On the Eve of Convergence: What Happened in 2025 for U.S. Stocks/Tokenization, and Where is the Spark for 2026?
The year 2025 has passed in a flash. This year, global financial markets underwent one “stress test” after another: geopolitical tensions ebbed and flowed, macro expectations wavered, narratives receded while liquidity fragmented. Meanwhile, tokenization quietly accelerated, driven by compliance and infrastructure development.
可以說 from TradFi to Web3, two forces that were once parallel are converging at an unprecedented pace, aiming squarely at the on-chain migration and programmability of various financial assets.
To distill market “sentiment” into reference-worthy “samples,” we used Maicircle MSX as an observation sample and posed nine questions to our internal researchers: from annual keywords, personal gains/losses, and core holdings, to the spillover paths of capital, judgments on pricing power, and the key structural variables that might trigger a “ChatGPT moment” for TradFi × tokenization. We have compiled their responses into this article for our readers.
As a collective retrospective from front-line builders, we hope this offers a glimpse into the gains and losses of U.S. stocks / tokenization / Web3 from the user’s perspective this year. Perhaps it can also serve as a mirror, revealing the hidden sparks of possibility and providing a survival 指導 for 2026.
Note: Researcher holdings disclosure (for sample illustration and research discussion only, not constituting any investment advice)
1. Flashback to 2025: Gains and Regrets in U.S. Stocks / Web3
1. Looking back at 2025, what was the biggest change you observed in the U.S. stock market or the tokenization space? If you had to summarize it with one keyword, what would it be?
DaiDai: I think 2025 was a turning point for the U.S. stock market, shifting from “narrative-driven” to “substantive implementation.” The keyword would be “Return to Value.”
Especially regarding the monetization of AI-related “Capital Expenditure” (CapEx), it faced a major performance test all year. The market clearly stopped buying into pure “AI stories” and became intensely focused on whether tech giants’ capital expenditures could translate into actual revenue.
LittleFox: My keyword is “Regulation-Driven Technology Application.”
The biggest change in 2025 was the trend of traditional finance and Web3 converging. This was vividly reflected in the increase of stablecoin volume and their daily use. Notably, trading capital in the 加密貨幣 market saw outflows in 2025, leading to an overall downturn without sustaining a bull market. However, crypto technology has begun to integrate as part of the infrastructure in traditional finance. While market logic changes rapidly, from a normal distribution trend perspective, traditional finance, especially the U.S. stock market, will receive more technological support from the crypto market, thereby gaining more user growth globally.
Echo: For a keyword, I’d choose “Playability.”
From my perspective and that of my friends—crypto veterans and stock market newcomers—the excitement shifted from “lower barriers to investing in U.S. stocks” to “how to play with tokenized U.S. stocks on-chain.” Essentially, this sector has enough playability to keep people from being stuck in narratives.
Value no longer depends solely on how exciting a future story is, but also on how fun the tool is, how it can be used, and whether it can combine the best of both worlds to open up a higher ceiling. Veteran players in both stocks and crypto would likely enjoy this. Something as solid as Apple stock becomes “financial LEGO” on-chain: it can be held, staked, yield-bearing, used as leverage collateral, or wrapped into derivatives, allowing for instant switching between multiple states, with states even being stackable.
Frank: If I had to summarize the tokenized U.S. stock sector in 2025 with one keyword, I’d choose “Acceleration.”
This “acceleration” didn’t come from a single event but was reflected in the synchronized advancement of an entire set of infrastructure and institutional layers. This includes compliance discussions moving forward and a noticeable shift in attitudes towards the “on-chain” topic. Whether it’s Nasdaq transitioning from observer to active participant or the proposal of the 5×23-hour trading experiment, it signals that these Wall Street players are no longer just testing the waters but are starting to dismantle the fences of the old world themselves (Further reading: Nasdaq Steps on the Gas: From ‘Sipping Soup’ to ‘Eating Meat,’ Is Tokenized U.S. Stocks Entering the Decisive Phase?, U.S. Stocks Sprint Towards ‘Never Closing’: Why Did Nasdaq Launch the ‘5×23 Hour’ Trading Experiment?).
In contrast, my overall feeling about the U.S. stock market in 2025 was “Turbulence.” After all, it wasn’t a peaceful year, with events like the April dip and subsequent tariff/geopolitical shocks. Yet, its remarkable resilience and efficient sector rotation were astounding—from AI and chips to power, copper, storage, nuclear energy, and infrastructure, almost every phase had a new narrative taking over.
It can be said that 2025 further widened the cognitive gap between U.S. stocks and Crypto. In my view, U.S. stocks are more like a deep ocean, while Crypto remains several fragmented small ponds. More importantly, U.S. stocks are backed by real profits and cash flow, allowing valuation logic to be repeatedly verified—something almost 99% of Altcoins cannot match.
Keaton: The keyword I choose is “Second Half.”
From my perspective, blockchain has finally entered its second half, moving towards compliance and maturity. Blockchain is finally returning to its intended use: competing with traditional finance’s legacy black-box settlement systems through superior clearing and settlement efficiency.
Both user scale and product experience have finally reached the eve of a singularity, capable of supporting some Mass Adoption-level use cases.
L: Looking back at 2025, if I had to summarize the biggest change in the U.S. stock and tokenized asset space with one keyword, I’d choose “Implementation.”
Simply put, in 2025, “tokenized trading truly became established.” From STOs to tokenization, tokenization over the past few years remained largely conceptual. Starting in 2025, the focus shifted to liquidity, trading depth, and real use cases.
Users no longer just care about “whether an asset is on-chain,” but about “whether it’s easy to trade and worth long-term participation.”
Ariaina: Looking back at 2025, I believe the emergence of tokenized U.S. stocks is a significant signal that on-chain assets are beginning to undergo structural changes.
The concept itself isn’t new. In earlier cycles, the market attempted to bring various real-world assets like U.S. Treasuries and real estate on-chain. These explorations had their rationale at their respective stages, but overall, they were more about supplementing on-chain asset types. They didn’t truly enter the mainstream or change the core structure of on-chain assets.
Against the backdrop of global economic pressure and tightening liquidity, the Web3 market itself has struggled to achieve new growth relying solely on crypto-native assets. However, U.S. stocks, as the world’s most mature, liquid, and easily understood assets by the masses, their tokenization not only opens up an asset space far larger than Web3’s own for Web3 but also establishes a more direct connection between traditional finance and Web3 in practice.
From an ordinary user’s perspective, this is a more natural path—users don’t need to first understand complex crypto concepts but can start from familiar assets and gradually enter the on-chain system.
Therefore, if I had to summarize this change with one word, I’d choose “Opening”—not opening a specific product or entry point, but opening the ceiling for on-chain assets and the long-isolated boundary between Web3 and mainstream finance.
2. What was your most comfortable investment move in 2025, and what was your most regrettable missed opportunity or loss? (Not limited to U.S. stocks / crypto)
DaiDai: This year, I indeed caught most of the popular meme stocks, like OKLO, RKLB, IREN, NBIS, ASTS, SNDK, MU, OPEN, etc. That’s right! I love following trends, especially popular stocks.
In precious metals, I also caught the gold and silver rallies and sold ETH above 4000 (in hindsight, that was another “successful exit at the top”). The biggest regret was not buying back MU and SNDK during the October-November pullback.
LittleFox: For my personal trading, I adhere to the principle of “going with the trend to avoid disaster, going against it to achieve great merit.” I focus on left-side trading for intraday high-frequency moves, but more often, I combine macro data, company fundamentals, and rhythm to find entry opportunities.
The most comfortable trade this year was in November when the market experienced a broad sell-off due to fundamental pressures. I predicted that after Nvidia’s earnings report, it would act as a stabilizing force to lift the market because Nvidia’s sales were essentially all booked early in the year. I couldn’t think of any reason for its earnings to disappoint. So, I increased leverage and bought at a relatively good price (Aside: Looking back now, increasing leverage then had an element of gambling. If Nvidia’s earnings had disappointed, it would have caused significant losses. I don’t encourage this behavior.). This operation was an opportunity to monetize my insight. Besides earning some profit, the greater satisfaction came from the sense of achievement in realizing my conviction, so it’s memorable.
As for regrettable missed opportunities, I basically missed the entire precious metals rally until prices reached levels I found absurd. Only then did I start in-depth analysis on precious metals, but by then, there were no suitable entry points within my trading system. I could only watch from afar. This is regrettable because when precious metals showed unusual movement, I should have prioritized deep analysis.
Echo: The most comfortable was dollar-cost averaging and taking profits on BTC, SOL, and BNB.
The biggest regret was emotionally chasing highs on TRUMP and CFX and letting losses run. I haven’t participated in other Meme projects since. I feel I have no instinct for emotional investing. For U.S. stocks, I put some “lucky money” into MSTR at the beginning of the year without significant gains.
Taking profits is the greatest respect for trading. Let’s encourage each other.
Frank: Frankly, I didn’t have much active investment in Crypto in 2025.
Conversely, influenced by work, a few trades in U.S. stocks were pleasant surprises this year. This included phased allocations to Google (GOOGL) and XPeng (XPEV), both yielding relatively good returns. It also made me vaguely realize this might be a turning point in my personal investment path.
Because in the past, I was more accustomed to finding opportunities on-chain, between different protocols, and between on-chain and CEXs/platforms, mainly focusing on stablecoin arbitrage. So, I held USDT/USDC long-term, which provided relatively stable “snack-level” returns. However, deep exposure to U.S. stock research since the second half of 2025 made me realize an issue I just discussed with a friend:
My background as a Web3 Native (self-proclaimed) makes my current investment logic somewhat “neither fish nor fowl”—I haven’t fully established a systematic value investment framework based on the mature U.S. stock market, yet I’m increasingly uncomfortable with the highly emotional, purely speculative gambling in the Crypto world.
Therefore, I remain cautious about high-volatility Memes or pure narrative projects and increasingly agree with a personal observation: people with a U.S. stock investment background find it easier to transition to Crypto than pure Crypto players entering U.S. stocks.
As for regrets, there aren’t any. Although GPS (GoPlus) remains deeply underwater with continuous averaging down, it’s based on trust in the team and observation of its C-end security logic. It’s not a landmine; the market is willing to hit, I’m willing to take it.
L: If I had to choose, the most comfortable operations in 2025 shared a common trait: I didn’t try to be “smarter,” but chose to stand on the side of certainty.
In U.S. stocks, I participated more in the AI infrastructure and energy theme, like VST, CEG. These weren’t the hottest names daily, but their logic was very clear—AI ultimately needs electricity and infrastructure to materialize. I didn’t chase highs or trade frequently. I dared to hold during pullbacks, making the holding process quite steady.
In Crypto, I continued with a spot, long-term-biased style. Rather than chasing new narratives, I preferred holding BTC long-term and a small amount of assets with clear infrastructure attributes. Such positions don’t require constant monitoring but keep me at the table, following the industry’s overall trend.
The biggest regret is also consistent. Whether it was commercial space (ASTS, RKLB) in U.S. stocks or the阶段性爆发 of AI + Crypto and Restaking in Crypto, I understood the logic but chose a more conservative execution pace, missing the steepest part of the rally.
But looking back, I don’t completely regret it. 2025 made me more certain of one thing: some rallies are meant to “prove market elasticity,” while some positions are meant to accompany you long-term. I prefer to reserve my energy for the latter.
Ariaina: If we’re talking about my most “comfortable” investment operation in 2025, there was no stroke of genius—it was actually very boring: continuing to hold BTC long-term. As an old BTC DCAer, this year was basically mechanical buying: buying when it rose, buying when it fell, adhering to “I don’t know what the market wants, but I don’t want to guess.” Not smart, but I slept okay.
Besides BTC, I allocated a small position to BNB this year. Platform tokens haven’t had a great reputation lately, with many saying they lack long-term value. My mindset when buying was微妙: half skeptical, half couldn’t resist trying. As it turned out, BSC was硬生生 carried by Alpha Meme this year, creating a wave of use cases, offering some安慰 to semi-believers like me that the logic held.
If we’re talking about the most regrettable move, it’s 德菲nitely TRX. In my youthful ignorance, after I stopped using Tron, I almost gave away my remaining TRX as “electronic垃圾” to a friend. Who could have predicted Justin Sun would actually manage to折腾 TRON to Nasdaq? The biggest lesson for me wasn’t missing out on money, but that you can look down on a project, but never underestimate a founder who can折腾 long-term and always survive.
Also, 2025 was the year I resumed futures trading after a two-year hiatus. The strategy was quite conservative: “medium-to-long term, only play in bull markets.” Judging by order win rate, the results weren’t bad. The problem was me—明明 it was strategy trading, but emotions ended up接管 the account. During the September dip,理智 went offline, panic took over, and I failed to dodge in time. The system didn’t fail; the person崩 first.
Looking back at this year, whether I made money isn’t the most important anymore. The more real feeling is that the market changes every year, but in the course of emotional management, I’m still retaking the exam every year. Adding one more point about U.S. stock investment: as a complete novice, I somewhat accidentally caught the AI fast train this year by following “Maicircle’s严选.” Honestly, I used to be somewhat dismissive of traditional financial markets, thinking they were slow-paced and lacked imagination. Once the行情 played out, I could only sigh: Wow, it’s actually香! I’m still in the learning phase—survive first, then talk about style and returns.
Finally, if 2025 taught me anything in the U.S. stock market, it might not be specific技巧, but a shift in mindset: from “looking down on,” to “acknowledging the gap,” to “willing to learn slowly.” By 2026, I hope that regarding U.S. stock investing, I won’t just shout “it’s香,” but actually start to闻得出 the味道.
3. As of December 31, 2025, what are your core holdings, and can you share the reasons for being bullish? (Not limited to U.S. stocks / crypto)
DaiDai: Long-term holdings include TSLA, GOOGL, PLTR, HOOD, AMZN. Short-term holdings include RKLB, TSLA, ONDS, ALAB, INTC, WDC, TSM.
The logic for short-term and long-term is different.
For short-term ones like RKLB, ONDS, TSLA, I trade them intraday to compound gains. Familiar stocks develop a so-called “盘感” over time, making节奏 easier to grasp. INTC, WDC, ALAB, TSM are in sectors and companies I’m bullish on, but since I haven’t fully analyzed them for the long term and my cost basis isn’t particularly low, they remain short-term for now, but could become long-term holdings.
Among long-term holdings, besides being bullish on TSLA and PLTR’s前景, a major reason is low cost basis. Talking脱离
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