a16z: Seven Core Trends in Crypto for 2025Original Title: 《7 Big Ideas for 2025 (and more trends to watch)》

Original Title: 《 7 Big Ideas for 2025 (and more trends to watch) 》

Author: a16zcrypto

Compiled by: Ismay, BlockBeats

Summary: This article will explore seven core trends in cryptocurrency, covering various fields such as stablecoins, app stores, and decentralized governance. These trends will not only drive industry development but also provide new perspectives for future technological innovations and applications.

Some Trends We Are Watching

a16z has released a comprehensive list of "big ideas" for the coming year based on observations from its partners in fields like AI, American vitality, life sciences/health, cryptocurrency, enterprise services, fintech, gaming, and infrastructure, aimed at inspiring tech builders.

Here are some important ideas shared by members of the cryptocurrency team; for more exciting content, please read the full article.

For insights on policies, regulations, and more for 2025, please refer to this article published in November.

1. Companies Will Increasingly Accept Stablecoin Payments

Over the past year, stablecoins have found their product-market fit—this is not surprising, as stablecoins are currently the lowest-cost way to send dollars, enabling fast global payments. Additionally, stablecoins provide entrepreneurs with a more convenient platform to develop new payment products: no intermediaries, minimum balance requirements, or exclusive SDKs. However, large enterprises have yet to realize the significant cost savings and new profit opportunities that switching to these payment rails can bring.

While we have seen some companies show interest in stablecoins (and early applications in peer-to-peer payments), I expect a wave of larger experiments to emerge in 2025. Small to medium-sized enterprises (like restaurants, cafes, and convenience stores) with strong brand influence and loyal customer bases, facing high payment costs, may lead the way in transitioning from credit cards to stablecoin payments. These businesses do not benefit from the fraud protection of credit cards (especially in face-to-face transactions), and the high transaction fees significantly impact their profits (30 cents per cup of coffee is a huge loss in profit).

We should also expect larger enterprises to begin adopting stablecoins. If stablecoins can accelerate the evolution of banking history, companies will attempt to disintermediate payment service providers—adding 2% profit directly to their bottom line. Furthermore, businesses will start looking for new solutions to address issues currently solved by credit card companies, such as fraud protection and identity verification.

------Sam Broner (X platform @sambroner | Farcaster platform @sambroner)

2. Countries Explore Tokenizing Government Bonds

Tokenizing government bonds will create a government-backed, interest-bearing digital asset while avoiding the regulatory privacy issues associated with central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). Such products could provide a new source of collateral demand for lending and derivatives protocols in DeFi (decentralized finance), thereby adding more stability and credibility to these ecosystems.

As governments around the world that support innovation further explore the advantages and efficiencies of public, permissionless, and immutable blockchains this year, some countries may pilot the issuance of on-chain government bonds. For example, the UK is exploring digital securities through its Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) sandbox project; the UK Treasury has also expressed its intention to issue digital bonds.

In the United States, as the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) plans to require the clearing of government bonds through traditional cumbersome and costly infrastructure next year, more discussions are expected on how blockchain can enhance the transparency, efficiency, and participation in bond trading.

------Brian Quintenz (X platform @brianquintenz | Farcaster platform @brianq)

3. "DUNA" Will Become the New Industry Standard for Blockchain Networks in the U.S.

In 2024, Wyoming passed a new law officially recognizing DAOs (Decentralized Autonomous Organizations) as legal entities. DUNA (Decentralized Unincorporated Nonprofit Association) is designed specifically to support decentralized governance of blockchain networks and is currently the only viable legal framework for projects in the U.S. By incorporating DUNA into the decentralized legal entity structure, crypto projects and other decentralized communities can give their DAOs legal status—facilitating broader economic activities while protecting token holders from legal liabilities and properly addressing tax and compliance needs.

DAOs, as communities governing the affairs of open blockchain networks, are essential tools for ensuring that networks remain open, fair, and avoid unreasonable value extraction. DUNA can unlock the potential of DAOs, and several projects are already pushing for its implementation. As the U.S. further supports and accelerates the development of its crypto ecosystem in 2025, I expect DUNA to become the industry standard for crypto projects in the U.S. Additionally, other states may follow suit, adopting similar structures (Wyoming is leading this trend; it was also the first state to adopt the now widely used LLC)—especially as other decentralized applications (like physical infrastructure/energy grids) emerge outside the crypto space.

------Miles Jennings (X platform @milesjennings | Farcaster platform @milesjennings)

4. Developers Will Reuse More Rather Than Reinvent Infrastructure

Over the past year, teams have been continuously "reinventing the wheel" in the blockchain tech stack—developing yet another set of custom validator sets, consensus protocol implementations, execution engines, programming languages, and RPC APIs. These attempts may show slight improvements in specific functionalities but often fall short in broader or foundational capabilities. Take programming languages designed specifically for SNARKs as an example: ideally, such languages could help top developers build better-performing SNARKs, but in practice, they may lag behind general-purpose programming languages in areas like compiler optimization, development tools, online learning resources, and AI programming support (at least for now), potentially leading to subpar SNARK performance.

Therefore, I expect that in 2025, more teams will leverage existing achievements and reuse ready-made blockchain infrastructure components—from consensus protocols and existing staking capital to proof systems. This approach not only helps developers save significant time and effort but also allows them to focus on creating unique value for their products or services.

Today, the infrastructure needed to develop Web3 products and services for the masses is largely in place. Like other industries, the teams that ultimately succeed will be those that can effectively leverage complex supply chains, rather than those that scoff at "non-self-developed" technologies.

------Joachim Neu (X platform @jneu_net)

5. The Crypto Industry Welcomes Dedicated App Stores and Content Discovery Channels

When crypto applications are blocked by centralized platforms like the Apple App Store or Google Play, their user acquisition top channels become limited. However, we are now seeing some emerging app stores and marketplaces providing distribution and content discovery capabilities without stringent reviews. For example, Worldcoin's World App marketplace—not only stores verification information but also provides access to "mini-apps"—has brought hundreds of thousands of users to multiple applications in just a few days. Another example is the zero-fee dApp Store exclusive to Solana phone users. These cases also indicate that not only software but hardware (like phones or verification devices) may become key advantages for crypto app stores, much like how Apple devices once propelled the early application ecosystem.

At the same time, there are other stores containing thousands of decentralized applications and Web3 development tools (like Alchemy), as well as blockchains acting as game publishers and distribution platforms (like Ronin). But this is not entirely an entertainment-focused ecosystem: if a product already has established distribution channels (like messaging apps), migrating it on-chain is not easy (with the exception of Telegram/TON networks). The same goes for applications with significant distribution advantages in the Web2 ecosystem. However, 2025 may see more such migrations occurring.

------Maggie Hsu (X platform @meigga | Farcaster platform @maggiehsu)

6. From Holders to Users: The Shift of Crypto Users

In 2024, the crypto space made significant political progress, with many key policymakers and political figures expressing positive views. At the same time, crypto as a financial movement continues to evolve (for example, Bitcoin and Ethereum ETPs have broadened investor participation channels). In 2025, crypto is expected to further develop into a movement of computational technology. But where will the next user group come from?

I believe it is time to reactivate those currently "passive" crypto asset holders and convert them into more active users. Currently, only 5-10% of crypto asset holders are actively using crypto technology. We can bring the 617 million people who already hold crypto assets onto the chain, especially as blockchain infrastructure continues to improve and user transaction costs decrease. This means new applications will gradually emerge for existing and new users. At the same time, some early applications we have already seen—covering stablecoins, DeFi, NFTs, gaming, social, DePIN, DAOs, and prediction markets—are becoming more accessible to mainstream users as communities increasingly focus on user experience and other optimizations.

------Daren Matsuoka (X platform @darenmatsuoka | Farcaster platform)

7. "Hiding Technical Details" Will Facilitate the Birth of Killer Apps in Web3

The technical advantages of the blockchain industry make it unique, but they also hinder mainstream user acceptance to some extent. For creators and fans, blockchain technology brings new possibilities for connectivity, ownership, and monetization… however, the jargon within the industry (like "NFTs," "zkRollups," etc.) and complex designs have become barriers for those who could benefit the most. I have deeply felt this in countless conversations with executives in media, music, and fashion about Web3.

Many consumer technology mass adoptions have followed a similar path: technology comes first, followed by a landmark company or designer abstracting the complexity, leading to breakthrough applications. Reflecting on the development of email—SMTP protocols were hidden behind the "send" button; or credit cards, where most users today do not care about the payment rails behind them. Similarly, the music revolution of Spotify was not achieved by showcasing file formats but by delivering playlists directly to users' fingertips. As Nassim Taleb said, "Over-engineering leads to fragility, while simplicity is scalable."

Therefore, I believe that in 2025, our industry will adopt this concept: "hiding technical details." The best decentralized applications have already begun to focus on more intuitive interface designs, making operations as simple as clicking a screen or swiping a card. In 2025, we will see more companies dedicated to clean design and clear communication; successful products do not need explanations; they directly solve problems.

------Chris Lyons (X platform @chrislyons | Farcaster platform)

6 Major Trends in Decentralized Governance for 2025

2025 will be an exciting year for decentralized governance. Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs) are continuously breaking new ground, exploring new models for collective governance among anonymous token holders. Investment management firms are working to persuade clients to participate more frequently in online shareholder voting. At the same time, AI companies are beginning to use citizen assemblies to set norms for large language models (LLMs). These efforts will lead to multiple decentralized governance experiments unfolding simultaneously, including:

1. Websites that help voters delegate their votes
2. AI-assisted delegation mechanisms
3. AI serving as agents
4. Smarter participation incentive mechanisms
5. More efficient public goods funding support
6. More experiments in lottery governance