Pantera Capital partner Mason Nystrom, Hash3 co-founder Hootie Rashidifard and Variant partner Alana Levin identified incumbents, such as Robinhood, alongside stablecoin companies and prediction markets as this year’s top performers.

According to Nystrom, incumbents benefited from acting once the regulatory environment became clearer. He pointed to Robinhood, which he said had taken a cautious stance toward crypto in recent years before moving more aggressively in 2025, adding that incumbents “have done an excellent job getting ahead of where the puck is skating” as clarity emerged.

Stablecoins were another clear winner, according to Rashidifard, who pointed to rapid growth in transaction volumes and issuer profitability, noting that “Tether is the most profitable company on the planet per employee.” He said:

Variant’s Levin highlighted prediction markets as one of the fastest-growing categories of 2025, saying platforms such as Kalshi and Polymarket have moved past earlier doubts about wash trading and election-only activity. She said:

Related: Polymarket bets surge on Lighter airdrop as Hyperliquid lists LIT

Losers in the space in 2025

The venture capital executives also pointed to clear losers, citing both individuals and institutions that weighed on the crypto industry this year.

Levin singled out Do Kwon, the co-founder of Terraform Labs, as a defining individual loser. Do Kwon was sentenced to 15 years in prison On Dec. 11 after pleading guilty to wire fraud and conspiracy charges tied to the Terra collapse, which erased roughly $40 billion from the crypto market in 2022. 

Rashidifard pointed to the “Biden-era” US Securities and Exchange Commission as a broader institutional loser, arguing that years of aggressive enforcement produced little lasting benefit. 

He described the period as “hostile for politicized reasons that made no sense,” saying it drove founders overseas before policy shifted in 2025 following the departure of former SEC Chair Gary Gensler. He added that the passage of the GENIUS Act and a crypto market structure bill signaled a broader change in the government’s approach.

The GENIUS Act, passed in July, established a federal framework for stablecoin issuance, reserves and regulatory oversight in the United States, while the market structure bill has been delayed after the Senate Banking Committee postponed markup hearings until 2026.

Magazine: Do Kwon sentenced to 15 years, Bitcoin’s ‘choppy dance’: Hodler’s Digest, Dec. 7 – 13