The 4 most noteworthy victories in the DeFi field in 2025

Author: thedefinvestor Translation: Shan Ouba, Golden Finance

A few weeks ago, Bitcoin (BTC) hit a record high. However, crypto Twitter was surprisingly quiet. Considering that Bitcoin has continued to outperform most altcoins in the past few months, this is actually not surprising. Despite the poor price performance, DeFi has made great progress in technological development and application popularization in the first half of 2025.

This issue will review the 4 most noteworthy victories in the DeFi field so far.

1. Circle's successful IPO: the stablecoin track enters the mainstream vision

Circle, the company behind USDC, officially went public on the New York Stock Exchange a few days ago. The IPO result was a huge success: Circle (ticker: CRCL) opened at $31, and its stock price soared more than 3 times that day!

What does this mean?

In the past, many well-capitalized institutional investors were skeptical of the crypto space. But Circle's successful listing is changing their views. Crypto companies landing on traditional stock markets has effectively enhanced the legitimacy and public recognition of the entire industry, opening up a channel to attract more institutional capital.

2. Ethereum Foundation changes leadership and regains community trust

The Ethereum Foundation (EF) has long been criticized for being out of touch with the community and inefficient. But in March, the foundation welcomed two new co-executive directors and quickly promoted the following positive reforms: EF began to use its ETH holdings for DeFi protocols to earn income and extend the foundation's "lifespan" Published quarterly financial expenditure transparency L1 expansion became a core goal: Vitalik expects the scalability of the Ethereum mainnet to increase 10 times next year These reforms may explain why ETH performed very strongly in May. 3. The United States finally ushered in a legislative environment that supports encryption Remember Gary Gensler? He is no longer the chairman of the SEC.

Today, a large number of crypto-friendly members of the U.S. Congress are pushing for key legislation, including:

• The GENIUS Act: Provides a regulatory framework for stablecoins, with the participation of many crypto-native practitioners

• The CLARITY Act: Clarifies whether digital assets are commodities or securities, reducing regulatory ambiguity

Both bills have a high probability of passing, especially the GENIUS Act, which is expected to provide DeFi with a more compliant and scalable stablecoin infrastructure.

4. Stablecoin market value exceeds $250 billion

In the past, banks avoided cryptocurrencies. Now, as stablecoins surge in value, they are posing a systemic risk to traditional banks. Now, stablecoins are growing so fast that they are starting to pose a systemic risk to the banks that are trying to stifle the industry. In early June, the market value of stablecoins exceeded $250 billion for the first time, growing by $89 billion in the past 12 months alone. With the introduction of stablecoin-friendly regulations, I would not be surprised if the industry reaches a market value of $1 trillion in the next 4-5 years.

Major Catalysts to Watch Next

I also want to talk about some upcoming key catalysts.

In the third to fourth quarter of 2025, two highly anticipated spot crypto ETFs are expected to be approved by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC):

• Ethereum Collateralized Spot ETF

• Solana (SOL) Spot ETF

The SEC has confirmed in May this year that staking does not constitute securities trading. This ruling greatly increases the likelihood of approval of the ETH spot ETF. If launched, this would be the first crypto ETF that can generate income, and institutional investor demand for such products is likely to be very strong. In addition, Solana's spot ETF is also expected to be approved soon. Bloomberg analysts Eric Balchunas and James Seyffart (also the analysts who successfully predicted the approval of the Bitcoin spot ETF in January 2024) said that the probability of the Solana ETF passing in 2025 is as high as 90%. Blockworks also predicts that the Solana ETF will be approved within 3 to 5 weeks. All these signs indicate that the next few months will be very exciting.

These ETFs are so important because they can give legitimacy to the industry among skeptical people and ultimately attract more users to the on-chain world.