Forbes: Five Most Controversial Crypto Moments of 2025

Author: Becca Bratcher, Forbes & Translation: Saoirse, Foresight News

From multi-billion dollar hacks to a presidential-level Meme coin launch, 2025 has been a year of thorny entanglements with politics and power, both fraught with anxiety and highly revealing for the cryptocurrency space. As the fourth quarter of 2025 unfolds, five moments stand out—profoundly demonstrating how the cryptocurrency industry continues to test the boundaries of public trust and regulatory tolerance.

Bitcoin hit a new all-time high in 2025, but the industry remains deeply mired in controversy.

(Image illustration: Miguel Candela / SOPA Images/LightRocket, courtesy of Getty Images) January: Trump's Meme Coin Makes its Debut At the start of 2025, an unexpected move by the US president-elect drew attention. Just hours before his inauguration, Donald Trump launched his official Meme coin, TRUMP. The token initially sold for around $1, briefly surging to over $70 before plummeting. Shortly after, First Lady Melania Trump launched her own token, MELANIA, whose price fluctuations mirrored those of TRUMP. Currently, TRUMP is trading around $7, while MELANIA hovers around $0.13. These tokens were marketed as "celebrated digital collectibles," but their launch immediately sparked questions about their ethics and legality. Previously dismissive of cryptocurrencies, Trump has now repositioned himself as an industry "supporter"—actively courting the growing voter base in the cryptocurrency space and promising to make the US a global digital asset hub. Meanwhile, his family business, World Liberty Financial, has expanded its cryptocurrency operations. Within hours, the combined market capitalization of these two Meme coins approached $11 billion, turning what was initially a simple political branding campaign into the first major controversy in the cryptocurrency industry in 2025. February: The Largest Financial Theft in History. Just one month later, public trust in the security of cryptocurrencies suffered a severe blow. Dubai-based cryptocurrency exchange Bybit disclosed that hackers stole approximately $1.5 billion worth of ETH from one of its offline cold wallets. This unprecedented security breach panicked investors, and blockchain analytics firm Elliptic subsequently confirmed that it was the largest single theft on record in both digital and traditional finance. Subsequent investigations revealed that the data breach was linked to a hacking group supported by the North Korean government. This discovery instantly added geopolitical seriousness to what might have been categorized as a "regular exchange security vulnerability." In May: US President Rewards Top TRUMP Meme Coin Buyers. In May, news triggered a "small but significant" surge in TRUMP Meme coin trading volume—President Trump announced that he would only invite top holders of TRUMP tokens to a formal dinner at his private golf club. This "exclusive paid participation" model effectively turned the token into a "bidding tool": anyone holding a sufficient number of tokens could gain the opportunity for private contact with the president. Among the dinner attendees was Tron founder Justin Sun, who had previously invested over $18 million in TRUMP tokens and faced charges from the US SEC (later suspended). This event sparked a double controversy: protesters rallied outside the venue, while inside it was under close scrutiny from the US Congress. Although the White House insisted that Trump's assets were under "blind trust management" (i.e., assets were managed by a third party without his direct intervention), on-chain blockchain analysis showed that entities associated with Trump controlled approximately 80% of the remaining supply of the token and had earned over $320 million in transaction fees through token trading. US Representatives Adam Smith and Sean Casten, along with 35 other House Democrats, wrote to the Department of Justice requesting an investigation into Trump's actions: whether offering "dinner" opportunities to top Trump token investors constituted bribery or violated the "Foreign Remuneration Clause" of the US Constitution (which prohibits federal officials from accepting unauthorized remuneration from foreign governments or individuals). In their letter, they pointed out that this incident "opened the door for foreign interference in U.S. policy decisions, could constitute corruption, and is suspected of violating pay clauses. This is just the latest example of President Trump's disregard for ethical standards, exacerbation of conflicts of interest, and abuse of power for personal gain." October: The "10/11" Incident Fast forward to October: Blockchain analysts discovered that an anonymous trader suddenly shorted Bitcoin and Ethereum minutes before President Trump announced new tariffs on China. Trump's tariff announcement directly triggered the largest "liquidation waterfall" in cryptocurrency history (i.e., a large number of leveraged positions were forcibly liquidated due to a price crash, further exacerbating the price decline). It was reported that before the market stabilized, this anonymous trader had already profited $160 million. Observers, including the commentary firm The Kobeissi Letter, publicly questioned: "Did someone have prior knowledge of the tax increase?" While there is currently no direct evidence of an "insider information leak," this incident has once again raised public concerns about the digital asset market—the problem of information asymmetry and the interference of political influence in the market may be far more serious than imagined. October: A "Profitable" Pardon Just weeks later, another controversy erupted: President Trump pardoned Binance founder Changpeng Zhao. Zhao had pleaded guilty to "anti-money laundering violations" in 2023 and served four months in prison; Binance itself also paid over $4 billion in fines for this.

On April 30, 2024, Changpeng Zhao, former CEO of Binance, left the U.S. Federal Court in Seattle, Washington. Zhao, the founder and former CEO of Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, was sentenced to four months in prison that day for pleading guilty to violating anti-money laundering laws. (Photo: Jason Redmond / AFP, courtesy of Getty Images)

This pardon not only erased Zhao's criminal record but also cleared the way for his return to the cryptocurrency industry. The White House explained that this move was to correct "the problem of excessive regulation during the Biden administration."

However, a BBC report further fueled the controversy: Zhao Changpeng's company had previously collaborated with "enterprises related to the Trump family's cryptocurrency projects." This connection significantly heightened public suspicion that "there was a quid pro quo behind the pardon." Objectively speaking, this pardon further solidified the "alliance" between the current US government and the digital asset industry, while also raising deeper questions: To what extent does political influence ultimately dictate regulatory outcomes? Conclusion: Another "Ordinary Year" for the Cryptocurrency Sector These five events collectively made 2025 another "headline year" for the cryptocurrency industry. Despite ongoing controversy, compared to historical records, this year is far from the industry's "worst period." The debut of Meme Coin in January blurred the lines between "hype" and "governance"; the Bybit hack in February exposed vulnerabilities even in the most trusted systems; the dinner in May transformed "token holding" into "political leverage"; the trading scandal in October revealed the power of "speculation" and "timing" to manipulate the entire market; and the presidential pardon in the same month made 2025 a year in which the "legality and ethical boundaries of the cryptocurrency industry were repeatedly challenged." Every year in the cryptocurrency field is accompanied by new innovations, challenges, breakthroughs, and controversies—2025 is no exception.