Bitcoin spot ETF and Ethereum spot ETF were approved for listing, successfully opening the door to traditional finance; Bitcoin completed another halving, and its price ushered in a wild ride; mainstream media attention increased significantly, and crypto practitioners became key players in the US election; stablecoin liquidity continued to grow, and on-chain activities continued to heat up; phenomenal meme coins rose rapidly, and the MEME super cycle broke out in full swing; AI+Crypto achieved a new narrative, and Agent became the new standard for crypto transactions... It can be said that 2024 is a landmark moment for the crypto market to truly move towards the mainstream, and the growing power of crypto provides a perfect start for the start of a new cycle.
On this occasion, PANews PARTY AWARD 2025 is themed "Becoming Mainstream", aiming to discover and commend those Web3 projects, teams and individuals who continue to build and strive to bring the industry into the mainstream vision. After more than a month of registration, online voting and professional jury review, the fifth PANews annual selection event officially came to an end. A total of 141 projects/enterprises and 10 individuals stood out and won 22 authoritative annual awards of "PARTY AWARD 2025".
The growth of the crypto ecosystem is inseparable from strong technological drivers, unique market perspectives, and keen judgment. These factors not only promote the industry's innovation process, but also bring significant economic benefits and social impact. PANews combined multi-dimensional selection criteria such as technological innovation, ecological development, market influence, and community building, and finally selected three annual outstanding contribution awards: Bitcoin, Base, and Solana.
From new technical mechanisms to innovative economic models, to new business models, investment models and asset issuance methods, these innovative paradigms not only promote the efficiency and intelligence of the trading environment, achieve asset diversification and value growth, but also provide market participants with more abundant asset allocation options. The crypto market has also ushered in a new growth cycle with the continuous expansion of depth and liquidity. "PARTY AWARD 2025" selected 10 annual innovation awards: ai16z, Ethena, Fractal Bitcoin, GMGNAi, GOAT, Hyperliquid, Mind Network, Polymarket, Pump.fun and Virtuals Protocol.
When innovative technologies are combined with new business models, disruptive innovations often occur, driving profound changes in the industry. This combination not only improves the application efficiency of technology, but also brings a new way of operation and more market space to the market. The "PARTY AWARD 2025" annual application list includes 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. Finally, 45 annual applications were selected.
The best DeFi of the year are: Aave, Ethena, Hyperliquid, Jito, Jupiter, Pendle, Raydium, Sky, THENA and Uniswap.
The best Web3 games of the year are: Big Time, Blocklords, Illuvium, Off the Grid and Shrapnel.
The best Web3 social networks of the year are: Farcaster, Lens Protocol, Mask Network, Telegram and UXLINK.
The RWAs of the Year are: MANTRA, Ondo Finance, Plume Network, Propy and Usual.
The best DePINs of the year are: DBunker, Grass, io.net, Privasea and Pundi X.
The best AI+Web3 combinations of the year are: ai16z, DIN, Virtuals Protocol, MEET48 and Pundi AI.
The most popular NFTs of the year are: Azuki, Bitcoin Puppets, Doodles, Milady Maker and Pudgy Penguins.
The crypto market is moving towards the era of large-scale applications. The distinctive infrastructure is undoubtedly the core engine driving growth and a long-term narrative with great imagination in the crypto field. In particular, the continuous iteration and upgrading of various infrastructures can effectively unlock more liquidity and inject new vitality into the entire market. "PARTY AWARD 2025" selected 20 best infrastructures of the year.
The best L1s of the year are: BNB Chain, Ethereum, Solana, Sui and Tron.
The best L2s of the year are: Arbitrum, Base, Mint Blockchain, Optimism and zkSync.
The best tools of the year are: BlockPI, CoinGlass, CryptoHunt, DeGame, GMGNAi, Kaito AI, Masbate, OKX Wallet, RootData and ZAN CLOUD.
After the early exploration stage, the crypto field is ushering in the dawn of the application era, especially in the context of the continuous maturity of technology and the continuous optimization of infrastructure. Crypto projects with development potential can often break the barriers of liquidity outside the circle and become the key to promote large-scale adoption, thereby accelerating the mainstreaming process of the crypto market. "PARTY AWARD 2025" selected the 25 most promising projects in the Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana and TON ecosystems.
The most promising projects in the Bitcoin ecosystem are: Babylon, Bitlayer, Fractal Bitcoin, Merlin Chain and Nervos.
The most promising projects in the Ethereum ecosystem are: Arbitrum, EigenLayer, Ethena, Farcaster, Polymarket, Pudgy Penguins, Sky, Uniswap, Wormhole and zkSync.
The most promising projects in the Ton ecosystem are: Catizen, DOGS, Hamster Kombat, Notcoin and Tomo Wallet.
The most promising projects in the Solana ecosystem are: Jupiter, Meteora, Pump.fun, Pyth Network and Raydium.
MEME is the frontier where culture and capital collide. As an emerging symbol of the attention economy, MEME has become one of the most popular and fastest-growing crypto narratives throughout 2024 with its strong communication power, profound cultural heritage and loyal community support. At the same time, as a weather vane of on-chain liquidity, MEME accurately reflects market dynamics and sentiment fluctuations. PANews finally selected the 10 most popular MEMEs of the year: AIXBT, BOME, CHILLGUY, DOGE, GOAT, MOODENG, Neiro, PEPE, PNUT and PUPS.
KOLs are not only information transmitters, but also trend leaders and innovation promoters. In the turbulent era of cryptocurrencies, they have always stood at the forefront of industry development with their outstanding professionalism, unique vision and precise insight. PANews selected the 10 most influential KOLs of the year: Ansem, Biteye, dingaling, LaserCat397.eth, Murad, Phyrex, 0xSun, 0xWizard, WolfyXBT and Ember.
Conference marketing is not only a powerful weapon for brand communication, but also a melting pot for the collision of ideas, full of profound valuable information and cutting-edge industry insights. In the field of Web3, the holding of conferences not only accelerates the popularization of the crypto world and helps more users outside the circle to step into this unknown field, but also inspires builders in the industry to continue to explore and innovate bravely, driving the entire industry forward. After layers of selection, "PARTY AWARD 2025" finally selected the five most influential Web3 conferences of the year: Bitcoin2024, BREAK POINT 2024, Devcon 2024, Hong Kong Web3 Festival and TOKEN 2049.
Excellent investment institutions often have profound market insights, unique strategic vision, excellent decision-making ability, excellent resource integration ability and stable risk control ability, so that they can accurately grasp the pulse of the development of the times in the ever-changing market. They are not only providers of capital, but also builders of the future of the industry, able to promote innovation and change in a complex and changing environment. The "PARTY AWARD 2025" annual selection selected 10 best 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 crypto ecosystem, profoundly affecting the liquidity and stability of the entire Crypto market. They are not only key platforms for users to conduct transactions and asset management, but also an important force in promoting innovation and development in the industry. Diversified trading products and assets, smooth trading experience, compliance construction, security and other factors are often the key factors that determine the user experience of exchanges, and directly affect whether exchanges can bring higher liquidity and stronger stability to the market. The "PARTY AWARD 2025" annual selection selected 8 best exchanges of the year: Binance, Bitget, Bybit, Gate.io, HashKey Exchange, HTX, OKX and Upbit.
In addition, PANews also selected 10 best PANews columns: Arthur Hayes, NingNing, 0xGreythorn, Mint Ventures, ChainView, Biteye, Rain in the Rain, Yue Xiaoyu, WOO and Vitalik Buterin. These columnists not only use their unique perspectives to deeply analyze industry dynamics, but also lead readers to better understand market trends and technological developments through precise insights and rational thinking, and provide valuable insights and inspiration for industry development.
Congratulations to all the Web3 companies and individuals who won the awards above. 2024 is seen as a key turning point in the crypto space, with multiple key factors jointly shaping profound changes in the market structure. In this new cycle, factors such as the participation of Wall Street giants, Bitcoin halving, the gradual clarification of the regulatory framework, the opening of traditional institutions to crypto asset allocation, the impact of the US election, and the continuous maturity of technology have not only brought new growth opportunities to the crypto industry, but also prompted the market to present a more diversified narrative form. With the interweaving and accelerated development of these factors, cryptocurrencies will be more clearly defined and widely recognized in the global financial system in 2025. "PARTY AWARD 2025" hopes to show the emerging trends and development potential of the crypto industry through this list, and encourage more industry pioneers and innovators to actively participate in the long-term construction of the crypto ecosystem.
Note: This year's "PARTY AWARD 2025" selection event would like to thank partners TradingView, SlowMist, NFTSCAN, OKLINK, Chainbase, Certik, GMGN and ROOTDATA for their strong support. Previous "PANews PARTY" annual selections: PARTY AWARD 2024 , PARTY AWARD 2023 , PARTY AWARD 2021 , PARTY AWARD 2020 .
