Compiled by: TechFlow
2024 is coming to an end, and 2025 is coming with anticipation.
Amid the hustle and bustle of the bull market, major crypto institutions around the world have released their market outlooks for 2025. Based on the published content, institutions generally believe that 2025 will be a key year for the crypto market: Bitcoin is expected to break through the $200,000 mark, crypto assets will further move towards mainstream, and a number of crypto unicorn companies may be listed on the US stock market.
It is worth noting that many institutions expect that 2025 will be the peak of this bull market cycle, among which the inflow of funds from Bitcoin ETFs, the opening of crypto asset allocation by traditional financial institutions, and innovative applications enabled by AI will become important driving forces for market development.
Let us review the core predictions of major institutions for the crypto market in 2025.
VanEck: Crypto market will hit new highs by the end of 2025, NFT market will recover
The crypto bull market will reach an interim high in the first quarter and set new highs by the end of the year;
The United States further embraces Bitcoin through strategic reserves and policy support;
The total value of tokenized securities exceeds $50 billion;
The daily transaction settlement volume of stablecoins reached $300 billion;
The on-chain activities of AI agents exceeded 1 million;
The total locked value (TVL) of Bitcoin’s second-layer network has reached 100,000 BTC;
Ethereum’s Blob space fee revenue reached $1 billion;
DeFi transaction volume hit a record high of $4 trillion, with total locked value reaching $200 billion;
The NFT market has recovered, with annual trading volume reaching $30 billion;
The performance of decentralized application (DApp) tokens is gradually catching up with mainstream public chain tokens.
Bitwise: Bitcoin breaks through $200,000, Ethereum breaks through $7,000
Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana will hit all-time highs, with Bitcoin trading over $200,000;
Bitcoin ETFs will see more inflows in 2025 than in 2024;
Coinbase will surpass Charles Schwab as the world’s most valuable brokerage firm, and its stock price will exceed $700 per share;
2025 will be the first year of crypto IPOs, with at least five crypto unicorns set to go public in the United States.
Tokens issued by AI agents will lead to a meme coin craze that is even bigger than in 2024;
The number of countries holding Bitcoin will double;
Coinbase will enter the SP 500 and MicroStrategy will enter the Nasdaq-100, adding cryptocurrency exposure to the portfolio of (almost) every American investor;
The U.S. Department of Labor will relax its guidance on cryptocurrency restrictions in 401(k) plans, allowing hundreds of billions of dollars to flow into crypto assets;
As the U.S. passes long-awaited stablecoin legislation, stablecoin assets will double to $400 billion;
As Wall Street’s acceptance of cryptocurrencies deepens, the value of tokenized real-world assets (RWAs) will exceed $50 billion.
Coinbase: Stablecoin market will continue to grow explosively
Macro:
The Federal Reserve’s monetary policy will be relaxed, which may provide a favorable background for the development of the cryptocurrency market;
The new U.S. Congress will bring a clearer regulatory environment to the cryptocurrency industry and the possibility of a “strategic bitcoin reserve”;
Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs will reshape the market ecology, and ETFs covering more assets may appear in the future;
The stablecoin market will continue to grow explosively and may expand to global capital flows and commercial payments;
RWA will further optimize the portfolio construction and management process;
The DeFi ecosystem is expected to recover and further integrate with traditional finance.
subversion:
Telegram trading bots have become one of the most profitable cryptocurrency applications;
The prediction market platform performed far better than traditional polls, demonstrating the unique advantages of blockchain technology;
Crypto games are shifting from “making money” to providing high-quality gaming experience and lowering the threshold for new users;
The decentralized physical infrastructure network (DePIN) model is expected to solve the problem of physical resource allocation, but the long-term revenue sustainability still needs to be evaluated;
The application of artificial intelligence in the crypto field is constantly being explored, but how to convert its value into a durable liquid token remains a challenge;
Multi-chain ecology may become the main pattern in the future, and the differentiated advantages provided by each will enable them to coexist and develop;
Improving user experience, including simplifying the registration process, optimizing wallet functions, and enhancing cross-chain experience, is one of the key factors in promoting the popularization of encryption technology;
Decentralized identity authentication will help meet regulatory requirements and become a core element of future on-chain experiences.
Hashed: Asia will become the core engine of blockchain innovation and adoption
Hashed believes that 2025 will mark the year when blockchain truly enters the mass adoption stage, and Asia will become the core engine of blockchain innovation and adoption. The technology-friendly environment of the Asian market will drive innovative consumer experiences.
Stablecoins are becoming more integrated into traditional markets;
Smart creators can continuously generate high-quality content, and the future will be dominated by intelligent entities (AI AIGENT), which convert users attention into economic value through smart contracts. Such a mechanism redistributes profits to token holders and builds a self-reinforcing attention economy system;
Blockchain can ensure data ownership and source tracking, protect privacy while safely using sensitive data, and incentivize data sharing through transparent economic models. Zettablock and Story Protocol were specifically mentioned;
The next wave of growth in blockchain technology will be driven by consumer-centric applications that make using crypto as easy and frictionless as using traditional applications.
The open ecosystems of Telegram and TON are still in their early stages, with rapid user growth but low activity and retention rates. Compared with WeChats centralized ecosystem, Telegram and TON face the problem of insufficient infrastructure and need to build an intermediate layer to improve the scalability of the platform and support the development of the ecosystem.
Blockworks: The ICO model will return, and Base will become a dark horse
The United States will re-emerge as the core center of global cryptocurrency;
More than 10 DeFi protocols will officially launch fee switches, including Uniswap;
DeFi protocols will gradually adopt customer asset rehypothecation as a new business model;
The Ethereum community’s debate on the “North Star” route will come to a conclusion. Ultimately, the Rollup-centric roadmap will be reconfirmed, and Max’s expansion proposal will not receive enough support and will eventually fail. This result will bring much-needed cohesion to the Ethereum community and improve overall market sentiment;
ETH token price is expected to perform strongly;
Rollup-based solutions will still have difficulty achieving significant breakthroughs in 2025;
Trusted Execution Environments (TEEs) will gradually become an important part of L2 infrastructure and eventually become its permanent feature;
Solana’s momentum will continue in this cycle, but problems will gradually emerge by 2025;
The Firedancer client will be officially launched in the fourth quarter, when Solana’s network will achieve a processing capacity of 100,000 TPS;
Solana may adjust its token issuance policy to reduce inflation, while Ethereum will not make similar changes;
Base will become a dark horse in the Rollup ecosystem and a major competitor to Solana;
Base will also become the preferred chain for AI Agents and other AI applications;
Stablecoins will gradually become the dominant asset on the L2 network, and their quantity is expected to reach more than twice that of ETH; the stablecoin market will usher in breakthrough growth in the coming year;
More than 5 large fintech companies or traditional financial institutions will launch their own stablecoins by 2025;
More than 10 companies (including banks and Web2 giants) will launch their own L2 networks by 2025;
With its large user base and strong brand influence, Robinhood will become one of the dominant forces in the industry by 2025;
Investment opportunities in L1 blockchains still exist and will not disappear in the short term;
The ICO model will return, but it won’t be as dominant as it was in 2017;
Crypto companies will have an IPO window, but there will not be a large-scale listing boom;
The mainstream trend in 2025 will be the combination of AI and encryption;
The application scenarios of AI will become more diverse, not just limited to agents;
TikTok’s influence in the crypto space will reach unprecedented heights;
Bitcoins L2 solution will still be difficult to achieve a breakthrough in 2025.
DeFiprime: DeFi and AI are deeply integrated, and the market will reach a cyclical peak in 2025
Clarification of the regulatory environment;
DeFi and Web3 may return to the United States;
Stablecoins will become the main force in the payment field;
The market could reach a cycle high in 2025;
Ethereum will continue to explore new development narratives;
Token fever sweeps Web3;
A shift in focus of crypto infrastructure investments;
The deep integration of DeFi and AI;
New Token distribution and fundraising model;
NFT 2.0: Towards dynamism and efficiency.
Messari: Base and Solana will continue to dominate DEX market share
The macro environment will provide strong support for crypto assets, and the depth and breadth of institutional participation will further expand. Crypto will no longer be viewed only as an investment asset, but will begin to value its financial infrastructure potential.
Bitcoin ETF inflows have greatly exceeded expectations, and institutions are likely to slowly become the primary driver of daily BTC price action over time;
The Ethereum Layer 2 ecosystem will have more advantages than Layer 1 and face two value capture paths: a token valuation model based on security needs and enhanced fee capture through native Rollup;
Solana development is expected to go beyond pure speculative application scenarios, and may launch a spot Solana ETF. The AI x Crypto field will continue to lead the innovation of the Solana ecosystem.
Base and Solana will continue to dominate the DEX market share;
Prediction markets and RWAs will continue to develop;
AI agents may surpass traditional meme coins and become a new speculative hotspot;
Mobile adoption will become the defining trend, and Solana will continue to dominate Meme coin trading activity;
Exchanges will accelerate the integration of on-chain and off-chain services, and the new government may relax restrictions on exchange listings.
Framework Lianchuang: Ethereum and Bitcoin ETFs will see similar inflows
Trump will develop a new global monetary framework similar to the Plaza Accord of 1985. This framework will promote a gradual and substantial depreciation of the US dollar, thereby promoting the return of manufacturing to the United States, while directing liquidity to the US market and high-risk asset markets such as cryptocurrencies;
The world’s major armed conflicts are expected to end in the first half of 2025, ushering in an optimistic era of peace and security;
Ethereum (ETH) and Bitcoin (BTC) ETFs will see similar inflows in the second half of 2025, with daily inflows of $1 billion each. This trend is mainly due to the launch of combined ETFs;
The listing of cryptocurrency ETFs other than Bitcoin and Ethereum will be postponed to 2026;
The combination of games and artificial intelligence (AI) will become the vertical field with the largest number of users (MAUs/DAUs), thanks to the significant improvement of AI technology on gaming experience and interaction;
Memecoins will be subdivided into multiple categories, including ephemeral, AI-driven, factory-produced, and large-cap, with increasing market differentiation but still fierce competition;
Total fee revenue from decentralized finance (DeFi) will exceed $10 billion in 2025, while the supply of stablecoins is expected to reach $500 billion by the end of the year;
The assets of large banks are beginning to be tokenized, a trend that will significantly reduce resource waste in the U.S. financial system and improve efficiency.
