The year 2025 was a year full of significant volatility in the cryptocurrency market. It started with some optimism amid strong mid-year increases, but later saw collapses and sell-offs that reduced gains or turned them into annual losses for most currencies. Nevertheless, long-term technical trends such as DeFi, NFT, tokenization, and AI remain important drivers for the market in 2026 and beyond, while institutional demand and government regulation remain key elements in determining future price directions.