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As the year nears a close, the crypto markets are continually weakening, but some altcoins remain strong. Most of them are in the top 20 cryptos by market cap and are Layer 1 (L1) blockchain tokens.
The total market cap still trades slightly below the $3 trillion mark, with altcoins losing more capital than Bitcoin (BTC). Despite this, the market cap experienced a 1% increase on Christmas Day. That raised the question of whether this period could trigger a wider recovery.
With that in mind, we will be exploring the crypto market recap for the year 2025.
Top Altcoin Performers of the Crypto market in 2025
Despite the year ending on a low note, some altcoins went against the trend and made money. However, recent crypto market news indicated the average top-30 coin lost 14.42%, and the median coin lost 40.21%.
Bitcoin Cash (BCH) was at the top of the list with gains of 23.40%+. BCH benefited from renewed interest in scalable payment solutions. These developments made it a more important part of peer-to-peer electronic cash systems.
Binance Coin (BNB) came in second with 19.13%, thanks to the Binance ecosystem’s dominance in trading and DeFi. BNB gets discounts on fees and staking on Binance Smart Chain, making it strong. This feature attracts more users even as exchanges grow.
Tron (TRX) rose 9.02%, attributed majorly to its provision of a layer for stablecoin deployment. TRX’s blockchain, which is cheap and swift, helped dApps grow, especially in the web3 infrastructure.
Hyperliquid (HYPE), the native token of a high-speed L1 DEX, rose by 0.32%. Derivatives traders liked HYPE’s focus on low-fee perpetual trading. The result led to a slow but steady rise in use.
These performers showed that utility-driven strength was still strong in a year that was ending in red.
Daily Active Users for L1 Chains
According to crypto market news data from CryptoRank, Layer 1 blockchains had many users in 2025. This outlined the use of blockchain for more than trading the token, but rather real-world applications of the technology.
With 4.32 million daily active users, BNB Smart Chain led in this category. Solana (SOL) came next with 3.23 million users, which was less by more than a million compared to BNB Chain. The ecosystem mainly powers memecoins, which contribute to these high figures.
Near Protocol (NEAR) reached 3.15 million users by using sharding to make the network bigger. NEAR focuses on easy-to-use Web3 tools, AI integrations, and grants for developers to help people use it more.
Tron (TRX) recorded 2.55 million daily active users, mostly for stablecoins like USDT. Aptos (APT) closed the list for the best five L1 chains as it ended at 1.03 million.
APT was a move-based chain that focused on security and speed, thanks to its parallel execution engine. These numbers indicated that blockchain activity was growing because it was useful.
Crypto Correlation With Gold Flips Into Negative Zone
Meanwhile, the crypto market is losing its correlation with gold. In 2025, gold did better than major cryptocurrencies, rising 71.2% to $4,486 during a time of economic uncertainty. This made it even more of a safe haven.
The main cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, fell to $87,525. Ethereum (ETH) dropped 15.3% to $2,927. At the same time, Solana dropped 35.9% to $121.9. Other cryptos that followed a similar trajectory in relation to gold were HYPE, SUI, Toncoin (TON), and Avalanche (AVAX).
This showed that gold was more stable than cryptocurrencies. That explained why the entire crypto market was lagging while gold, silver, and the Nasdaq recovered their moves to the upside.
