Today in crypto: Altcoins, led by Ether, XRP, and Solana, drove crypto exchange-traded products inflows in 2025, while Bitcoin fund inflows fell 35%. Vitalik Buterin declared that Ethereum has finally solved the blockchain trilemma, and the CoinMarketCap Crypto Fear & Greed Index flips to “neutral” for the first time since October 2025.
Crypto funds pulled $47 billion inflows in 2025, shy of 2024 record as altcoins led
Cryptocurrency investment products pulled in about $47 billion of inflows in 2025, just shy of 2024’s total amid new crypto exchange-traded fund (ETF) launches in the US.
Crypto exchange-traded products (ETPs) logged $47.2 billion in inflows last year, 3% below 2024’s record of $48.7 billion, according to European crypto asset manager CoinShares.
Bitcoin (BTC) inflows fell sharply in 2025, with a 35% drop from $41.7 billion in 2024 to around $27 billion, while Ether (ETH), XRP (XRP) and Solana (SOL) ETPs saw substantial gains.
Despite falling short of 2024, global crypto ETP assets under management (AUM) rose to about $180 billion in late 2025, up from $160 billion the previous year.
Ether ETPs posted the strongest gains in 2025, with inflows totaling $12.7 billion, up 138% from $5.3 billion the previous year, according to CoinShares head of research James Butterfill.
Solana funds recorded the highest growth rate, surging 1,000% to $3.6 billion from $310 million in 2024, while XRP investment products rose 500%, to $3.6 billion from $608 million.
“The remaining altcoins saw a decline in sentiment with a fall in inflows YoY of 30%,” Butterfill noted.
Ethereum ready to solve blockchain trilemma: Vitalik Buterin
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin claims Ethereum has “solved” one of the biggest challenges in crypto: the blockchain trilemma.
In a X post on Saturday, Buterin emphasized the potential of peer data availability sampling (PeerDAS) and Zero-Knowledge Ethereum Virtual Machines (ZK-EVMs), noting that these two upgrades are making Ethereum “a fundamentally new and more powerful kind of decentralized network.”
“Now, Ethereum with PeerDAS (2025) and ZK-EVMs (expect small portions of the network using it in 2026), we get: decentralized, consensus and high bandwidth,” he said, adding:
“The trilemma has been solved — not on paper, but with live running code, of which one half (data availability sampling) is *on mainnet today*, and the other half (ZK-EVMs) is *production-quality on performance today* — safety is what remains.”
Crypto Fear and Greed Index flips from “fear”
The “Crypto Fear and Greed Index,” a gauge of investor sentiment, flipped from “fear” to “neutral” on Sunday, for the first time since October 2025.
The Index is at 40 at the time of this writing, signaling that confidence among crypto investors is improving, following the historic market crash in October that derailed crypto prices.
For context, Bitcoin (BTC) hit an all-time high above $125,000 days before the flash crash before collapsing to a low of about $80,000 in November. Bitcoin’s price has yet to recover to the pre-crash high or form a new all-time high.
Improving crypto investor sentiment is a positive sign for digital asset markets as 2026 kicks off, but the year could see additional macroeconomic and geopolitical headwinds that suffocate appetite for risk-on asset markets like crypto.
cointelegraph.com