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From billion-dollar hacks to presidential memecoin launches, 2025 has unfolded as a fraught and revealing year for crypto’s uneasy entanglement with politics and power. As the final quarter of 2025 begins, five moments stand out for how sharply the industry tested the boundaries of public trust and regulatory tolerance. Bitcoin saw all time highs in 2025, but the industry is tormented with controversy. (Photo Illustration by Miguel Candela/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images) LightRocket via Getty Images January: Trump’s Memecoin Debut The year began with an unexpected spectacle from the incoming president of the United States. Just hours before his inauguration, Donald Trump unveiled his official $TRUMP memecoin, which debuted around $1, surged past $70, and then swiftly tumbled. First Lady Melania Trump soon followed with her own token, $MELANIA, which mirrored the same volatility. As of now, the $TRUMP token trades near $7, while $MELANIA hovers around $0.13. Marketed as celebratory digital collectibles, the coins immediately raised questions about ethics and legality. Once dismissive of cryptocurrency, Trump had repositioned himself as a champion of the industry, courting its growing voter base and pledging to make the United States a global hub for digital assets. At the same time, his family’s company, World Liberty Financial, expanded its own footprint in the crypto sector. Within hours, the memecoin’s combined market cap reached nearly $11 billion, transforming what had begun as a political branding exercise into the year’s first major controversy. MORE FOR YOU February: The Largest Financial Theft In History Barely a month later, trust in crypto security took a serious blow. Dubai-based crypto exchange Bybit revealed that hackers had stolen roughly $1.5 billion in Ether from one of its offline cold wallets. The unprecedented breach rattled investors, and analysts at Elliptic later determined it to be the largest single theft ever recorded across digital or traditional finance. Bybit. (Photo Illustration by Thomas Fuller/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images) SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images The breach was later linked to a North Korean state-sponsored hacking group, adding geopolitical gravity to what might otherwise have been dismissed as a routine exchange compromise. May: U.S. President Rewards Highest $TRUMP Memecoin Buyers In May, a small but not insignificant surge in $TRUMP memecoin trading followed the announcement that only the token’s top holders would be invited to a black-tie dinner at one of President Trump’s private golf clubs. The exclusive, pay-to-attend format effectively turned the token into a bidding mechanism, enabling anyone with sufficient holdings to buy personal access to the president. Attendees included Tron blockchain founder Justin Sun, who invested more than $18 million and had previously faced paused SEC charges. The event drew protesters outside and scrutiny inside Congress. While the White House insisted Trump’s assets were in a blind trust, on-chain analysis showed that Trump-linked entities controlled roughly 80 percent of the coin’s remaining supply and had earned over $320 million in fees. Representatives Adam Smith and Sean Casten led thirty-five House Democrats in urging the Department of Justice to investigate whether President Trump’s offer for top $TRUMP token investors to dine with him constituted bribery or violated the Constitution’s foreign emoluments clause. Their letter described the event as inviting “foreign influence over U.S. policy decisions and raises potential corruption and emoluments clause violations. It is just the latest example of President Trump disregarding ethics norms, introducing further conflicts of interest, and using his office for self-enrichment.” October: The $160 Million Anonymous Bitcoin And Ether Short Fast forward to October when blockchain analysts uncovered that an anonymous trader had shorted Bitcoin and Ethereum minutes before President Trump announced new tariffs on China, a statement that triggered the largest liquidation cascade in crypto history. The trader reportedly earned $160 million in profit before markets stabilized. Observers, including commentator The Kobeissi Letter, publicly wondered, “Did someone know?” No direct evidence of insider information has surfaced at this time, but the incident reignited concerns about information asymmetry and political influence in digital-asset markets. October: A Beneficial Pardon Only weeks later, another controversy unfolded when President Trump pardoned Changpeng Zhao, the founder of Binance. CZ had pleaded guilty in 2023 to anti-money-laundering violations and served four months in prison. Binance itself paid over $4 billion in fines. Former Binance CEO Changpeng "CZ" Zhao departs federal court in Seattle, Washington, on April 30, 2024. Changpeng Zhao, the founder and former chief executive of Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, was sentenced today to four months in prison after he pleaded guilty to violating laws against money laundering. (Photo by Jason Redmond / AFP) (Photo by JASON REDMOND/AFP via Getty Images) AFP via Getty Images The pardon erased Zhao’s criminal record and reopened the door for his return to crypto ventures. The White House described it as correcting “Biden-era overreach.” The BBC reported that Zhao’s companies had partnered with firms linked to the Trump family’s own crypto projects only heightened perceptions of conflict. Objectively this pardon deepened the administration’s ongoing alignment with the digital-asset industry and raised questions about how political influence might shape regulatory outcomes. The Takeaway: Just Another Year in Crypto Together, these five events made 2025 another headline-making year for crypto. Controversial as ever, though hardly its worst yet. January’s memecoin debut blurred the boundary between hype and governance. February’s Bybit hack exposed vulnerabilities in even the most trusted systems. May’s gala dinner turned token ownership into political access. October’s trading scandal revealed how speculation and timing can shape entire markets. And the month’s presidential pardon cemented 2025 as a year when the boundaries of legality and ethics in crypto were repeatedly tested. Each year in crypto brings new innovation, challenges, breakthroughs and controversy, and 2025 was no exception. Editorial StandardsReprints & Permissions
