by Coinstrooper Crypto Articles
Quick Take
  • When Donald Trump returned to the White House, much of the crypto market expected a familiar script.
  • Pro-crypto rhetoric, friendlier regulation, institutional inflows, and renewed risk appetite were all supposed to combine into a defining bull market.
  • Instead, as 2025 draws to a close, the crypto market is ending the year markedly lower, sitting at just 20% of its peak from the Biden era.
  • That contradiction is at the heart of a growing debate over whether crypto is stuck in a difficult phase, or whether something more fundamental has broken.

What Happened

That contradiction is at the heart of a growing debate over whether crypto is stuck in a difficult phase, or whether something more fundamental has broken.

A pro-crypto US government,

Spot ETFs (especially Bitcoin and Ethereum-based)

Market Context

When Donald Trump returned to the White House, much of the crypto market expected a familiar script. Pro-crypto rhetoric, friendlier regulation, institutional inflows, and renewed risk appetite were all supposed to combine into a defining bull market.

Instead, as 2025 draws to a close, the crypto market is ending the year markedly lower, sitting at just 20% of its peak from the Biden era.

Even with Trump, Crypto Market Is Still Just 20% of Biden-Era Levels

“It’s time to acknowledge and admit the crypto market is broken,” stated Ran Neuner, analyst and host of Crypto Banter.

The analyst highlighted an unprecedented disconnect between fundamentals and prices. According to Neuner, 2025 had “all the necessities for a bull market”:

Abundant liquidity,

This suggests that traditional explanations no longer hold. Theories around four-year cycles, trapped liquidity, or an IPO moment for crypto feel increasingly like post-hoc rationalizations rather than genuine answers.

According to Neuner, the result is a market with only two plausible paths forward:

A hidden structural seller or mechanism is suppressing prices, or

Crypto is setting up for what he calls “the mother of all catch-up trades” as markets eventually revert to equilibrium.

Market commentator Gordon Gekko, a popular user on X, pushed back, arguing that the pain is intentional and structural, but not dysfunctional.

“Nothing is broken; this is just how market makers intended. Sentiment is at its lowest in years; leverage traders are losing everything. It isn’t supposed to be easy; only the strong will be rewarded,” he wrote.

Retail speculation dominated, leverage was unchecked, and reflexive momentum drove prices far beyond their fundamental value.

Under Biden, by contrast, the market became institutionalized. Enforcement-first regulation constrained risk-taking, while ETFs, custodians, and compliance frameworks reshaped capital allocation and flow.

Why It Matters

Aggressive Bitcoin accumulation from figures like Michael Saylor,

Nation-state and sovereign fund participation, and

Details

Macro assets such as equities and precious metals like gold and silver hitting all-time highs.

“Even with all the above,” Neuner said, “we are ending 2025 lower and only 20% where we were with Biden.”

Not Everyone Agrees That Anything Is Broken

That divide reflects a deeper shift in how crypto behaves compared to earlier cycles. Under Trump’s first term, from 2017 to 2020, crypto thrived in a regulatory vacuum.

Ironically, many of crypto’s most anticipated tailwinds arrived during this more constrained era: