Bitwise says Q4 2025 may have marked crypto bear-market bottom

Crypto asset manager Bitwise said in a report shared on Wednesday that the fourth quarter of 2025 potentially marked the end of the crypto bear market, according to Bitwise chief investment officer Matt Hougan. Hougan said Q4 was full of mixed signals, with the market performing poorly despite strong underlying fundamentals.

He compared the setup to the first quarter of 2023 after the FTX collapse, when crypto prices rebounded from around $16,000 in 2023 to $98,000 by the start of 2025. "At the time, we were starting to rebound post-FTX, and the data was topsy-turvy; some up, some down, some sideways.

In the two years that followed, crypto prices soared," Hougan said, adding: "That’s happening again here. In fact, the report shows a unique split, with strong growth on many fundamental statistics—and major pullbacks on price." Hougan pointed to four trends in Q4 that could be cause for optimism: Ethereum and layer-2 transactions reaching all-time highs; crypto company revenues outpacing other stock-market sectors; stablecoin transactions and assets under management hitting new highs, with total stablecoin market cap breaching levels above $300 billion; and strong DeFi adoption, with Uniswap "now reliably processes more transaction volume than Coinbase," he said.

Analysts remain divided on 2026.

Key Topics

Crypto, Bitwise, Matt Hougan, Ethereum, Stablecoins, Uniswap