Despite a year of regulatory easing in the United States, cryptocurrencies across the board have seen their values depreciate sharply during US President Donald Trump’s first year in office.
What was at first a highly anticipated positive shift for crypto turned out to generate more losses than wins for investors. The biggest winner of crypto’s deeper integration into traditional finance seemed to be the President himself.
The crypto community entered January 2025 with heightened expectations as Trump prepared for his return to the White House.
On the campaign trail, he branded himself a “Bitcoin president” and pledged to make the United States the world’s crypto capital. Those statements raised industry optimism, which intensified further when Trump launched his own meme coin just two days before his inauguration.
To a degree, Trump has followed through on those commitments.
Almost immediately, he appointed a crypto czar and installed a crypto-friendly chair at the helm of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). He also signed the Genius Act into law, marking the first federal legislation to regulate any segment of the crypto industry.
To a degree, expectations were modest to begin with.
Years of criticism directed at the Gensler-led SEC and its regulation-by-enforcement approach had left many in the industry willing to welcome almost any shift in direction.
Trump’s vocal backing of crypto has also remained consistent. Speaking this week at the World Economic Forum in Davos, he reiterated his support and pointed to expectations surrounding the potential passage of the Clarity Act.
Still, as Trump highlighted his administration’s achievements, the cryptocurrency market continued to register losses, with prices trending lower.
In an assessment of price performance among leading cryptocurrencies, BeInCrypto found that all major assets have recorded negative returns over the past year. At the time of writing, Bitcoin was down 13.4% since January, while Ethereum had declined by just under 9%.
Ripple’s XRP fell by 39%, Solana’s SOL dropped roughly 50%, and Cardano’s ADA declined by 63%.
These figures suggest that, despite the regulatory momentum the crypto industry gained in 2025, broader forces have continued to weigh on market performance.
As with equities, Trump’s tariff policies have significantly shaped expectations for sustained, stable growth. Despite meaningful structural progress, crypto remains a largely speculative asset class. In periods of heightened uncertainty, it is often among the first markets to absorb the impact.