As 2025 draws to a close, the global cryptocurrency market demonstrates notable resilience despite thinner trading volumes caused by the holiday season. On the final trading day of the year, Wednesday (December 31, 2025), Bitcoin (BTC) managed to sustain its positive momentum, remaining firmly in positive territory and holding above the key psychological level of $88,000.

Price action at year-end serves as a critical signal for market participants. Bitcoin’s ability to stay elevated suggests that institutional interest remains intact, even in the absence of major news catalysts over the past week.

Below is an in-depth overview of market dynamics as 2025 comes to an end.

Cryptocurrency Price Performance

Overall, most major crypto assets recorded positive movements over the past 24 hours. Bitcoin, Ethereum, BNB, XRP, and Solana remained in the green, while assets such as Dogecoin and Cardano faced weekly declines. Hyperliquid (HYPE) stood out, posting the strongest weekly gain among the top ten non-stablecoin assets.

Bitcoin and Ethereum: Year-End Consolidation

According to the latest trading data, Bitcoin is changing hands around $88,523, registering a daily gain of 1.68% and a weekly increase of 1.26%. Its ability to maintain this range provides technical confirmation that the $85,000–$88,000 zone has evolved into a solid support area. Market participants are now watching to see whether this momentum can propel BTC toward a retest of the $90,000 resistance in early January.

Ethereum, on the other hand, continues to lag in performance. Trading at $2,975, ETH recorded a daily increase of 1.57% but only managed a modest 0.67% gain over the past week. This performance gap reinforces one of the key narratives of 2025: Bitcoin has solidified its dominance as a store-of-value asset, while Ethereum faces growing competition within the smart contract infrastructure space.

Hyperliquid (HYPE) Leads the Altcoin Rally

The biggest surprise during the final week of the year came from Hyperliquid (HYPE). As a core asset within the decentralized derivatives (Perp DEX) ecosystem, HYPE successfully broke into the top ten non-stablecoin cryptocurrencies with one of the strongest performances.

HYPE surged 7.79% over the week to reach $26.01, fueled by increasingly strong on-chain transaction volumes that, in several key metrics, outperformed centralized exchanges. Positive momentum was also seen in Bitcoin Cash, which gained 3.21% weekly, alongside Solana and BNB, both rising approximately 2.03%.

The steady performance of Layer-1 infrastructure assets suggests that institutional investors continue to favor cryptocurrencies with robust network fundamentals.

Rotation Away from Speculative Assets

In contrast to infrastructure-focused assets, community-driven tokens and memecoins experienced notable selling pressure. Dogecoin posted the weakest weekly performance among top-tier assets, falling 4.96% to $0.1231.

This decline reflects a defensive shift in capital allocation. As the year-end approaches, retail investors tend to reduce exposure to speculative assets to lock in profits or engage in tax loss harvesting. Cardano also declined by 2.76%, failing to capitalize on the broader market’s positive sentiment.

Early 2026 Market Outlook

Overall, the crypto market concludes 2025 on a cautiously optimistic note. Bitcoin’s stability above $88,000 provides a solid starting point, though the real test lies ahead in 2026.

Market participants will closely monitor the return of institutional trading volumes and capital inflows into Spot ETF products after the holiday period. In addition, global macroeconomic factors—particularly interest rate policies from the Federal Reserve and the Bank of Japan—are expected to once again play a major role in driving market volatility.

As Bitcoin closes its annual candle today, expectations remain for a continuation of a three-green-candle trend followed by a single red candle. However, the Federal Reserve’s quantitative tightening (QT) policy appears to have a significant impact on year-end performance and outlook for the coming year.

Bitcoin maintains a strong correlation with overall market liquidity. With quantitative easing (QE) measures previously implemented by the Federal Reserve, there is optimism that Bitcoin prices could receive renewed upward momentum next year—provided no systemic disruptions emerge within the global economy.