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XRP Ledger is quickly becoming a major global settlement layer for stablecoin activity. According to a recent update from Dune, July saw significant growth in Brazilian real (BRL)-denominated stablecoins, especially those issued on the XRP Ledger. BBRL Surges to Second Place as XRP Ledger Powers BRL Stablecoin Growth Data from Dune Analytics shows that BrazaBank
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Two prominent industry analysts have turned very bullish on altcoin ETFs, predicting that eight different applications have 90-95% odds of SEC approval.
The assets in question include Litecoin, Solana, XRP, Dogecoin, Cardano, Polkadot, HBAR, and Avalanche. They’re also bullish on a basket ETF but believe that SUI only has 60% odds.
Since the Bitcoin ETFs first hit the scene, crypto has irrevocably changed. This first offering was a long and difficult battle, but enthusiasts hoped that Bitcoin would open the floodgates.
New SEC management has inspired a torrent of altcoin ETF applications, and two Bloomberg analysts believe that many of them are practically certain to succeed:
Their top altcoin ETF picks include all the classic contenders like Solana and XRP. The analysts in question, James Seyffart and Eric Balchunas, have been following this race for months.
They previously picked Litecoin as the top candidate, but it’s now a three-way race between these assets.
Five more altcoins are only slightly less likely to win approval. They gave Sui 60% odds due to its uncertain status as a commodity, and didn’t rank Tron. Commentators inquired about several other filings, but they only considered proposals with active Form 19b-4 filings.
So, why are they so optimistic? After all, the SEC has been postponing altcoin ETF applications on all fronts. The important thing to remember is that the Commission is meaningfully engaging with these proposals.
A hostile SEC under Gary Gensler tried to ignore filings for as long as possible, but today’s Commission acknowledges them promptly.
Even if it’s unable to move as quickly as the industry might like, the SEC is still showing encouraging signs. Seyffart theorized that final approval could happen as soon as July or as late as October. Either way, he thinks it’ll happen in 2025.
Luckily, the community has been understanding of these setbacks. For example, popular belief in a successful XRP ETF spiked to 98% earlier this month despite an SEC delay.
It seems now that industry professionals are taking a similarly rosy view of altcoin ETFs. Hopefully, the first approvals will start going through in the near future.
Still, these bullish predictions might not immediately translate into lucrative investment opportunities. As of June 2025, Bitcoin ETFs take up 90% of the sector. Even if all eight of these altcoin ETFs win approval, BTC might continue dominating market share.
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Bitcoin continues to gain traction in the U.S. political landscape, with President Donald Trump’s top crypto advisor, Bo Hines, showing openness to a bold idea—swapping Fort Knox gold reserves for Bitcoin. This potential move could reshape how the U.S. views digital assets and even set the stage for Bitcoin as a national reserve asset.
Hines, who serves as the Executive Director of Digital Assets for Trump’s campaign, recently spoke about Bitcoin’s significance, calling it “digital gold.” He highlighted the idea that Bitcoin deserves recognition similar to physical gold, reinforcing the belief that the U.S. should be more open to digital assets.
In a recent interview with FOX Business journalist Eleanor Terrett, Hines stated that he is open to discussing the possibility of exchanging Fort Knox gold reserves for Bitcoin, provided it remains budget-neutral.
However, he noted that such a move must be budget-neutral, meaning it should not impact taxpayers or the overall government budget. While no concrete plans are in place, he indicated that the administration is going with innovative ideas in the crypto space.
This discussion aligns with the efforts of Senator Cynthia Lummis, who has long advocated for a national Bitcoin reserve. Lummis previously proposed selling a portion of the Federal Reserve’s gold certificates to acquire Bitcoin.
Her 2024 BITCOIN Act suggested purchasing 1 million BTC, representing about 5% of Bitcoin’s circulating supply.
Although her initial bill did not gain traction, she recently reintroduced the proposal at a Bitcoin conference, reigniting the conversation on integrating Bitcoin into national reserves.
The discussion also touched on whether the administration would support altcoins beyond Ethereum, XRP, Solana, and Cardano—four assets Trump previously mentioned in his first national crypto reserve statement.
Hines clarified that while these assets were highlighted due to their market dominance, the administration is open to broader crypto adoption.
As of now, Bitcoin remains in the spotlight as its price hovers around $84,170 with a market cap hitting $1.67 trillion. Meanwhile, crypto analyst Ali Martinez believes that for Bitcoin to continue its upward trend, it must stay above $94,000. If it breaks this level, BTC could surge to $112,000.
However, if the price falls below $76,000, a sharp drop to $58,000 or lower might follow.
The post Trump’s Crypto Advisor Explores Gold-to-Bitcoin Swap— BTC Eying $112k! appeared first on Coinpedia Fintech News
Bitcoin continues to gain traction in the U.S. political landscape, with President Donald Trump’s top crypto advisor, Bo Hines, showing openness to a bold idea—swapping Fort Knox gold reserves for Bitcoin. This potential move could reshape how the U.S. views digital assets and even set the stage for Bitcoin as a national reserve asset. Bitcoin …
In 2025, the ecosystems that thrive aren’t the loudest — they’re the most strategic, the most focused, and the ones building lasting value. Ecosystem health today is increasingly measured by the depth of developer engagement, not the size of token airdrops or surface-level metrics. Marketing has evolved too: AI tools, grassroots community operations, and hybrid content strategies are replacing short-lived, high-gloss campaigns.
As crypto becomes a fixture in national policy and economic frameworks, credibility and trust within ecosystems have emerged as the new currencies of growth.
There’s no one-size-fits-all playbook anymore. To uncover what’s actually working today, we spoke with growth leaders from Sui, Avalanche, Syscoin, Manta Network, and others.
This report helps to shed some light on the ongoing trends in the crypto-related marketing and find out which of them are setting the pace for the next wave of sustainable growth.
Back in 2024, crypto felt like it was everywhere and nowhere all at once.
Timelines were flooded with debates, L1 vs. L2, monolithic vs. modular, liquidity this, fragmentation that. Almost everyone had a hot take and every project was scrambling for a flash of attention that barely lasted longer than a tweet.
You could launch a project, nail the narrative, get your retweets and podcast mentions and still wake up the next day with no real momentum.
It wasn’t sustainable and deep down, most teams knew it.
And yet, behind the scenes, something foundational shifted.
For the first time, crypto became a serious topic in policy rooms.
Suddenly, crypto had a seat at the big table.
That was the moment the growth playbook started to change.
Fast-forward to 2025, ecosystems that had been optimizing for virality started asking tougher questions:
To find answers, we spoke with ecosystem leaders across 10 blockchain networks, from early-stage innovators to mature platforms. Despite technical and strategic diversity, they shared one common mindset: They’re building like they plan to be here in five, ten, twenty years.
This is post-hype crypto and the rules have changed.
Key highlights and critical findings
To understand what’s driving ecosystem growth in 2025, we went straight to the source in conversations with ten executives across active, forward-thinking blockchain networks including Sui, Avalanche, Manta Network, Syscoin, eCash, and CrossFi Chain.
Our findings are structured across five critical themes:
→ Strategic Priorities
→ Growth Challenges
→ Team Structures
→ Marketing Tactics
→ Budget Allocation
These are the pressure points where ecosystems are being tested, where they’re iterating and where the shift from hype to health is most visible.
The answers weren’t surface-level.
They were honest, revealing, and at times, surprisingly candid.
Not long ago, crypto felt like a winner-takes-all race.
Ethereum and Bitcoin dominated headlines, while new chains clawed for attention with a flashy feature or a viral announcement.
But that playbook has changed.
Today, the landscape is more fragmented and more alive than ever.
Upstart chains can gain real traction in months. Niche ecosystems are finding staying power by serving focused communities with precision: real dev support, localized outreach, unique tooling, and use cases that resonate with people who actually build.
It’s no longer about being the biggest.
It’s about being the most relevant to the audience that matters.
Source: Market share distribution among top ecosystems.
The momentum has shifted from mass appeal to mission-driven growth.
The ecosystems making progress are the ones listening, serving and playing the long game.
Among surveyed ecosystems, developer adoption has become the north star metric.
While TVL remains a benchmark, leading teams are shifting toward engagement depth over vanity counts. Grants, hackathons, and local campaigns outperform short-term airdrops in both onboarding and retention.
Source: Top Barriers to Ecosystem Adoption Identified by Executives
Based on direct feedback, the top challenges for ecosystems today are:
While blockchain infrastructure is improving,especially with L2 scalability and better dev tooling, the biggest challenges aren’t technical anymore.
They’re strategic.
Most teams aren’t struggling with what to build but with how to position, differentiate, and communicate.
“It’s no longer enough to be technically sound. Ecosystem success depends on whether you can communicate value to developers, users and partners in the clearest, most compelling way possible.” – — Matthew Schmenk, Ecosystem Growth Lead, Avalanche
“Marketing in crypto used to be noise. Now it’s systems thinking – who you reach, how you reach them, and why they stay.”- The Lunar Strategy Team
Ecosystem marketing in 2025 isn’t about dropping a flashy campaign, running a paid KOL loop, and hoping it sticks. Today, marketing is infrastructure.
It’s the connective tissue between ecosystem layers: builders, users, tokenholders, institutions driving onboarding, retention, and legitimacy.
Let’s break it down:
Source: Percentage of Ecosystems Using External Agencies vs. In-House Teams
According to our survey:
Hybrid models allow for speed and flexibility while maintaining institutional knowledge. Fully in-house teams prioritize cohesion but may lack bandwidth or breadth of expertise.
Annual budgets vary widely:
What’s changing in 2025 isn’t just how much teams spend, it’s how precisely they deploy capital:
“In 2024, we spent $2M and didn’t know what moved the needle. In 2025, we’re spending half that – with 3x the return – because we track the full funnel.” — Ecosystem CMO
As ecosystems compete for market share, one truth is becoming increasingly clear: developers are the new power users.
Ecosystem health is now largely measured by the number and quality of developers actively building, contributing, and shipping.
Across the board, developer evangelism and hackathons ranked as the most effective levers for attracting high-quality builders. In 2025, 9 out of 10 ecosystem leaders called them “critical” or “highly effective.”
But incentives alone aren’t enough.
The modern developer is motivated by clear value exchange and personal growth, not just payouts.
Here’s what’s working now:
In short, developer outreach is all about frictionless onboarding, compelling challenges, and a clear value exchange.
Also, programs that combine monetary reward + mentorship + visibility are far outperforming “spray-and-pray” grants.
Case Highlights:
Takeaway: Attracting developers is about storytelling. The ecosystems seeing long-term success are those building not just incentives but infrastructure, identity and upward mobility.
While developer acquisition drives infrastructure growth, community engagement fuels longevity. Every successful ecosystem in 2025 has one thing in common: a loyal, activated community with a clear identity.
Source: The Most effective community growth tactics
While growth tactics vary, one truth stands out: the most resilient ecosystems pair online engagement with offline connection.
Top tactics driving community growth:
But community size alone isn’t a success metric.
In fact, ecosystems like Sui and Syscoin consistently outperform larger chains on key ecosystem health metrics not because they’re bigger, but because they’re tighter:
Case Study: Syscoin’s grassroots events across APAC led to a 30% increase in wallet retention among new users, with ongoing community-led workshops in 5+ cities.
In 2025, brand strategy has moved beyond logos and Twitter handles.
The Kaito framework, designed to optimize ecosystem mindshare is fast becoming a differentiator for projects seeking credibility and cohesion.
Source: Kaito mindshare metrics across top ecosystems
Adoption Snapshot:
Projects like Berachain that adopted early Kaito brand structuring reports increased developer trust, faster community onboarding and stronger alignment between technical and community narratives.
Strategic Approaches to Kaito Optimization:
Resource: The Ultimate Brand Playbook for Dominating Kaito Mindshare
Today, ecosystems aren’t asking “How do we go viral?”
Instead, they’re asking “How do we show up with the right message, in the right format and to the right audience consistently?”
The new growth stack includes:
Let’s break down the mechanics behind the ecosystems getting it right.
Influencer marketing remains effective, only if you get the tier right.
Source: ROI comparison across influencer tiers
Key Takeaway:
Nano and Micro influencers (1K–50K followers) outperform all others in ROI due to stronger niche focus, higher engagement, and lower cost-per-activation.
Though, the Top-performing influencer strategies in 2025 blend:
Best for:
The Lunar Amplification Method
Used by select top-tier ecosystems, the Lunar Amplification Method is a multi-tiered distribution system that combines:
It’s a system where the creator voice becomes a scalable growth vector backed by data, incentives, and trust.
Too many ecosystems view PR as a vanity move.
The most effective teams treat it as distribution infrastructure.
This dual-axis chart illustrates how media coverage intensity correlates with:
Investing in PR campaigns and consistent media exposure can significantly accelerate ecosystem adoption both in developer participation and capital inflow (TVL).
Key Takeaways:
Example: Manta Network launched its dev-focused ZK SDK and timed the announcement with coordinated earned media + regional hackathons = 3.2x increase in sign-ups over 14 days.
In 2025, ecosystems aren’t asking “should we be on [platform]?”
They’re asking how do we show up with the right content, for the right moment, on each platform?
This bar chart displays how frequently various social media platforms are mentioned as part of crypto ecosystem growth strategies.
However, crypto ecosystems should create platform-specific content:
Ecosystems are moving beyond flat airdrops and short-term incentives, and instead architecting behaviorally intelligent tokenomics that reward commitment, skill and genuine contribution.
The question is no longer “What do we give?” but “What are we reinforcing?”
Incentives were once a shortcut for growth.
Now, they’re shaping everything from user retention to governance alignment to ecosystem stickiness.
Source: This bar chart compares the perceived effectiveness of two major types of incentive mechanisms used in crypto ecosystems.
Projects that tie incentives to measurable contributions and future value (e.g., governance power, access tiers) retain users longer than those offering flat token grants.
Case Examples:
Ecosystem growth is global by default and regional by design.
Local developer hubs are now a critical piece of post-hype strategy.
Source: Geographic distribution of developer hubs
This chart highlights the regional presence of developer hubs across the globe, indicating where ecosystems are establishing a physical or community-driven footprint to support builders.
Regional presence is shaping ecosystem strength:
Best Practices:
Crypto in 2025 is quieter, deeper, and more intentional.
The ecosystems winning today are building context, culture, and trust, rooted in purpose where meaningful value, thoughtful execution, and trusted communities are taking center stage.
Our deep-dive conversations with builders, marketers and ecosystem leaders across ten blockchain networks uncovered three core principles that are setting the pace for the next wave of sustainable growth:
We’re past the era of chasing “what’s working.”
The real question is: What’s worth building and who’s staying to build it with you?
So, focus on creating real value for the people who matter most to your ecosystem. Build with intention, authenticity and remember that in a market still finding its footing and the strongest position isn’t being the loudest voice but the most trusted one.
Because ecosystems aren’t websites.
They’re living systems.
Lunar Strategy’s Ecosystem Launchpad Accelerator combines deep expertise in go-to-market strategy, ecosystem growth, and strategic advisory to help innovative Layer 1 and Layer 2 projects capitalize on the historic crypto market shift.
With 25+ years of combined experience across top ecosystems like Solana, Cardano, Mantle, Polkadot, and ICP, our team brings proven frameworks for:
Apply for the Ecosystem Launchpad Accelerator
This is a rare window to redefine what successful ecosystem growth looks like.
Let’s build something real, together.
The post The State of Ecosystem Growth in 2025: Research Report appeared first on BeInCrypto.
