DePIN and crypto gaming led a surprising end-of-year rebound

Source: Blockworks Original Title: DePIN and crypto gaming led a surprising end-of-year rebound Original Link: https://blockworks.co/news/depin-gaming-surprising-rebound It was a mixed week for crypto, with BTC ending higher but sharp divergence across sectors. DePIN and Gaming led a surprising rebound after a rough year, while L2s, RWAs and the treasury trade continued to grind lower as flows stayed choppy.

To add some insight to the new year, here’s an overview of stablecoin yield, payments infrastructure, interoperability and last year’s fastest-moving narratives.

Market Indices

With a shortened equity trading week due to the holidays, the focus shifts to crypto performance over the past week. BTC finished the week up 1.6%, though performance across altcoins remains highly fragmented.

The biggest movers may come as a surprise. DePIN and Gaming led all sectors with gains of 13.1% and 12.6%, respectively. These have been two of the weakest performers in 2025, down -79.5% and -81.3% on the year, making the rebound notable.

DePIN strength was driven by FIL and RENDER, which rose 22% and 13% on the week and together account for 49% of the index. Gaming followed a similar pattern, with IMX up 11%, doing most of the heavy lifting for the sector.

On the downside, L2s and RWAs lagged, falling -2.67% and -0.84% over the week. L2 weakness was led by MNT and ZORA, down -5.7% and -6.4%. At the same time, other L2 names such as OP, ARB, and ZK posted gains between 10% and 20%, highlighting sharp divergence within the sector. RWAs were pressured by a pullback in Gold after its strong run this year, with PAXG and XAUT both down around -3.4%.

Flows remain choppy. On Dec. 31, ETFs saw $417.8 million of outflows, nearly offsetting the $428.2 million of inflows recorded the day prior.

Digital asset treasuries continue to feel the strain, with mNAV multiples compressing further. MSTR and BMNR now trade at mNAV levels of 0.69 and 0.85, underscoring the pressure on the treasury trade as the new year begins.

Key Takeaways

Institutional OTC Yield for Stablecoins: Institutional-grade OTC arbitrage wrapped in stablecoin format offers market neutral yields less reliant on funding cycles than existing synthetic dollars. Early traction and double-digit yields suggest strong demand, with upside resting on scalable deployment into hedged OTC deals.

Crypto Card Moats: Value in crypto cards and neobanks is shifting from rewards and branding toward infrastructure, compliance and liquidity control. Durable moats come from owning primitives like regulated access, programmable liquidity and deep integrations, while infrastructure providers capture the most leverage through recurring fees.

Interoperability as Core Infrastructure: 2025 marked the shift of interoperability from theory into core infrastructure for crypto. Tokenized assets and stablecoins increasingly distributed across many chains, with interoperability accelerating asset velocity and capital mobility. Crypto now functions as a connected network where value moves freely.

Narratives and Real Use Cases: 2025 was defined by rapid narrative cycles that generated attention faster than validation could occur. Most narratives faded quickly, but a subset translated into real use cases. The clearest progress came where crypto demonstrated product-market fit, including stablecoins, prediction markets and payment rails.