Bitcoin is thundering towards hitting $200,000 in 2025 — if not higher.
That’s according to several industry experts DL News spoke with ahead of the new year to find out what trends they’re watching ahead of 2025.
However, it’s not the only cryptocurrency that’s expected to pump in 2025.
The same factors that will push Bitcoin to new heights — exchange-traded funds, artificial intelligence, the tokenisation of real-world assets, and a crypto-friendly Donald Trump in the White House — will also affect the outlook of the rest of the crypto market, experts tell us.
How? Well, check out the insights from the 11 experts below to find out.
Bitcoin is going to $200,000 in 2025. This year has been a slow bleed for DeFi, with the ETH-to-BTC price hitting new lows on a near-weekly basis.
With the hope of regulatory clarity for DeFi from the Trump administration, 2025 should be a big year for Ethereum and DeFi.
Elizabeth Warren’s anti-crypto army was defeated by Trump’s pro-crypto army. Whether a national strategic reserve is launched or not remains to be seen, but the supercycle is back.
There are two important catalysts heading into 2025: global macroeconomic conditions and net capital inflows into crypto.
On the first catalyst, we expect a supportive environment for risk assets next year as central banks further ease interest rates, which will increase money supply and lead to a further appreciation and validation in Bitcoin’s underlying value proposition.
This supports the second catalyst, with further growth in Bitcoin investment demand accelerated by exchange-traded products, which provide exposure through a traditional investment vehicle, and which we anticipate will continue to smash records into the new year.
Historically, Bitcoin-led cycles tend to rotate into altcoins as we head into a market peak.
Bitcoin market cap dominance recently fell from above 60% to approximately 58%. However, prior cycle peaks coincide with dominance falling as low as 40%.
This signal suggests that we are currently shy of the peak market momentum that we’ve observed in the past.
2025 will be a year of breakthroughs and surprises. I predict Bitcoin could surpass $500,000, driven by growing institutional adoption, geopolitical uncertainty, and increased interest from sovereign wealth funds.
Meanwhile, the decentralised physical infrastructure networks, or DePIN, movement will gain momentum, contributing a measurable percentage of the average person’s income as people embrace the potential of tokenised participation in real-world services.
AI, crypto, and memecoins will emerge as the top tech trifecta, with memecoins surprisingly redefining cultural narratives in web3 and beyond.
As humour becomes a viral form of communication, it will merge with tokenisation in ways we’ve never imagined.
2025 will be a year where web3 scales its impact across everyday life, blending culture, technology, and finance in unexpected ways.
In 2025, we expect retail users from previous market cycles to return, with Dino coins — cryptocurrencies popular in previous rallies like Cardano and XRP — gaining impressive momentum. This trend is likely to continue throughout the year.
DeFi is set to stay strong, with the sector’s market cap soaring from $77 billion to $171 billion as of December 9.
Leading decentralised exchanges, staking and liquid staking protocols, payments, and wallets are well-positioned to capture this growth.
Real-world assets are poised for a major comeback, with new projects emerging globally.
These include tokenised commodities in the United Arab Emirates, tokenised money market instruments like Treasury bills in the US, and tokenised real estate in Europe.
With new regulations and licensing support, growth is expected to accelerate in 2025.
We could soon see the first $1 billion tokenised fund in crypto history soon, with leading contenders such as Hashnote USYC, with $704 million, and BlackRock BUIDL, just under $600 million.
A new generation of fair-launch products is emerging to replace previous models like Pump.fun, helping create more fun and engagement within the meme communities.
2025 is shaping up to be a pivotal year for crypto.
Many anticipate a strong market rally with new all-time highs, driven by an improving macroeconomic climate, continued institutional adoption boosted by ETFs, and a more favourable regulatory environment under a pro-crypto Trump administration.
We’ll likely see additional ETF approvals from the likes of Solana and XRP, and the end of Securities and Enforcement Commission enforcement actions.
Historically, crypto cycles suggest the peak could occur in Q3 or Q4 2025. However, the more intriguing question is what happens post-peak.
External factors, such as Trump’s potential tariffs or geopolitical tensions, could weigh on markets.
Meanwhile, overly lenient regulation may increase risks, such as illicit activity, eroding trust in the sector.
Market cycles often see post-peak periods of profit-taking and cooling speculative fervour, raising the question: Will this rally mark another cyclical downturn, or could it lead to structural changes that signal crypto’s maturation into a mainstream asset class?
When the digital asset market is booming, it’s typical to see an increase in fraud — investment scams, Ponzi schemes, initial coin offerings, approval phishing and the use of drainers.
The current bull market we’re experiencing is set to continue into 2025, so the proliferation of this type of financial crime will be a key challenge facing the industry next year.
There has been significant progress by law enforcement and government agencies to combat this; we’ve seen several proactive successes in 2024 where blockchain analysis has been used to identify criminals and disrupt their operations through enforcement action.
We’ve also observed regulators and the police issuing official advisories and crime prevention advice.
However, owing to the sheer volume of this type of crime — for example, 40% of all crime in the UK is fraud — raising awareness more broadly and preventing victimisation is going to be critically important in stopping the fraud epidemic over the next year.
As we look ahead to 2025, there is significant potential for volatility.
The interplay of monetary policy, geopolitical risks, and sectoral trends creates a complex environment.
Data, however, suggests a generally positive market environment for 2025 — rate cuts are expected to continue, treasury yields have climbed, and both equities and commodities are showing strong momentum.
Coupled with the Trump administration in the US, which is expected to bring a slew of deregulation, government cost-cutting, regulatory rollback, and tax cuts, all signs point to strength in financials and digital assets.
Bitcoin could break into uncharted territory in 2025.
During the first part of the year we might see increased volatility and high sensitivity to news coming from the USA.
Actions taken by Trump during the beginning of his term regarding Bitcoin will have an impact on its value. Optimistically, everything is expected to go well, with prices reaching levels between $150,000 and $200,000.
However, there’s also a possibility of Bitcoin sell-offs by institutional investors to enforce the dollar.
This is not to say that Bitcoin’s dominance could also drop by more than 1% daily below the 50% dominance level compared to other cryptocurrencies.
Cyptocurrencies likely to thrive are those related to AI. The convergence of blockchain and AI addresses several challenges, including the energy scarcity faced by large companies like OpenAI.
The memecoin craze will come to an end, and investors will shift toward crypto that has real utility. Much like the NFT craze of 2020 to 2021, the phenomenon is similar and rooted in the power of communities.
By the end of 2025, many investors will look back and wonder how they could have invested in such projects. This applies to 95% of memecoins; the remaining 5% might survive.
Google’s advancements in quantum computing, particularly in reducing qubit error rates, represent a wild card for the Bitcoin mining space.
Quantum computers could significantly impact mining by solving puzzles faster, potentially reducing energy consumption and increasing efficiency.
This could lead to a more sustainable mining process but also challenge decentralisation if quantum capabilities concentrate among a few.
On the security side, quantum computing also poses risks to encryption protocols foundational to Bitcoin.
The industry is already exploring quantum-resistant algorithms to preempt such threats. Overall, quantum computing brings both opportunities and uncertainties, pushing the Bitcoin ecosystem to innovate and adapt.
Bitcoin is increasingly being recognised as a reserve asset. Bhutan’s 2024 disclosure of Bitcoin holdings highlights how nations are turning to it as a hedge against USD volatility.
In 2025, more countries may follow, leveraging Bitcoin’s decentralised and inflation-resistant nature.
Bitcoin’s evolution in 2025 will be marked by its maturation as a programmable asset.
With innovation flowing into Bitcoin — memecoins, DeFi, and social dApps — users will explore new ways to live off Bitcoin without selling it, seeking yield and utility beyond price speculation.
Moreover, as nations increasingly view Bitcoin as a strategic reserve, its geopolitical significance will grow.
At the same time, the multichain world will become more interconnected.
Seamless interoperability across blockchains and traditional finance will redefine user experiences, with the underlying infrastructure abstracted from view.
We’ll also witness exponential growth in projects that integrate diverse ecosystems.
AI will act as a bridge to web3, simplifying onboarding and empowering more users to build and interact with dApps.
Autonomous agents will guide users, optimise DeFi strategies, and enhance security by detecting fraud and anomalies. AI’s integration into decentralised apps will usher in personalised user experiences and redefine areas like social media, DeFi, and regenerative AI.
The convergence of blockchain and AI will dominate 2025.
Technologies enabling computation on-chain and interoperability will serve as critical pillars of this transformation, shaping a more accessible, secure, and innovative digital economy.
With increased attention to making Bitcoin more useful and productive, this unearths potential that is a lot more than just bringing Bitcoin to DeFi — itself an important step.
With advances in layer 2 approaches, Bitcoin will begin to unlock its full potential both as an asset and, more importantly, as a base layer for a more secure Internet at-large.
It’s the realisation of the “Trust Machine” promise that The Economist put on its cover October 31, 2015, on the seventh anniversary of the Satoshi white paper.
This evolution isn’t just a milestone for Bitcoin or even the cryptocurrency ecosystem.
Just like “the Web” became “the Internet” for the vast majority of users, so too will we start to see the beginnings of a broadly Bitcoin-secured, infinitely programmable, increasingly decentralised digital world.
Most certainly, the rapid rise of AI — and the uncertainty it creates — will make any technology that delivers certainty absolutely vital to the Internet’s evolution as a whole.
The insights above have been edited for clarity.
Eric Johansson and Liam Kelly cover crypto funding trends for DL News. Got a tip? Email them at eric@dlnews.com and liam@dlnews.com.
