Research Roundup Newsletter [July 2025]

We present to you our latest issue of Research Roundup, featuring our deep dives into ‘InfoFi’ and ‘Crypto Credit Market’.

Welcome to the Crypto.com Monthly Research Roundup Newsletter!

1. Market Index

In June, the price index grew slightly by +1.70%, while the volume and volatility indices dropped by -10.21% and -3.41%, respectively.

2. Charts of the Month

Bitcoin’s long-term holders (LTH), defined as entities holding the asset for at least six months, added a record 800,000 BTC on a rolling 30-day basis in June. This marks the seventh time that the 30-day LTH supply increase exceeded 800,000 BTC. The data suggests a bullish, “HODL” mentality for BTC.

Ethereum-based stablecoins adoption reached an all-time high, surpassing 750,000 weekly unique addresses. This represents a significant shift from speculation to genuine interest. While USDT and USDC still dominate the market, other stablecoins have room to capture a meaningful market share. As the market matures, competition helps drive innovation, benefitting users through improved services and reduced costs.

3. Monthly Feature Articles

InfoFi: Turning Attention into Assets

InfoFi, which combines Information and Finance, is an emerging crypto narrative which transforms data and attention into tradeable, monetisable assets. It leverages AI to digest information on a large scale, while using blockchain to align incentives and provide trading capabilities.

This report introduces the notable players in the Yap-to-Earn, Attention Market, and Reputation Market categories, as well as discusses the significance and challenges of InfoFi’s development.

Key Takeaways:

• The InfoFi market can be grouped by the following categories: Prediction Market, Yap-to-Earn, Data Analytics and Insights, Attention Market, Reputation Market, and Paid Content.
  • Yap-to-Earn: Kaito is one of the pioneers of InfoFi, tokenising attention in the form of Yaps. Creators can earn Yaps based on their contribution to discussions on Crypto Twitter (CT), which are in turn used in rankings on the Yapper Leaderboard. Projects can set the reward criteria based on their goals to reward top and loyal Yappers.
  • Data Analytics and Insights: ElfaAI tracks and analyses traders, influencers, and other news sources to identify potential investment opportunities. Users can also share insights, discuss trends, and even trade cryptocurrencies directly within the ElfaAI app.
  • Attention Market: Noise enables users to exchange on mindshare or project attention. It decouples trades from token price and lets the community trade projects without tokens.
  • Reputation Market: Ethos introduces a ‘Credibility Score’ mechanism to let users evaluate and vouch for crypto projects and influencers through peer reviews and staking.
• InfoFi enables creators to turn insights and engagements into value, while allowing projects to identify their loyal users. Additionally, it emphasises decentralisation and transparency with rankings and rewards reflected on-chain for efficient evaluation of crypto projects. However, biases still exist when AI models judge content quality and influence. Mindshare as a metric may also lack sustainability, encouraging content spam or visibility over value.
• InfoFi represents an intersection of AI, creator engagement, and blockchain-based capital formation. It shifts content consumption from a passive, one-way flow into a system where value is distributed across stakeholders. However, InfoFi is still in its early stages. Attention can be short-lived, so clear measures are needed to ascertain quality and foster long-term retention.

Crypto Credit Market

The crypto credit market offers diverse financial products that provide liquidity and yield opportunities without requiring the sale of crypto assets. This report offers an overview of the crypto credit market, and emphasises the design of a decentralised lending ecosystem. It will also examine how traditional financial players are piloting blockchain-based credit frameworks, including experiments with on-chain private credit.

Key Takeaways:

• The crypto credit market offers diverse financial products that provide liquidity and yield opportunities without requiring the sale of crypto assets. Key offerings include lending, borrowing, and crypto credit cards, with operations divided between centralised finance (CeFi) and decentralised finance (DeFi) platforms. 
• CeFi primarily serves retail users through centralised exchanges. Meanwhile, institutions access tailored lending solutions via OTC and brokerage channels. The active loan size for CeFi lending surpassed US$22 billion in Q1 2025, grew by 16% quarter-over-quarter, driven by the private credits.
• The first half of 2025 saw DeFi lending protocols attract significant new capital, but this growth was largely fueled by liquidity mining incentives rather than organic borrowing demand. DeFi lending saw a 13% growth in total value locked (TVL) in H1 2025, reaching US$63 billion in June 2025. However, its revenue dropped significantly by 50% during the same period. 
• The crypto credit card segment is expanding swiftly, with projections estimating an increase from $1.82 billion in 2025 to $3.58 billion by 2029. The Crypto.com cards exemplifies this growth, offering rewards and robust security to users.
• Tokenising real-world assets (RWA) represents a significant frontier for on-chain lending. This integration of RWA into DeFi offers stability and access to capital for borrowers but presents challenges related to legal frameworks and regulatory clarity. With over $14 billion in tokenised private credit and a 42% growth from January to June 2025, RWA tokenisation is a notable trend as institutions explore yield-generating opportunities.
• Driven by the adoption of innovative lending models and stablecoins, crypto credit has transitioned from centralised platforms to decentralised protocols. Future growth will be influenced by cross-chain lending, RWA integration, and advancements in risk scoring. While the crypto credit market shows promise in transforming finance, it must address potential vulnerabilities to ensure sustainability and inclusivity in the financial ecosystem.

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4. Alpha Navigator

This institutional-focused report dives into macro trends, market-neutral pairs, style-factor screens, and events. Read the full Alpha Navigator report here.

• Equities and Fixed Income increased in June, while crypto and real asset performances were mixed. S&P 500 previously reached an all-time high of 6,205 on 30 June 2025.
• BTC’s one-month performance correlation turned positive with all equities and fixed income, but negative with Gold.

5. Crypto Conference & Economic Calendar

Crypto Conferences Calendar

Economic Calendar

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Research & Insights Team

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