If you only watched the price ticker this year, you might think 2025 was just another boom-and-bust cycle. Bitcoin (BTC) roared to $126,000, headlines screamed about "digital gold," and then the inevitable gravity of Q4 set in, bringing all of us back down to earth.

A lot was happening behind the charts. From Washington and policy shifts, through London prime brokerage desks, to European regulation. Here are the top five stories that shaped the cryptocurrency market in 2025 and that also matter for the CFDs industry:

1. Ripple’s $1.25 Billion Infrastructure Play

For years, crypto companies were content to stay in their lane, but Ripple Labs smashed that convention in April. By acquiring Hidden Road Partners for $1.25 billion, the blockchain payments firm bought a seat at the adult table of global finance.

“We are at an inflection point for the next phase of digital asset adoption, the US market is effectively open for the first time due to the regulatory overhang of the former SEC coming to an end, and the market is maturing to address the needs of traditional finance,” said Brad Garlinghouse, CEO of Ripple.

The deal gives Ripple a massive prime brokerage network and the ability to handle credit and clearing for traditional assets. Mid-sized FX and CFD brokers are looking nervously at their liquidity providers, realizing that the entities powering their trade execution might soon be owned by the very crypto giants they used to view as niche competitors.

How companies should approach Europe for crypto license? "Once an entity has a MiFID licence, extending it to include a MiCA licence is indeed a simpler process," revealed CySEC Chair.

2. The U.S. Government Turns “Hodler”

The regulatory frost in the United States evaporated this year. The pivot began in March with an executive order creating a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, halting the sale of seized assets. But the real structural change came in July. President Trump signed the GENIUS Act into law, finally giving stablecoin issuers a federal playbook.

This ended the era of "regulation by enforcement" that had paralyzed the sector. For the first time, U.S. institutions had clear rules of the road, and the government itself legitimized Bitcoin as a sovereign store of value.

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The psychological impact on the market was immediate, signaling that the world's largest economy was officially open for digital asset business.

3. Bitcoin’s $126,000 Ceiling

Market optimism, fueled by the friendly regulatory stance, pushed Bitcoin to a record high of roughly $126,000 in early October. The rally was a textbook "Trump Trade," driven by the strategic reserve announcements and relentless inflows into spot ETFs.

🚨 TOM LEE JUST SAID LIVE ON CNBC 🚨
BITCOIN IS GOING TO $126,000 IN THE NEXT 60 DAYS!!! 💥🚀#Bitcoin #Crypto #TomLee #BTC #Bullish #CryptoNews #CryptoMarket pic.twitter.com/6sjd7tLI6o

— Crypto News Hunters 🎯 (@CryptoNewsHntrs) December 1, 2025

But trees don't grow to the sky. As the year closes, we’re seeing a harsh 30% correction, dragging prices back toward the $90,000 handle. The pullback serves as a reminder that even with sovereign backing, these markets remain ferociously volatile, rewarding the patient but punishing the latecomers who bought the top.

"Setting a new all-time-highs (ATHs) for BTC was a welcome event for the industry, dusting off ghosts from the past and demonstrating that despite all the setbacks, Bitcoin continues to win interest," Paul Howard, the Director at Wincent, commented for FinanceMagnates.com. "The advent of new ETFs such as Solana has opened the asset class to new participants and provided opportunities for hedging and wider involvement from financial institutions.”

4. MiCA’s Full Weight Reshapes European Operations

While the U.S. moved toward deregulation, Europe’s crypto market underwent a "hard reset" in 2025 as the Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation took full effect.

The full "Crypto-Asset Service Provider" (CASP) regime mandated that brokers segregate client assets with unprecedented rigor and adhere to strict new rules on stablecoin. Exchanges were forced to delist non-compliant "Asset-Referenced Tokens" (ARTs) that lacked proper EU authorized issuers, including USDT, significantly narrowing the range of tradable assets available to European retail clients compared to their global counterparts.

MiCA has officially been in force for a year, but it continues to spark controversy, and not all countries have implemented it yet. The regulation has generated significant debate, including in Poland.

5. Crypto Exchanges Want a Slice of the CFD Market

For a decade, FX brokers profited by adding crypto CFDs to their platforms. In 2025, the crypto exchanges returned fire. Major venues started aggressively offering CFDs on traditional assets, blurring the distinction between "crypto exchange" and "broker."

Bybit was arguably the most aggressive mover in 2025. They didn't just add a few stocks. They fully integrated a "TradFi" account that links directly to MetaTrader 5 (MT5).

Moreover, Bitget rebranded itself in mid-2025 as a "Universal Exchange" (UEX), explicitly dropping the "Crypto Exchange" moniker in some marketing materials. Moreover, in December, the platform launched a private beta of the Bitget TradFi offering, allowing users to trade CFDs using USDT as a margin.

What Will 2026 Bring? Bitcoin Price Prediction

I wrote about Bitcoin prices on FinanceMagnates.com almost every single week, covering both the sharp gains in the first part of the year and the steep declines in recent months, including the so-called death cross and the risk of a correction toward $74,000.

So what could 2026 bring? According to my latest technical analysis, the outlook points to a gradual recovery of losses, a return to all-time highs, and a move into a price discovery phase. Support may come from strong gold prices and a persistently weak U.S. dollar.

What do other experts think about Bitcoin? Peter Brandt, a Wall Street and trading veteran, argues that the price could slide by as much as 80%, potentially falling to around $25,000. He outlined this view in one of his recent posts on X.

Bitcoin investors, do you know:

1. Bull cycles have experienced exponential decay
2. BTC's bull cycles have undergone parabolic advances
3. The violation of previous parabolas have all declined <80%
4. The current parabolic advance has been violated

20% of ATH = $25,240 pic.twitter.com/0hWAaEd6Dy

— Peter Brandt (@PeterLBrandt) December 14, 2025

Optimists, however, remain active in the market. Fundstrat predicts Bitcoin could be worth ten times more, about $250,000, by the end of 2026, driven by inflows into spot Bitcoin ETFs.

Until recently, similar forecasts were shared by Goldman Sachs and Standard Chartered, although both later cut their targets from $250,000 to $150,000 following a 30% drop from this year’s all-time high.

2025 brought many changes to the cryptocurrency market, and 2026 will certainly try to match them. It will certainly not be irrelevant for the CFD industry.