With the highly successful introduction of spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds, the U.S. crypto regulatory situation looking much rosier now that former President Donald Trump has been elected for a second term, and the bullish price action, it’s undeniable that 2024 was a big year for crypto.
But things could get even crazier in 2025, according to Bitwise Asset Management, a firm which specializes in developing crypto investment products. The company laid out 10 crypto predictions for the year to come in <a href="https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/static.bitwiseinvestments.com/Research/Bitwise-The-Year-Ahead-10-Crypto-Predictions-for-2025.pdf" target="_blank">a report</a> released Wednesday, penned by the firm's chief investment officer, Matt Hougan, and its head of research, Ryan Rasmussen.
First among the predictions is that all major cryptocurrencies will see new record highs. Bitcoin will push to $200,000, said Bitwise, while ether will hit $7,000 and solana will more than triple to $750.
Bitcoin’s rise will be fueled by even bigger ETF inflows than in 2024, Bitwise said. That's a strong statement given their success already, but the team noted that it's not unusual fo ETFs to take in larger flows in year two versus year one. They also remind that major wirehouses are only now finishing up their due diligence on the products and investors are feeling more comfortable increasing their exposure to bitcoin.
There’s also the possibility that the U.S. Department of Labor won’t be so adversarial towards the sector anymore, which according to Bitwise could enable tens of billions of dollars to flow into crypto assets from 401(k) plans.
And a potential bitcoin arms race — kicked off by U.S. politicians’ plans to constitute a strategic bitcoin reserve — would certainly help move the price upwards. Bitwise predicted that the number of countries holding bitcoin will double in 2025 from nine to eighteen.
Other possibilities for 2025
Stablecoins will likely benefit from clear legislation in the U.S. and fintech integrations, as well as rising prices, and double their market capitalization to $400 billion, according to Bitwise.
Tokenized real-world assets (RWAs), meanwhile, could see their value shoot past $50 billion as Wall Street keeps wading deeper into the sector.
And the 2025 memecoin mania could even top this year’s, as AI agents are making it easier than ever to launch tokens.
Crypto companies will also have a good year, Bitwise predicted. A host of them could launch IPOs, Bitwise said, with stablecoin issuer Circle, crypto lending firm Figure, on-chain data company Chainalysis, crypto exchange Kraken and crypto custodian Anchorage Digital as the most likely to do so.
Already public for several years, crypto exchange Coinbase (COIN) could see its stock top $700 per share, or more than double the current level, Bitwise said, meaning it would surpass Charles Schwab as the most valuable brokerage in the world.
Further, suggests Bitwise, it could mean that Coinbase could be included in the S&P 500. Coupled with MicroStrategy's likely inclusion into the Nasdaq 100, there’s a chance that almost every U.S. investor will have exposure to crypto through these investment vehicles.
