In 2025, persistent macro uncertainty and rapidly shifting crypto narratives turned asset selection into a defining pillar of exchange competitiveness. Over the course of the year, HTX, the global leading cryptocurrency exchange, continuously evolved its asset listing and governance framework, balancing broad sector coverage with market preemption and disciplined selection standards. Its asset ecosystem delivers both wealth-generation potential and sustained liquidity. Annual Asset Overview: Broad Coverage, High-Quality Listing, Strong Governance According to HTX’s annual report, more than 922,000 users traded in the spot markets in 2025, with total spot trading volume exceeding 1.9 trillion USDT, representing nearly 30% year-on-year growth. Grid trading volume rose 97%, while capital retained in grid bots doubled year-on-year. On asset listings, HTX added 166 cryptocurrencies throughout the year, spanning Layer 1/Layer 2 ecosystems, public chain ecosystems, memecoins, AI, RWAs, stablecoins, DeFi, and Perpetual DEXs. Asset listings became increasingly balanced across both core and emerging sectors. Notably, 76 of these listings were global firsts, placing HTX among the leading exchanges in initial-listing volume. Market performance data further underscores this advantage. 96 listed assets recorded post-listing gains exceeding 100%. The maximum peak return reached 9,500%. These figures validate HTX’s forward-looking capabilities in tapping into high-potential assets and narratives at their early stages. In parallel with continuous listings, HTX strengthened asset governance. In 2025, 241 assets were delisted, primarily due to prolonged inactivity, deteriorating liquidity, or failure to meet updated trading standards. This disciplined pruning ensured the platform’s asset pool remained liquid, tradable, and operationally efficient, safeguarding overall market quality for users. A Year in Review: Initial Listings Are Not Accidental, but Strategic HTX’s asset strategy has consistently focused on projects with strong narrative momentum, community resonance, and long-term value potential. In 2025, this translated into multiple high-impact initial listings, including PIPPIN (95x), DONKEY (69x), M (42x), and TRUMP (10x). As Justin Sun, Advisor to HTX, stated, the platform’s listing principle is simple: “If it’s hot, we list it. If it’s not, we don’t.” Behind this simplicity lies a systematic listing strategy built on narrative analysis, community consensus, liquidity validation, and deep project collaboration, rather than mere speculation. Through partnerships with premium projects and sustained focus on initial listings, HTX repeatedly positioned itself as a market front-runner. Many assets first listed on HTX were later adopted by major exchanges such as Binance, allowing HTX users to benefit not only from lower entry prices, but also from cross-platform valuation premiums. 1. Macro Narratives: Early Positioning Before Consensus Forms In 2025, political narratives entered the crypto market at scale for the first time, and HTX led decisively. In January, HTX became the first exchange globally to list TRUMP, officially announced by Donald Trump himself on Truth Social as the “official memecoin.” The listing ignited market sentiment, with the token reaching a 10x peak gain, making it one of the most traded and widely accepted assets of the year. In May, HTX again led the market by initially listing USD1 , a USD-pegged stablecoin issued by World Liberty Financial (WLFI), a Trump-family-affiliated project. In September, the project’s governance token WLFI debuted on HTX, becoming the first major exchange to systematically support this emerging political-finance ecosystem. 2. Community Sentiment and Ecosystem Cycle: Capturing the BSC and CZ Narrative Throughout the BSC ecosystem’s rapid evolution, HTX maintained close alignment with community sentiment and core narratives, delivering multiple high-profitability deployments. In March, riding the narrative around CZ’s influence and Middle Eastern capital inflows into Binance, HTX listed TST and MUBARAK , both of which doubled shortly after launch. This was followed by highly community-driven memecoins BANANAS31 and DONKEY , achieving 13x and 69x returns, respectively. In July, M emerged as one of the strongest BSC assets of the year with a 42x gain. In October, GIGGLE debuted on HTX with a 4x gain, before being listed on Binance Spot two weeks later. The power of HTX’s initial listings once again speaks for itself. During the same period, HTX became the first centralized exchange to support Chinese-language memecoins for spot trading, launching “Binance Life”. It also completed the spot trading system upgrades for the Chinese trading pairs 87 days ahead of Binance, securing a decisive early-mover position. 3. Forward-Looking Narratives: Early Coverage over AI Agent, DeFAI, and Payment Sectors HTX positioned itself ahead of the explosion in AI Agent and DeFAI narratives. PIPPIN, listed in January, achieved a 95x peak increase by November, becoming one of the most representative wealth-creation assets in the AI Agent sector. HTX also listed GRIFFAIN, HAT, AI16Z, and SWARMS in their early stages, with most delivering strong post-listing performance, further demonstrating the platform’s pre-judgment on emerging technology narratives. Furthermore, HTX has taken the lead in listing assets that fully cover the emerging x402 sector. By being the first to list the Base leader project PING and the Solana-based x402 leader PAYAI, HTX witnessed a phased doubling in the assets’ value following Coinbase’s launch of the x402 V2. Consequently, HTX has become the sole trading platform to support the core assets of this specific track. 4. Long-Term Focus on Value: Perpetual DEX Infrastructure Beyond high-heat narratives, HTX maintained a strategic focus on infrastructure-driven, application-oriented sectors. In September, as perpetual DEXs gained market traction, HTX moved swiftly to secure early exposure. ASTER, the native token of the benchmark BSC-based Perp DEX, rose 3x on HTX before being listed on Binance Spot within one week. AVNT , a key Base ecosystem project, delivered a 14x return after listing on HTX. Outlook 2026: Tapping Value-Driven Assets and Doubling Down on Initial Listings As institutional capital increasingly shapes market structure and the industry matures, HTX will further reinforce its strategy of value reversion and early discovery of high-potential assets. Going forward, HTX will prioritize assets with verifiable revenue streams, regulatory clarity, and sustainable business models. Conversely, high-FDV, low-circulation VC tokens, as well as purely sentiment-driven memecoins without real use cases, will face the strictest listing standards in HTX’s history, ensuring the utmost protection for users’ assets. Shifting decisively from traffic-driven listings to value-driven selection, HTX will anchor its strategy around three core criteria: real revenue backing, strong compliance foundations, and su stainable models. Based on these principles, HTX will focus on four high-conviction sectors: RWA and tokenized real-world assets; prediction markets; revenue-verifiable perpetual DEXs and derivatives infrastructure; and mobile-first PayFi solutions and super DApps. HTX, highlighting longtermism, is building a secure, transparent, and self-sustaining asset ecosystem, positioning itself as a reliable global platform for value discovery. To learn more about HTX, please visit https://www.htx.com/ or HTX Square , and follow HTX on X , Telegram , and Discord . The post HTX’s 2025 Asset and Listing Strategy Review, Building a High-Liquidity Ecosystem Through First-Mover Advantage and Longtermism first appeared on HTX Square .
