Authors: Daren Matsuoka and Robert Hack
Source: a16z crypto
Translation: Blockchain in Plain Language
The cryptocurrency industry is maturing. At the end of last year, we proposed 5 indicators to closely track in 2025 to monitor the industry's continued growth and development:
- Monthly active mobile wallet users
- Adjusted stablecoin trading volume
- Exchange Traded Product (ETP) net inflows
- Decentralized Exchange (DEX) to Centralized Exchange (CEX) spot trading volume ratio
- Total transaction fees (demand for block space)
Here are the mid-year data performance and its significance.
1 Monthly Active Mobile Wallet Users: +23%
- 2025 Average: 34.4 million monthly active mobile wallet users
- 2024 Average: 27.9 million monthly active mobile wallet users
Why It Matters:
Wallet infrastructure has significantly improved—we now have low transaction fees, new account abstraction protocols (EIP-7702), and embedded wallet products (Privy, Turnkey, Dynamic). Now is the best time to build the next generation of mobile wallets.
Related News:
This month, Stripe acquired Privy, a leading wallet infrastructure provider.
Source: a16z crypto (as of May 2025)
2/ Adjusted Stablecoin Trading Volume: +49%
- 2025 Average: $702 billion monthly adjusted stablecoin trading volume
- 2024 Average: $472 billion monthly adjusted stablecoin trading volume
Why It Matters:
Stablecoins have found product-market fit. We can now send dollars in less than a second at a cost of less than 1 cent—making stablecoins an ideal payment product. Large financial institutions are seizing this opportunity.
Related News:
- Circle, the issuer of USDC, is listed on the New York Stock Exchange.
- Stripe acquired the stablecoin infrastructure provider Bridge and announced several new products.
- Coinbase released a proxy payment standard supporting stablecoin payments.
- Visa and Mastercard enhanced support for stablecoins.
- Meta is reportedly discussing introducing stablecoins as a payment method.
Source: Visa (as of June 2025)
3 ETP Net Inflows (Bitcoin and Ethereum): +28%
- June 2025: Total ETP net inflows of $45 billion (Bitcoin $42 billion, Ethereum $3.4 billion)
- End of 2024: Total ETP net inflows of $35 billion (Bitcoin $33 billion, Ethereum $2.4 billion)
Why It Matters:
Institutional capital entering the cryptocurrency market is a sign of the industry's overall maturity. With a clearer regulatory environment and key distributors becoming active, ETP net inflows are expected to continue growing.
Related News:
The SEC recently asked spot Solana ETF issuers to update their S-1 filings, suggesting possible approval in the near future.
Source: Dune@hildobby (as of June 2025)
4 DEX to CEX Spot Trading Volume Ratio: +51%
- 2025 Average: DEX accounts for 17% of CEX trading volume monthly
- 2024 Average: DEX accounts for 11% of CEX trading volume monthly
Why It Matters:
As more people engage in on-chain activities, we expect the usage of Decentralized Exchanges (DEX) relative to Centralized Exchanges (CEX) to increase. The rise in this ratio highlights the overall development of the DeFi ecosystem.
Related News:
Coinbase just announced direct native DEX trading through the Coinbase app, making thousands of new assets available for trading.
Source: The Block (as of June 2025)
5 Total Transaction Fees (Demand for Block Space): -43%
- 2025 Average: $239 million in monthly transaction fees
- 2024 Average: $439 million in monthly transaction fees
Why It Matters:
Total transaction fees in USD reflect the total demand for block space on a given chain—the real economic value.
However, this metric has many nuances, as most projects are explicitly working to reduce user fees. Therefore, it's also important to consider the unit transaction cost—the cost of a given blockchain resource. Ideally, overall demand (total transaction fees) grows while gas fees (cost per unit resource usage) remain low.
Related News:
Recently, we've seen many discussions on X about the importance of this metric (and related metrics like REV).
Source: Dune (as of June 2025)
Additional Metric:
I will also track an additional metric: Number of Tokens with monthly net revenue exceeding $1 million. As of June 2025, only 22 (source: Token Terminal).
With the new regulatory environment and upcoming market structure legislation, the path for Tokens to complete their economic cycle is finally opening. This will lead to more projects directly adding value to Tokens through revenue, creating a healthier Token economy.
Article link: https://www.hellobtc.com/kp/du/06/5909.html
Source: https://a16zcrypto.substack.com/p/5-charts-that-explain-crypto-right
