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Crypto market in May 2025: ETH’s grand return, BTC’s record, and new trends

Published by Tetiana Nechet

Growth in the cryptocurrency market began in April. This was despite strong volatility due to US trade policy. In May, the sector showed growth of 10.3%. However, price spikes led to significant liquidations. In total, almost $1 billion worth of short positions in Bitcoin (ETH) and Ethereum (BTC) were liquidated after the announcement of the US-UK trade agreement. Another $183 million was liquidated after the US-EU tariff war was suspended.

Also in May, net inflows into Bitcoin ETFs amounted to $5.2 billion, the highest since November 2024. Bitcoin reached a new all-time high (ATH), but this led to massive profit-taking at the end of the month. For this reason, $962 million was withdrawn from exchanges.

Corporate BTC holdings increased, reaching 809,100 BTC among 116 companies. The DeFi sector grew by 19%, outperforming Bitcoin (11.1%). The Layer 2 gaming and solutions sector was weak.

The real-world tokenized assets (RWA) sector grew by more than 260% in 2025, reaching $23 billion. It is dominated by private loans (58%) and U.S. Treasury debt, which account for 58% and 34% of the market, respectively. Read more about these and other important events in May.

The crypto market is growing

In May, the cryptocurrency market grew by 10.3%. Volatility remained high, although the US and China agreed to reduce tariffs by up to 30%. However, relations between these countries are tense and the situation could change dramatically.

Major crypto assets showed strong gains during the month. Bitcoin reached a new all-time high of $111,000 thanks to institutional adoption and its use as a long-term strategic asset and macro hedge. For example, Twenty One Capital purchased an additional 4,812.2 BTC (bringing the total amount to 37,230 BTC) for almost half a billion dollars.

Ethereum also recorded a strong price recovery, which few expected: 43.9% during May thanks to the successful Pectra update. Additionally, the price was affected by announcement Sharplink about the Ethereum piggy bank.

Monthly cryptocurrency market capitalization grew by 10.3% in May

The best tokens of May: TOP 10

  • HYPE grew by 78.5% on the back of announcements of a new airdrop and significant token buybacks funded by transaction fees generated from high-profile deals. The platform’s revenue exceeded Ethereum and Solana. Open interest reached an all-time high of $10.1 billion dollars, with 24-hour trading volume exceeding $18.9 billion. Thus, Hyperliquid became one of the top five players in the global derivatives market among the leading cryptocurrency exchanges.
  • ETH jumped 43.9% after the Pectra update, which restored confidence in Ethereum’s long-term potential.
  • DOGE rose by 12.9% after 21Shares filed a bid for the spot DOGE ETF. Additionally, this was influenced by a 528% increase in active addresses.
  • BTC grew by 11.1% and reached a new all-time high of $111,970. This was also facilitated by the fact that the US states of New Hampshire and Arizona have approved Bitcoin reserves, while Texas is only approaching this decision.
  • BNB grew by 10.1%. This was facilitated by launch of USD1 stablecoin as more than $2 billion (99% of its supply) is minted on the BNB Chain.
  • SOL rose 9.3% after Sol Strategies filed an application for a $1 billion share issue, and DeFi Dev she added a liquid stake in SOL.
  • TRX jumped by 9.2% due to Tether’s minting of an additional $1 billion USDT in the Tron network/ After that, Tron’s supply of USDT exceeded ETH.
  • ADA and XRP showed modest growth of 0.6% and 0.5%, respectively.
  • SUI decreased by 4.6% in May, after Cetus protocol hackingwhich resulted in a loss of approximately $1.1 million among users. The security breach caused concern among the community, although the losses are being fully compensated.
Price performance of 10 coins by market capitalization

Decentralized finance (DeFi)

DeFi’s total blocked value (TVL) grew by 21.4% MoM, driven by renewed interest in Ethereum and Layer 2 solutions based on it. The sharp increase in TVL was largely driven by the Base network, which reached new highs in the number of addresses, transactions, and total value.

Among the DeFi ecosystems, Tron also saw a small increase, while BNB Chain, Solana, and Arbitrum went into the red.

The stablecoin market grew by 4.5% due to regulatory changes and integration into payment platforms such as PayPal. For example, USDC Circle is preparing for an IPO. Although the market USDC’s capitalization declined: the market share fell from 26.2% to 24.3%, while USDT strengthened its leadership.

TVL share of the top blockchains

What’s going on with NFT?

Suddenly. But NFT sales increased by 22.5%. Sales of Ethereum-based NFTs decreased by 20.9%, although this blockchain network is in the lead. Polygon, which took the second place in NFT sales thanks to the expansion of the Courtyard RWA platform, which tokenizes collectible cards in the form of NFTs. On a Bitcoin basis, NFT sales growth amounted to 14.4% thanks to the Ordinals collection and BRC-20 NFTs.

The most popular NFT collections were Guild of Guardians on Immutable (+40%), as well as Doodles and Good Vibes Club on Ethereum.

Monthly NFT trading volume

May — month of growth for US Bitcoin ETFs and bitcoin in corporate treasuries

U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs saw significant net inflows of $5.25 billion, the highest since November 2024. However, the last two trading days of the month saw combined net outflows of $962 million, marking the largest two-day decline since late February.

Positive moves to regulate digital assets across Europe, Hong Kong, and the United States, along with upbeat U.S. economic data, have spurred sustained inflows since mid-May. A particularly strong surge pushed bitcoin to a new all-time high (ATH).

Grayscale (GBTC) and ARK (ARKB) Invest experienced the largest capital outflows. At the same time, BlackRock’s IBIT dominated, receiving virtually 100% of the total volume — through net outflows from competitors.

Corporate BTC treasuries continue to expand. Already 116 public companies together hold 809.1 thousand BTC, compared to 312.2 thousand a year ago. Since the beginning of April alone, more than 25 companies have added almost 100 thousand BTC. The average purchase this year has exceeded 40 thousand BTC per month. New owners include Trump Media, Nakamoto, GameStop, and PSG. Strategy holds 71.7% of the total number of corporate BTC holdings.

Although bitcoin remains the main reserve asset, some companies are also buying ETH, SOL, and XRP.

Bitwise predicts that corporate treasuries will exceed 1 million BTC by 2026.

DeFi outperformed all major crypto sectors in May

DeFi sector by 19%, outperforming Bitcoin’s 11.1% gain. In contrast, the Gaming and Layer 2 (L2) sectors showed losses even as bitcoin broke a new record.

  • The memecoin sector grew by 9.3%, and exchange tokens by 7.9%.
  • Artificial intelligence (AI)-related tokens had 4.7% growth, while real-world tokenized assets (RWAs) grew by 3.6%.
  • Stablecoins recorded a modest 2.2% increase, in line with their low volatility profile. The total market value exceeded $250 billion. This was the 20th consecutive month of growth.

Tokenized RWAs continue to make new highs

The real-world tokenized assets (RWA) sector is experiencing growth: the total market capitalization increased by 6.5%. In the first half of 2025, the market jumped from $8.6 billion to over $23 billion (+260%).

Tokenized private loans are currently leading the way (58% share), followed by tokenized US Treasury debt (34%).

Tradable has become a key player. This is a ZKSync Era-native protocol launched in January 2025 that quickly outpaced competitors and reached $2 billion in tokenized assets. Integration between tokenized RWAs and DeFi protocols continues to grow.

BlackRock’s BUIDL fund, the largest tokenized custodial fund at $2.9 billion, recently launched its first direct DeFi integration through Euler Finance. This enabled lending and borrowing through the Euler platform.

Source: Binance