The First Year of Mainstreaming the Crypto Market, the PARTY AWARD 2025 Reveals 22 Authoritative Awards

2024 is a landmark moment for the crypto market as it truly moves into the mainstream. Bitcoin spot ETFs and Ethereum spot ETFs have been approved for listing, successfully entering the traditional financial sector; Bitcoin has undergone another halving, with prices experiencing a significant surge; mainstream media attention has significantly increased, with crypto professionals playing an important role in the U.S. elections; the liquidity of stablecoins continues to grow, and on-chain activities are heating up; phenomenon-level meme coins are rapidly rising, and the MEME supercycle is fully erupting; AI+Crypto has become a new hotspot, and Agent has become a new standard in crypto trading. These developments lay a solid foundation for the opening of a new era.

Against this backdrop, the PARTY AWARD 2025 will be themed "Becoming Mainstream", aiming to recognize Web3 projects, teams, and individuals that consistently drive the industry into the mainstream spotlight. After more than a month of registration, online voting, and professional evaluation, the fifth annual selection event has officially concluded, with 141 projects/enterprises and 10 individuals standing out to receive 22 authoritative annual awards.

The growth of the crypto ecosystem relies on strong technological driving forces, unique market perspectives, and keen judgment. These factors not only drive industry innovation but also bring significant economic benefits and social impacts. Based on a multi-dimensional standard combining technological innovation, ecological development, market influence, and community building, three annual outstanding contribution awards are ultimately selected: Bitcoin, Base, and Solana.

From new technological mechanisms to innovative economic models, and then to new business models, investment models, and asset issuance methods, these innovative paradigms have promoted the efficiency and intelligence of the trading environment, achieving asset diversification and value growth, providing market participants with a richer selection of asset allocation. The crypto market has opened up a new growth cycle with the continuous expansion of depth and liquidity. This year, 10 annual innovation awards were selected: ai16z, Ethena, Fractal Bitcoin, GMGNAi, GOAT, Hyperliquid, Mind Network, Polymarket, Pump.fun, and Virtuals Protocol.

When innovative technologies combine with new business models, it often leads to disruptive innovations that drive profound changes in the industry. This combination not only enhances the efficiency of technology application but also brings new operating methods and more market space. This year's application rankings include seven categories of awards: Best DeFi of the Year, Best Web3 Game of the Year, Best Web3 Social of the Year, Best RWA of the Year, Best DePIN of the Year, Best AI+Web3 Combination of the Year, and Most Popular NFT of the Year, ultimately selecting 45 annual applications.

Best DeFi of the Year: Aave, Ethena, Hyperliquid, Jito, Jupiter, Pendle, Raydium, Sky, THENA, and Uniswap.

Annual Best Web3 Games: Big Time, Blocklords, Illuvium, Off the Grid, and Shrapnel.

Best Web3 Social of the Year: Farcaster, Lens Protocol, Mask Network, Telegram, and UXLINK.

Annual Best RWA: MANTRA, Ondo Finance, Plume Network, Propy, and Usual.

Annual Best DePIN: DBunker, Grass, io.net, Privasea, and Pundi X.

Best AI + Web3 Integration of the Year: ai16z, DIN, Virtuals Protocol, MEET48, and Pundi AI.

Most Popular NFTs of the Year: Azuki, Bitcoin Puppets, Doodles, Milady Maker, and Pudgy Penguins.

The crypto market is moving towards a large-scale application era, with distinctive infrastructures being the core engine driving growth and also a long-term narrative with significant imaginative potential in the encryption field. The continuous iteration and upgrading of infrastructure can effectively unlock more liquidity, injecting new vitality into the entire market. This time, 20 annual best infrastructures have been selected.

Best L1 of the Year: BNB Chain, Ethereum, Solana, Sui, and Tron.

Best L2 of the Year: Arbitrum, Base, Mint Blockchain, Optimism, and zkSync.

Tool of the Year: BlockPI, CoinGlass, CryptoHunt, DeGame, GMGNAi, Kaito AI, Masbate, OKX Wallet, RootData, and ZAN CLOUD.

After early exploration, the encryption field is ushering in the dawn of the application era. Against the backdrop of continuously maturing technology and ongoing optimization of infrastructure, crypto projects with development potential often break down liquidity barriers from outside the circle, becoming key drivers of large-scale adoption and accelerating the mainstreaming process of the crypto market. This time, 25 of the most promising projects from Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, and the TON ecosystem were selected.

The most promising projects in the Bitcoin ecosystem: Babylon, Bitlayer, Fractal Bitcoin, Merlin Chain, and Nervos.

The most promising projects in the Ethereum ecosystem: Arbitrum, EigenLayer, Ethena, Farcaster, Polymarket, Pudgy Penguins, Sky, Uniswap, Wormhole, and zkSync.

Most promising projects in the Ton ecosystem: Catizen, DOGS, Hamster Kombat, Notcoin, and Tomo Wallet.

The most promising projects in the Solana ecosystem: Jupiter, Meteora, Pump.fun, Pyth Network, and Raydium.

MEME is the forefront of the collision between culture and capital. As an emerging symbol of the attention economy, MEME coins have become one of the most popular and fastest-growing crypto narratives of 2024, thanks to their strong dissemination power, deep cultural accumulation, and loyal community support. At the same time, as a barometer of on-chain liquidity, MEME coins accurately reflect market dynamics and emotional fluctuations. This time, 10 of the most popular MEMEs of the year were selected: AIXBT, BOME, CHILLGUY, DOGE, GOAT, MOODENG, Neiro, PEPE, PNUT, and PUPS.

KOLs are not only information transmitters but also trendsetters and innovators. In the turbulent era of encryption, they stand at the forefront of industry development with their exceptional professionalism, unique insights, and precise foresight. This year, 10 of the most influential KOLs have been selected: Ansem, Biteye, dingaling, LaserCat397.eth, Murad, Phyrex, 0xSun, 0xWizard, Sha Po Lang WolfyXBT, and Yu Jin.

Conference marketing is not only a powerful weapon for brand communication but also a melting pot for ideas. In the Web3 field, the holding of conferences accelerates the popularization of the encryption world, helping more users from outside the circle step into this field, inspiring industry builders to continuously explore and innovate, and promoting the entire industry's forward development. This time, five of the most influential Web3 conferences of the year have been selected: Bitcoin2024, BREAK POINT 2024, Devcon 2024, Hong Kong Web3 Festival, and TOKEN 2049.

Outstanding investment institutions often possess profound market insight, unique strategic vision, excellent decision-making ability, exceptional resource integration capability, and robust risk control ability, enabling them to accurately grasp the pulse of the era's development in a rapidly changing market. They are not only providers of capital but also builders of the industry's future. This selection has identified the top 10 investment institutions of the year: a16z, Alliance, Binance Labs Fund, Dragonfly, Hack VC, HTX Ventures, OKX Ventures, Pantera Capital, Paradigm, and SevenX Ventures.

Crypto exchanges are the core hub of the encryption ecosystem, profoundly influencing the liquidity and stability of the entire crypto market. They are not only key platforms for users to conduct transactions and manage assets but also important forces driving industry innovation and development. Factors such as diversified trading products and assets, smooth trading experience, compliance construction, and security are key elements that determine the user experience of exchanges, directly affecting whether exchanges can bring higher liquidity and stronger stability to the market. This time, 8 annual best exchanges were selected: a certain trading platform, Bitget, Bybit, Gate, HashKey Exchange, HTX, a certain platform, and Upbit.

!["PARTY AWARD 2025" annual selection officially announced, which 22 authoritative awards went to whom?](