A16z Says 2025 Is “The Year The World Came Onchain”

Venture Capital firm a16z has highlighted 2025 as a pivotal year for the crypto space, calling it “the year the world came onchain.”

In its latest State of Crypto report, it said that recent development show that “crypto is becoming a meaningful part of the modern economy.” 

We’re excited to share our 2025 State of Crypto report.

This year’s story: the maturation of the crypto industry — with growing institutional adoption, the rise of stablecoins, better infrastructure, new consumer experiences, and long-awaited regulatory clarity.

Read the full… pic.twitter.com/c8NESXnQE3

— Chris Dixon (@cdixon) October 22, 2025

Stablecoins Have Become The “Backbone Of The On-chain Economy”

One of the biggest signals that the crypto market has arrived is the boom seen in the stablecoin space. These tokens have transitioned from tools used primarily for speculative trading to railways that offer “the fastest, cheapest, and most global way to send a dollar,” the venture capital firm said. 

It highlighted that stablecoin transaction surged 106% last year to $46 trillion. When filtering out bots and other artificially inflationary activity, stablecoins have done $9 trillion in the last 12 months. This is more than five times PayPal’s throughput. It’s also more than half of Visa’s, the firm said.

Meanwhile, adoption for stablecoins is also accelerating, with the firm noting that the monthly adjusted transaction volume for these tokens has soared to new ATHs, nearing $1.25 trillion in just September 2025. 

It says stablecoins have become the “backbone of the onchain economy.” 

“Stablecoins are now a global macroeconomic force: More than 1% of all U.S. dollars now exist as tokenized stablecoins on public blockchains, and stablecoins are now the #17 holder of U.S. Treasuries, up from #20 last year,” a16z added. 

The market’s largest stablecoins continue to dominate, with Tether’s USDT and Circle’s USDC accounting for 87% of the total supply. Meanwhile, $772 billion in stablecoin transactions were settled on Ethereum and Tron in September, which is 64% of the stablecoin transaction volume seen during that month.

TradFi Giants Deepen Involvement In Crypto Space

A16z said ”institutional adoption has ramped up quickly” in the global economy. 

“Traditional institutions — including Citigroup, Fidelity, JPMorgan, Mastercard, Morgan Stanley, and Visa — are now offering (or planning to offer) crypto products directly to consumers, allowing them to buy, sell, and hold digital assets, alongside equities, exchange-traded products, and other traditional instruments,” a16z added.

The venture capital firm also noted that companies like PayPal and Shopify have been “doubling down on payments” and have been building infrastructure for daily transactions for their users. 

In addition to that, companies like Circle, Robinhood, and Stripe are currently “actively developing, or have announced plans to develop” new blockchains that are focused on either payments, real-world assets (RWAs), and stablecoins, a16z added. 

Crypto Market Breaks $4 Trillion For First Time

In parallel with the growing institutional adoption of crypto, a16z noted that the number of crypto mobile wallet users has increased 20% over the past year and soared to a new all-time high (ATH). 

A16z estimated that there are roughly 40-70 million active crypto users globally, which is an increase of approximately 10 million over the past year, the firm said. It added that this is a fraction of the estimated 716 million people who own crypto, which is a 16% increase over the past year as well.

However, there has been an 18% drop in the number of monthly active addresses onchain, with the count standing at 181 million. 

A16z said that the gap between passive crypto holders and active users “represents an opportunity for crypto builders to reach more potential users who already own crypto.”

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