Original title: 5 narratives to watch in 2025. Original author: 0xNairolf, Crypto Kol. Original translation: zhouzhou, BlockBeats
Editor's note: This article looks ahead at key trends in the crypto space for 2025, including the rise of altVMs and Chain abstraction technologies, driving cross-chain transactions and a more seamless user experience. A new generation of L1 platforms and Rollups-as-a-Service (RaaS) will continue to develop, while AI technology, especially AI agents, will play important roles in more applications. Meanwhile, projects like pendle fi and nillionnetwork will also see new breakthroughs, injecting new vitality into the crypto market.
Below is the original content (reorganized for readability):
What I most want to see developing in 2025 is:
altVMs
altVMs have performed remarkably well this year. The fuel network has successfully launched its mainnet, cartesiproject is making progress, and MoveVM is gaining some adoption with support from Aptos, SuiNetwork, and movementlabsxyz. 2025 could be the year of promises for altVMs, bringing about the next wave of on-chain application explosions.
Fluentxyz and its hybrid execution approach will play a key role in this field by merging EVM, SVM, and Wasm in one execution environment. Fluent may become the go-to solution for developers seeking the most complete and flexible way to build applications. The coolest part? This design is scalable, meaning any virtual machine can be added, and it may ultimately become the 'final BOSS' of virtual machines.
Chain abstraction
Chain abstraction will shine in 2024; it initially was just a rough idea: to create a user experience that allows users to operate as smoothly as if using a single chain, even with hundreds of chains working together. No more days of switching wallets, managing multiple gas tokens, or worst of all—cross-chain bridges.
UniversalX launched by ParticleNtwrk allows you to trade any token on any chain through a single interface, feeling like Binance, but many new products will emerge on-chain, and more importantly, many existing projects will begin to utilize these solutions. This narrative is very worth watching, showcasing real collaboration between EverclearOrg, SOCKETProtocol, NEARProtocol, as well as sedaprotocol and routescan io, with 2025 being a year to introduce users to these new solutions.
L1s
A year in crypto wouldn’t be nearly as interesting without new L1s, and Sui and Aptos are clearly the stars in this field for 2024. What about 2025? We have a lot to look forward to. Monad xyz, berachain, and HyperliquidX may become the 'holy trinity.' The release of Hyperliquid's HyperEVM is worth watching, especially with the recent buzz surrounding Hyperliquid. How the entire Hyperliquid ecosystem connects with exchanges will be an exciting highlight.
RaaS
This is a narrative that has been discussed less; why is that? Perhaps because it is a boring industry, but looking back, boring industries often turn out to be the most interesting. In 2024, Rollups and L2 have been hot topics in the crypto space, spoiler alert: this trend won’t change anytime soon. With inkonchain and AbstractChain launching in the coming months, debates about L2 will continue, but one thing is clear: there will be more and more L2.
Whether general-purpose or application-specific, the numbers speak for themselves. Rollup-as-a-Service platforms like Calderaxyz have launched about 100 chains this year, providing countless integrations and customizations from day one. Conduitxyz and alt layer are following the same pattern. The demand for RaaS providers is hard to ignore.
AI
According to data from kaitoai, AI has captured over 40% of attention this year, which is simply crazy. My intuition is that this is just the beginning. The Eliza GitHub repository from ai16zdao has been one of the most talked-about projects in recent months. Could this be the way to bring new developers into the crypto space? Time will tell, but it certainly looks like an interesting Trojan Horse.
We have already seen the first practical application case of the aixbt agent, built by virtuals io, which has garnered significant attention in the CT community while providing very accurate information. Will our future revolve around the idea of reading AI agents? Who knows, but in 2025, more AI agents will take on tasks that were once performed by humans.
Other mentioned projects:
Pendle fi continues to grow exponentially, now can be regarded as a DeFi OG. $10B TVL in 2025?
Kaitoai leads the vanguard of InfoFi; what will the future look like? Perhaps next year will give us the answer.
Polymer Labs will become a strong competitor in the interoperability space, which I believe is an important topic for 2025.
OndoFinance is bringing big players onto the chain; RWA and tokenization will continue to exist, but they have yet to break through.
Will 2025 be a year of friendlier regulations?
The mainnet of nillionnetwork is scheduled to launch in February, and with growing concerns over privacy issues, this could be a significant breakthrough. Additional bonus points? It might trigger a wave of new on-chain applications.
See you in 2025
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