The Signal
Fourteen community-voted awards turn Crypto Twitter's 2025 into a record of products, trades, memes and spectacular failures. Hyperliquid dominates the serious categories, Melania wins worst coin, Trump's memecoin launch wins tweet of the year, and Cupsey takes best trader — a result Threadguy honors while spending the finale arguing that Mando was robbed.
Key Takeaways
- 01
The ballot belongs to the audience
Threadguy discloses his own picks but repeatedly separates them from the hundreds of public votes. The tension between his rankings and the winners is the show's running bit.
- 02
Hyperliquid owned the product year
It wins both product and token of the year, while perpetual DEXes take best meta. The rationale is concrete: the category created users, volume and wealth while many other narratives faded.
- 03
Launches defined the downside too
Believe wins biggest fumble and Melania wins worst coin after a launch Threadguy describes as sickening. The awards remember not just price damage but the reputational damage of the year's launches.
- 04
The Trump post is the year's artifact
Donald Trump's official memecoin announcement beats more trader-specific tweets because it instantly changed the market and became an unforgettable timestamp for participants.
- 05
Cupsey wins, Mando is Threadguy's pick
The public gives trader of the year to Cupsey by a wide margin. Threadguy accepts the official result but argues that Mando's 2025 deserved the title and was wrongly left outside the top five.
On the Record
“The winner of best meta controversially is perp dexes.”
“The winner of the 2025 token of the year, Hyperlid.”
“The winner is Cubsy by a fucking mile”
“The trader of the year is Mando. And it's not even close.”
The Breakdown
Posters, fumbles and venture capital
The ceremony opens with B16Z as best poster, a close field that includes Rasmer and Robert Chang. Believe takes biggest fumble after a fast collapse from relevance, while Yeetzy Labs wins VC of the year. From the start, popular vote — not Threadguy's personal ballot — controls the trophy.
The market's best meta and product
Perpetual DEXes beat privacy and the other 2025 narratives for best meta, powered by Hyperliquid and emerging competitors including Lighter and Aster. Hyperliquid then wins product of the year over Phantom, Polymarket, Axiom and Fomo. Its ability to make a genuinely used product and reward participants gives it the cleanest case.
Melania at the bottom, HYPE at the top
Melania wins worst coin over Libra after the presidential-family launch helped produce one of Threadguy's bleakest nights in crypto. Hyperliquid's token takes the opposite award, narrowly beating his own choice of Trump. The split captures the year: celebrity launches damaged trust while a working exchange token proved utility could still command attention.
The posts everyone remembers
Trump's 'my official Trump memecoin is live' announcement wins best tweet because no other single post moved as much money or became as culturally fixed. Alain's promised Q4 call wins worst tweet. The awards treat posting as market infrastructure: a sentence can launch a token, top a trade or become permanent evidence of a failed forecast.
Flood's trade, Kobe's vote
Threadguy names Flood the deserving trade-of-the-year winner for holding conviction without wavering, but explains that Kobe Eko won the popular vote. The presentation keeps both records intact — the official ballot and the host's judgment — instead of pretending they always converge.
The Cupsey–Mando finale
Cupsey wins trader of the year by a country mile, and Threadguy credits a style nobody else can simply copy. Then he objects: his nominee Mando did not even make the top five, which he calls a summary of the market's misplaced incentives. The closing lesson is double-edged — respect elite onchain execution, but do not assume you can reproduce it merely by imitating the trades.
Distilled from the episode transcript · Counterparty Recap Desk
