Last day of 2025.

A year that could not have been stranger and certainly not the year most of us had hoped for.

A year of extremes, with major wins for the industry, yet simultaneously one of the worst years sentiment and price wise.

Fundamentally, it was likely one of the best years we have ever had.

The regulatory environment turned from a witch hunt into an active embrace of our industry, the Genius Act sent stablecoins into escape velocity, prediction markets gained mainstream attention outside of our bubble during the elections, some of the largest institutions in the world are no longer just exploring crypto but actively building with us, ETFs brought significant smart money capital into the market, and we made major progress in infrastructure around scalability, security, compliance, onchain abstraction for better UX, and much more.

To sum it up, it was a massive year in terms of maturing from a small, idealistic, often scammy online casino industry into a serious technological revolution that is about to disrupt finance and is now taken very seriously by most of the largest players in the world.

There was only one big problem. Prices did not perform accordingly.

While Bitcoin briefly printed a new ATH, it was one of the worst years ever for our beloved altcoins, most of which never even caught a bid and went down only.

We as Web3 natives who have been waiting for news like this for over a decade finally got what we wanted, yet we could barely look at our portfolios without pain.

Long term supporters and enthusiasts fell into an identity crisis. Everyone kept asking what went wrong, what comes next, and in some cases whether it is even worth continuing at all.

We fought over exchanges extracting all the value, market makers doing shady things, stupid airdrops, founders rug pulling, low float high FDV launches, value accrual mechanisms not being aligned with token holders, and so much more.

No matter what we tried, nothing worked, and our industry full of visionaries, believers, and enthusiasts slowly turned into a group of depressed, conservative cynics discovering the revenue meta like the last generation discovering dividends.

So yes, I think we can all agree that 2025 was a chapter we are more than happy to finally close.

Still, I think it is important to remind ourselves how special and successful this year was for our industry as a whole. Even if it did not lead to the price performance many of us had hoped for, we saw fundamental wins and developments that a few years ago we probably would not have dared to dream of.

For those of us who are playing the long term game and are not just here to make quick money and disappear, despite the bad sentiment, the many setbacks, and the suffering portfolios, this may have been one of the best years we have ever had.

I am fully convinced that the last few years were simply a phase of self discovery, crossing the chasm in the technology life cycle of our industry. Now that we have passed this critical phase, things are only just getting started.

Accordingly, I am confident that this was only the beginning and that over the coming years we will see many more of these incredible developments that make our industry stronger, more credible, and more sought after. This has already started and will only accelerate from here in 2026.

And the good news is that sooner or later prices will catch up. Yes, including altcoins. Not every meme coin or low effort shitcoin, but the builders who are serious and create something truly meaningful will get what they deserve, just like their token holders and loyal communities.

Mark my words, 2026 will be an insane year, possibly one of the best I have ever experienced in this industry.

And I am proud and excited to go into this year together with all of you who made it this far and survived.

Higher, together.