Looking back on the year, Goldman Sachs crypto gurus, Solo Smenyuk and Christian Mendez, note that the underperformance of cryptocurrencies vs. traditional finance assets is pronounced.

Cryptocurrency Performance

Cryptocurrencies showed strength in Q2 2025; however a series of liquidation events and deleveraging have erased those gains, leaving BTC & ETH down -4% and -11.5% YTD respectively (Figure 1).