7 Big Ideas for 2025 (and more trends to watch) [newsletter]

Editor’s note: This post originally appeared in our web3 newsletter — a guide to trending topics in crypto with insights and resources from engineers, researchers, and others on the a16z crypto team. Subscribe to see it in your inbox every other week.

Some trends we’re excited about

a16z released its omnibus list of “big ideas” tech builders may tackle in the year ahead, according to partners across AI, American Dynamism, bio/health, crypto, enterprise, fintech, games, and infrastructure. 

Here’s a selection of some of the big ideas from various crypto team members. For more of what excites them, read the full post. You can also catch up on past years’ ideas here and here.) 

And for an outlook on policy, regulation, and more in 2025, check out this post from November.

1. Enterprises will increasingly accept stablecoins for payments

Stablecoins found product-market fit in the past year — not surprising since they are the cheapest way to send a dollar, enabling fast global payments. Stablecoins also provide more accessible platforms for entrepreneurs building new payments products: no gatekeepers, minimum balances, or proprietary SDKs. But large enterprises have not yet woken up to the substantial cost savings — and new margins — available to them by switching to these payment rails.

While we’re seeing some enterprise interest in stablecoins (and early adoption in peer-to-peer payments), I expect to see a bigger experimentation wave in 2025. Small-/medium-sized businesses with strong brands, captive audiences, and painful payment costs — like restaurants, coffee shops, corner stores — will be the first to switch from credit cards. They don’t benefit from credit card fraud protection (given in-person transactions), and are also the most hurt by transaction fees (30 cents per coffee is a lot of lost margin!).

We should also expect larger enterprises to adopt stablecoins as well. If stablecoins indeed speedrun banking history, then enterprises will attempt to disintermediate payment providers — adding 2% directly to their bottom line. Enterprises will also start seeking new solutions to problems credit card companies currently solve, like fraud protection and identity. — Sam Broner @sambroner on X | @sambroner on Farcaster

2. Countries explore putting government bonds onchain

Putting government bonds onchain would create a government-backed, interest-bearing, digital asset — without the surveillance concerns of a CBDC (central bank digital currency). These products could unlock new demand sources for collateral usage in DeFi (decentralized finance) lending and derivatives protocols, adding further integrity and soundness to those ecosystems.

So as pro-innovation governments around the world further explore the benefits and efficiencies of public, permissionless, and irrevocable blockchains this year, some countries may trial issuing government bonds onchain. The UK, for instance, is already exploring digital securities through a sandbox at their financial regulatory body, the FCA (Financial Conduct Authority); its HM Treasury/ Exchequer has also signaled its interest in issuing digital gifts.

In the U.S. — given that the SEC is set to require clearing treasuries through legacy, burdensome, and costly infrastructure next year — expect more conversations around how blockchains could increase transparency, efficiency, and participation in bonds trading. — Brian Quintenz @brianquintenz on X | @brianq on Farcaster

3. We’ll see greater adoption of the ‘DUNA’, a new industry standard for blockchain networks in the U.S.

In 2024, Wyoming passed a new law recognizing DAOs (decentralized autonomous organizations) as legal entities. The DUNA or “decentralized unincorporated nonprofit association” was purpose-built to enable decentralized governance of blockchain networks, and is the only viable structure for U.S.-based projects. By incorporating a DUNA into a decentralized legal entity structure, crypto projects and other decentralized communities can empower their DAOs with legal legitimacy — enabling greater economic activity, as well as insulating token holders from liability and also managing tax and compliance needs.

DAOs — the communities that govern the affairs of an open blockchain network — are a necessary tool for ensuring that networks remain open, do not discriminate, and do not unfairly extract value. The DUNA can unleash the potential of DAOs, and several projects are already working on implementing it. With the U.S. poised to foster and accelerate progress for its crypto ecosystem in 2025, I expect the DUNA will become a standard for U.S. projects. We also expect other states to adopt similar structures (Wyoming led the way; they were also the first state to adopt the now-ubiquitous LLC)… especially as other decentralized applications beyond crypto (like for physical infrastructure/ energy grids) take off. — Miles Jennings @milesjennings on X | @milesjennings on Farcaster

4. Builders will reuse, not just reinvent, infrastructure

This past year, teams continued to reinvent the wheel across the blockchain stack — with yet another bespoke validator set, consensus protocol implementation, execution engine, programming language, RPC API. The outcomes were sometimes slightly better in specialized functionality, but often lacked in broader or baseline functionality. Take for instance a specialized programming language for SNARKs: While an ideal implementation may let an ideal developer produce more performant SNARKs, in practice it could fall short of general purpose languages (at least currently) on compiler optimizations, developer tooling, online learning materials, AI programming support … and may even lead to less performant SNARKs.

That’s why I expect more teams to leverage the contributions of others, reusing more off-the-shelf blockchain infrastructure components in 2025 — from consensus protocols and existing staked capital to proof systems. Not only will this approach help builders save lots of time and effort, it will allow them to relentlessly focus on differentiating the value of their product/ service.

The infrastructure is finally here to build primetime-ready web3 products and services. And as with other industries, these will be built by the teams that can navigate complex supply chains successfully, rather than the teams who scoff at anything “not invented here”. — Joachim Neu @jneu_net on X

5. The crypto industry finally gets its own appstores, and discovery

When crypto apps get blocked by centralized platforms like Apple’s App Store or Google Play, it limits their top-of-funnel user acquisition. But we’re now seeing newer app stores and marketplaces provide this kind of distribution and discovery, and without gating. For instance, Worldcoin’s World App marketplace — which not only stores proof-of-personhood but allows access to “mini apps” — enabled 100,000s of users for several apps within just a few days. Another example is the fee-free dApp Store for Solana mobile phone users. Both of these examples also show how hardware, not just software — phones, orbs — may be the key advantage for crypto app stores… just like Apple devices were for early app ecosystems.

Meanwhile, there are other stores with 1000s of decentralized applications and web3 developer tools across popular blockchain ecosystems (e.g., Alchemy); as well as blockchains acting as both publisher and distributor for gaming (c.f. Ronin). However, it’s not all fun and games: If a product has existing distribution — like on messaging apps — it’s hard to port that over onchain (exception: Telegram/TON network). The same is true of apps with significant web2 distribution. But we may see more of this porting happening in 2025. — Maggie Hsu @meigga on X | @maggiehsu on Farcaster

6. Crypto owners become crypto users

In 2024, crypto saw major developments as a political movement, with key policymakers and politicians speaking positively about it. We also continued to see it develop as a financial movement (see for example how Bitcoin and Ethereum ETPs broadened investor access). In 2025, crypto should further develop as a computing movement. But where do those next users come from?

I believe now is the time to re-engage the currently “passive” crypto holders and convert them into more active users, because only 5-10% of people owning crypto are actively using crypto. We can bring the 617 million people who already own crypto onchain — especially as blockchain infrastructure continues to improve, resulting in lower transaction fees for users. This means new applications will start to emerge for existing and new users. Meanwhile, the early applications we’ve already seen — across categories like stablecoins, DeFi, NFTs, gaming, social, DePIN, DAOs, and prediction markets — are starting to become more accessible to mainstream users as well, as the community focuses much more on user experience and other improvements. — Daren Matsuoka @darenmatsuoka on X | on Farcaster

7. ‘Hiding the wires’ helps usher in web3’s killer app

The industry’s technical superpowers are what make blockchains so special, yet have also hindered mainstream adoption to date. For creators and fans, blockchains unlock connectivity, ownership, and monetization… But industry-insider jargon (“NFTs,” “zkRollups”, etc.) — and complex design — puts up barriers for those who benefit most from the technologies. I’ve seen this firsthand in countless conversations with media, music, and fashion executives interested in web3.

Mass adoption for many consumer technologies has followed this path: began with the technology; some iconic company/ designer abstracts away the complexity; the move helps unlock some breakthrough app. Think about where email started — SMTP protocols hidden behind the “send” button; or credit cards, where most users today don’t think about the payment rails. Similarly, Spotify revolutionized music not by flaunting file formats — but by delivering song playlists to our fingertips. As Nassim Taleb observed, “Over-engineering breeds fragility. Simplicity scales.”

That’s why I think our industry will adopt this ethos in 2025: “hide the wires”. The best decentralized apps are already focusing on more intuitive interfaces, to become as easy as tapping a screen or swiping a card. In 2025, we’ll see more companies design simply and communicate clearly; successful products don’t explain; they solve. — Chris Lyons @chrislyons on X | on Farcaster

Read all of the big ideas in crypto here

…and listen to our podcast discussion

6 decentralized governance trends for 2025

Andrew Hall

2025 promises to be an exciting year for decentralized governance. DAOs are continuing to push the envelope in developing new ways for anonymous token-holders to govern together. Investment management companies are trying to persuade their customers to participate more often in online shareholder voting. And AI companies are using citizens’ assemblies to help set guardrails for LLMs. That will mean a lot of decentralized governance experiments running all at once, including:

1. Websites to help voters delegate
2. AI delegation
3. AI delegates
4. Smarter incentives for participation
5. Better funding of public goods
6. More experiments in sortition

Read about all of the trends

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More news and updates…

Taxes, the bad news: Last week the U.S. Department of the Treasury issued a “midnight” broker reporting rulemaking that adopts an overbroad approach to defining who should be a broker, as well as attendant obligations for third-party tax reporting. The rulemaking is a direct threat to the promise of decentralized finance and it undermines the future of DeFi innovation in the United States, writes a16z crypto Head of Regulatory Michele Korver. “We believe that this final rule exceeds Treasury’s statutory authority, violates the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), and is unconstitutional,” she says. (For more information, read Coin Center Director of Research Peter Van Valkenburgh on what the rulemaking means and what happens next.)

Taxes, the good news: The Internal Revenue Service issued temporary relief on crypto tax reporting rules. The relief postpones implementation of a rule that would require centralized crypto exchanges to use First In, First Out (FIFO) as the default accounting method for calculating crypto capital gains. (FIFO dictates that the earliest acquired assets are sold first, which can inflate taxable gains.) The postponement means that “If you sell assets inside a CeFi broker, you can still use your books & records/crypto tax software to document which specific unit you are selling. You won’t have to be locked into FIFO as before,” writes Shehan Chandrasekera, head of tax at CoinTracker. The rule postponement is set to remain in place until the end of 2025.

Government appointments: Former a16z crypto General Partner Sriram Krishnan has been named Senior Policy Advisor for AI at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and a16z Managing Partner Scott Kupor has been named Director of the Office of Personnel Management. They’re “both great hires who deeply understand startups and innovation,” writes a16z crypto Founder and Managing Partner Chris Dixon.

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Heads up! Applications for the next cohort of our crypto startup accelerator CSX are opening this week on January 8th and will go through February 7th. Sign up to learn more and receive updates.

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…be there or be square

— a16z crypto editorial team

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The views expressed here are those of the individual AH Capital Management, L.L.C. (“a16z”) personnel quoted and are not the views of a16z or its affiliates. Certain information contained in here has been obtained from third-party sources, including from portfolio companies of funds managed by a16z. While taken from sources believed to be reliable, a16z has not independently verified such information and makes no representations about the current or enduring accuracy of the information or its appropriateness for a given situation. In addition, this content may include third-party advertisements; a16z has not reviewed such advertisements and does not endorse any advertising content contained therein.