2025 in Review: Tech, Money, Markets and Climate Redefined the Global Economy

By Benadeta Mwaura - Reporter

Kenya, 24 December 2025 - In 2025, the world’s economic landscape was transformed not just by the usual market cycles but by sweeping structural shifts, driven by breakthroughs in technology, evolving financial systems, volatile markets, and mounting climate pressures.

From the rapid adoption of mobile money and artificial intelligence to new frontiers in digital assets, these trends are recasting the rules of economic growth and laying foundations that will reverberate into 2026 and beyond.

One of the most striking structural changes of 2025 was the accelerating integration of technology into daily economic life.

Mobile money, once a niche innovation, continues to expand the reach of financial services globally.

According to the World Bank and the World Bank‑led Wudadao Forum, mobile money platforms contributed to over 1.3 billion registered accounts worldwide, with Sub‑Saharan Africa, including Kenya, at the forefront of this shift, dramatically enhancing financial inclusion for underserved communities.

Artificial intelligence made equally profound strides.

New research suggests that AI adoption could boost global GDP by up to 15 percentage points by 2035, rivaling the economic uplift of the Industrial Revolution.

In Kenya, for example, a July 2025 report ranked the country number one in global ChatGPT usage, a sign of deep integration of generative AI into business, education, and personal use, a remarkable leap for an economy still classified as emerging.

At the infrastructure level, cloud computing, the backbone of modern digital services, continued to dominate corporate investment strategies.

Major global players, such as Amazon, have launched massive $12 billion bond issuances to expand AI and cloud infrastructure, signaling a shift toward debt-financed tech builds that blur the lines between traditional capital markets and future technology platforms.

These innovations coincided with a broader rise in fintech and digital finance. Stablecoins, digital tokens pegged to fiat currencies, grew in prominence following landmark legislation such as the U.S. GENIUS Act, which enabled regulated issuance of stablecoins by banks and financial institutions.

Meanwhile, real‑world asset tokenization and blockchain‑based financial platforms expanded rapidly, positioning digital assets as serious contenders alongside traditional stock and bond markets.

Global capital markets in 2025 reflected the tectonic changes in technology and geopolitics. According to the Financial Times, big winners on the world’s stock exchanges were companies tied to AI development, defence spending and precious metals, while traditional consumer sectors lagged amid tariff disruptions and shifting demand patterns.

Cryptocurrencies, once fringe speculative assets, were reshaped by institutional participation. Bitcoin remained a leading digital asset, but stablecoins and decentralized finance (DeFi) gained traction as everyday users sought cheaper, faster cross-border transactions, particularly in regions where traditional banking was costly or unreliable. Sub-Saharan Africa emerged as a global leader in stablecoin adoption, with markets like Nigeria seeing millions of users bypass cash constraints with digital dollars, while regulators raced to catch up with usage patterns.

Bitcoin’s price action in 2025 underscored both the maturation and persistent volatility of the crypto market.

The world’s largest cryptocurrency surged to record highs during the year, buoyed by increased institutional allocations, expanding exchange-traded fund participation, and growing acceptance of digital assets within mainstream portfolios.

However, these gains were punctuated by sharp corrections, as tighter global liquidity conditions, profit-taking, and regulatory uncertainty triggered periodic sell-offs.

The resulting boom-and-bust cycles reinforced Bitcoin’s dual identity in 2025: a strategic asset for long-term investors and a highly volatile instrument sensitive to macroeconomic signals, geopolitical risk, and policy direction.

Policy developments also influenced digital markets. In the U.S., discussions around a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and digital asset summits highlighted how governments were contemplating direct engagement in crypto markets, shifting rhetoric from prohibition to strategic inclusion.

Across Sub-Saharan Africa in 2025, virtual asset regulation moved rapidly from the fringes toward the mainstream as governments sought to balance innovation with financial stability and consumer protection.

In Kenya, the Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASP) Act was passed and came into force in late 2025, establishing a licensing and oversight framework for crypto exchanges, wallet providers, and stablecoin issuers. Under the law, the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) and the Capital Markets Authority (CMA) jointly regulate the sector, demanding strong anti-money-laundering (AML) and know-your-customer (KYC) compliance.

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Similarly, Ghana enacted its Virtual Asset Service Providers Bill in December 2025, formally legalizing cryptocurrency trading and granting its central bank authority to license and supervise digital asset service providers.

This new framework aims to protect investors while offering clarity to the millions of users already active in crypto markets.

Meanwhile in South Africa, regulatory structures have been evolving over several years under the oversight of the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) and the Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC), requiring formal registration and AML compliance for crypto asset service providers, a model that has helped signal legitimacy and attract institutional interest.

Collectively, these policies reflect a broader African trend of transitioning from informal or unclear legal environments toward structured regulatory regimes that align with global financial standards, thereby boosting investor confidence and fostering potential digital finance innovation.

Amid economic uncertainty and currency instability, gold reasserted its role as a safe-haven asset in 2025, drawing renewed interest from both institutional investors and households.

Elevated inflation risks, geopolitical tensions, and concerns over sovereign debt sustainability pushed capital toward precious metals, with gold prices touching multi-year highs during the year.

In emerging and frontier markets, gold also served as a hedge against local currency depreciation, reinforcing its enduring appeal at a time when confidence in fiat systems was being tested.

The expansion of technology and national investment in infrastructure came with a growing reliance on debt, not just by emerging digital firms, but by governments seeking to underwrite innovation and social resilience.

According to analysis by the IMF, persistent deficits in advanced economies, some reaching 5–6 % of GDP, are supporting ambitious tech and defence budgets but also heightening long‑term borrowing costs and spillover risks for emerging markets.

High‑profile corporate debt issuances, such as Amazon’s $12 billion bond sale, underscore how private enterprises are increasingly tapping credit markets to fuel AI infrastructure buildouts, a trend that analysts warn could elevate credit‑market stress if macro conditions tighten.

For emerging economies like Kenya, external debt pressures have been compounded by traditional infrastructure financing and pandemic‑era borrowings.

Combined with evolving fiscal priorities to support technology adoption, governments face a delicate juggling act between innovation investment and sustainable debt management, a theme likely to dominate fiscal policy debates in 2026.

Climate change emerged in 2025 not just as an environmental concern, but as an economic tipping point.

Research from leading strategic consultancies warns that climate pressures, such as unpredictable crop yields and disease spread, could destabilise entire commodity markets, forcing farmers and exporters to default on loans and raising borrowing costs across affected economies.

In many African countries, climate vulnerability also collided with humanitarian challenges. Prolonged droughts in regions like the Horn of Africa strained agricultural output and heightened food insecurity just as international humanitarian aid budgets were tightening, putting pressure on governments and relief agencies alike.

Reduced aid inflows amid rising need reinforce the urgency of climate‑resilient infrastructure and investment in sustainable technology.

Taken together, 2025’s structural shifts underscore a pivotal moment in the global economy: technology driving new forms of money and finance; markets recalibrating around digital innovation; debt playing a central role in both private and public investment; and climate risks asserting themselves as economic realities.

These forces are not isolated, they intersect and amplify one another. A country’s ability to leverage digital finance depends on infrastructure, which in turn affects its debt profile and climate resilience.

As the world enters 2026, policymakers, investors and communities alike will need to grapple with this new economic architecture, one where inclusion and sustainability are not just ethical goals, but economic imperatives.