Original author: Becca Bratcher, Forbes

Original translation by: Saoirse, Foresight News

From multi-billion dollar hacks to a presidential-level Meme coin launch, 2025 has been a year of thorny entanglements with politics and power, both fraught with anxiety and profound revelations for the cryptocurrency space. As the fourth quarter of 2025 unfolds, five moments stand out—profoundly illustrating how the cryptocurrency industry continues to test the boundaries of public trust and regulatory tolerance.

Bitcoin hit an all-time high in 2025, but the industry remains mired in controversy. (Image illustration: Miguel Candela/SOPA Images/LightRocket, courtesy of Getty Images)

January: Trump's Meme Coin Makes its Debut

At the beginning of 2025, an unexpected move by the US president-elect drew attention.

Just hours before his inauguration, Donald Trump launched his official Meme token, Trump. The token initially sold for around $1, briefly surging to over $70 before plummeting. Shortly after, First Lady Melania Trump launched her own token, MELANIA, whose price movement mirrored Trump's. Currently, Trump is trading around $7, while MELANIA is hovering around $0.13.

These tokens were marketed as "celebrated digital collectibles," but their launch immediately sparked questions about their ethics and legality. Previously dismissive of cryptocurrencies, Trump has now repositioned himself as an industry "supporter"—actively courting the growing voter base in the cryptocurrency space and promising to make the US a global digital asset hub. Meanwhile, his family business, World Liberty Financial, has expanded its presence in the cryptocurrency sector.

Within just a few hours, the total market capitalization of the two Meme coins approached $11 billion, turning what was originally a simple political branding campaign into the first major controversy in the cryptocurrency industry in 2025.

February: The largest financial theft in history

Just one month later, public trust in the security of cryptocurrencies suffered a severe blow.

Dubai-based cryptocurrency exchange Bybit disclosed that hackers stole approximately $1.5 billion worth of ETH from one of its offline cold wallets. This unprecedented security breach panicked investors, and blockchain analytics firm Elliptic subsequently confirmed that it was the largest single theft on record in both digital and traditional finance.

Bybit exchange (Image and illustration: Thomas Fuller/SOPA Images/LightRocket, courtesy of Getty Images)

Subsequent investigations revealed that the data breach was linked to a hacking group supported by the North Korean government. This discovery instantly transformed what might have been classified as a "routine exchange security vulnerability" into a geopolitically significant event.

May: US President rewards top Trump Meme buyers

In May, a piece of news triggered a small but significant surge in Trump Meme trading volume—President Trump announced that he would only invite top Trump token holders to a formal dinner at his private golf club. This "exclusive paid participation" model effectively turned the token into a "bidding tool": anyone holding a sufficient number of tokens could gain the opportunity to have private contact with the president.

Attendees at the dinner included Tron founder Justin Sun, who had previously invested over $18 million in the Trump token and faced charges from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the charges were later suspended).

This event sparked a double controversy: protesters rallied outside the venue, while inside it was under close scrutiny from the US Congress. Although the White House insists that Trump's assets have been placed under "blind trust management" (i.e., assets are managed by a third party without his direct intervention), on-chain blockchain analysis shows that entities associated with Trump control approximately 80% of the remaining supply of the token and have earned over $320 million in transaction fees through token trading.

U.S. Representatives Adam Smith and Sean Casten, along with 35 other House Democrats, wrote to the Justice Department requesting an investigation into Trump's actions: whether offering top Trump token investors "dinner" opportunities constituted bribery or violated the "Foreign Compensation Clause" in the U.S. Constitution (which prohibits federal officials from accepting unauthorized compensation from foreign governments or individuals).

In their letter, they stated that this incident "opens the door for foreign interference in U.S. policy decisions, could constitute corruption, and is suspected of violating compensation clauses. This is just the latest example of President Trump's disregard for ethical standards, exacerbation of conflicts of interest, and abuse of power for personal gain."

October: The "10/11" incident

Fast forward to October: Blockchain analysts discovered that an anonymous trader suddenly shorted Bitcoin and Ethereum minutes before President Trump announced new tariffs on China. Trump's tariff announcement directly triggered the largest "liquidation waterfall" in cryptocurrency history (i.e., a large number of leveraged positions were forcibly liquidated due to a price crash, further exacerbating the price decline).

According to reports, the anonymous trader had already profited $160 million before the market stabilized. Observers, including the commentary firm The Kobeissi Letter, publicly questioned: "Did someone have prior knowledge of the tax increase?"

There is currently no direct evidence of an "insider information leak," but this incident has once again raised public concerns about the digital asset market—the problem of information asymmetry and the interference of political influence in the market may be far more serious than imagined.

October: A "Profitable" Pardon

Just weeks later, another controversy erupted: President Trump pardoned Binance founder Changpeng Zhao.

Zhao Changpeng pleaded guilty to "anti-money laundering violations" in 2023 and served four months in prison; Binance itself also paid a fine of over $4 billion for this.

On April 30, 2024, Changpeng Zhao, former CEO of Binance, left the U.S. Federal Court in Seattle, Washington. Zhao, the founder and former CEO of Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, was sentenced to four months in prison that day for pleading guilty to violating anti-money laundering laws. (Photo: Jason Redmond/AFP, courtesy of Getty Images)

This pardon not only erased Changpeng Zhao's criminal record but also cleared the way for his return to the cryptocurrency industry. The White House explained that this move was to correct "the problem of excessive regulation during the Biden administration."

But a BBC report further fueled the controversy: Zhao Changpeng's company had previously collaborated with "enterprises related to the Trump family's cryptocurrency project." This connection significantly heightened public suspicion that "there was a quid pro quo behind the pardon."

Objectively speaking, this pardon further solidifies the "alliance" between the current US government and the digital asset industry, while also raising deeper questions: to what extent will political influence affect regulatory outcomes?

Conclusion: Another "ordinary year" in the cryptocurrency world.

These five events combined to make 2025 another "headline year" for the cryptocurrency industry. Despite the ongoing controversy, this year is far from being the industry's "worst period" in history.

The debut of Meme Coin in January blurred the lines between "hype" and "governance"; the Bybit hack in February exposed vulnerabilities even in the most trusted systems; the dinner in May transformed "token holding" into "political connections"; the trading scandal in October revealed the power of "speculation" and "timing" to manipulate the entire market; and the presidential pardon in the same month made 2025 a year in which the "legality and ethical boundaries of the cryptocurrency industry were repeatedly challenged".

Every year in the cryptocurrency field is accompanied by new innovations, challenges, breakthroughs, and controversies—2025 is no exception.