What’s next for crypto?
That’s the big question after a 2024 saw the launch of crypto exchange-traded funds, further expansion from Wall Street, and the election of Donald Trump.
We asked the experts what they’ll be looking out for in 2025.
One of the most exciting trends that is already playing out is the re-awakening of decentralised finance.
Since its emergence in the summer of 2020, DeFi has proven to be a truly disruptive force. However, it has been somewhat underappreciated over the past two years.
Now, with the likelihood of forward-looking regulations passing into law, the space is being reinvigorated.
Established Ethereum protocols such as Uniswap, Aave, and Compound, along with layer-2 chains like Arbitrum, Optimism and Base, have been consistently building and improving.
These advancements, combined with a more favourable regulatory environment and enhanced user experiences, are setting the stage for significant growth.
The next generation of DeFi on Ethereum is here, evidenced by protocols such as Spark, Ethena, and several DEX-aggregators that have meaningfully improved the trading experience.
Solana has proven its success in DeFi, with DEX volumes regularly surpassing those on Ethereum and related chains.
Bitcoin is not to be left out of the DeFi conversation either. Efforts are underway to make the original cryptocurrency more programmable, leveraging its unparalleled security to support Ordinals, the BRC-20 token protocol, and an expanding BTCFi ecosystem.
Traditional financial market participants will increasingly experiment with digital assets in 2025.
One key area of continued adoption will be the fractionalisation of asset baskets, particularly those backed by government bonds, as we have seen with products like BlackRock’s BUIDL and Franklin’s BENJI tokenised money market funds.
The benefits of enhanced market liquidity and improved capital costs have the potential to motivate some market participants to accelerate their adoption.
We are likely to witness a wave of agile traditional financial market infrastructure providers adopting blockchain-based solutions.
Some may even deploy simplified versions of collateral and risk management frameworks, taking incremental steps toward achieving the long-touted promises of blockchain: faster settlement, reduced risk, more efficient capital management, and lower operational costs.
While public blockchains will not be sidelined, their role may evolve.
Instead of serving as a continuous settlement layer — an approach constrained by scalability challenges — public blockchains could function as a netting layer, providing periodic consolidation of transactions while offloading real-time operations to more efficient private or hybrid systems.
In the upcoming year, there are three important developments to keep a close eye on.
Firstly, as President Trump takes office, and an attempt will be made to adopt Bitcoin as a strategic reserve asset, we can expect more countries to make significant moves in this direction.
We should not expect smooth sailing — further growth will elicit more resistance.
Secondly, while changing fiscal policies may prove favourable for markets at large, a significant crash is already in the making.
The ceaseless issuance of new, speculative tokens is no better than reckless money printing by central banks and might prove to be detrimental in the long run.
Thirdly, we can expect further regional consolidation with licensed, national, and continental exchanges coming to the forefront, especially in emerging markets, and the relative decline of globally unregulated exchanges.
Other than that, Bitcoin is in an exceptionally good place and seems set to see continued growth and increased volatility.
In 2025, we are likely to see a significant expansion in the use of tokenised assets across various sectors and asset classes.
Beyond stablecoins and money market funds, tokenisation uptake will extend further to equities, fixed-income securities, and other traditional financial instruments, driven by growing demand for more efficient and transparent ways for businesses to offer products, services, and capabilities.
This shift will be further accelerated if US financial legislators move to repeal or rescind SAB 121, which could pave the way for banks and other regulated financial institutions to further embrace public blockchain infrastructure.
At the same time, traditional web2-enabled companies — those with established customer bases and distribution channels — are expected to increasingly adopt blockchain technology.
This will likely involve incorporating tokenised assets into their platforms for everything from payments to supply chain management, enabling faster and more efficient transactions which ultimately have the potential to increase the velocity of money.
As these trends converge, we will start to witness what a more integrated and accessible financial ecosystem could look like, blending the efficiencies of blockchain with the scale and reach of established companies.
This evolution will set the stage for more widespread use of blockchain-enabled applications, what we call onchain finance, further blurring the lines between traditional finance and the emerging digital economy.
I predict the total float of stablecoins will exceed $250 billion by year’s end in 2025, driven by increased adoption and the pragmatism of regulators globally.
Regulation will finally recognise stablecoins as hybrid instruments — part cash, part market instruments.
This shift will allow for more nuanced policies, such as permitting yield distribution when reserves align with the inherent risk of digital money.
While on-shore stablecoins will remain tightly regulated, a practical approach to off-shore instruments will emerge, focusing on consumer protection rather than pushing activity into the shadows.
Expect a resurgence of DeFi innovation as developers and investors regain confidence, deeper integration between DeFi and fintech platforms, and a gravitational pull of talent back to the US. New York, already the world’s crypto capital, will cement its status further.
The 2025 crypto landscape appears dynamic, with AI, memecoins, real-world assets, dino coins, and community involvement taking centre stage.
We’ve seen a renewed emphasis on the intersection of crypto and AI, and we expect to see continued demand around AI agents pioneering new use cases like we saw with Truth Terminal and the success of $GOAT.
The real innovation, however, will be in real-world assets. The rise of stablecoins as the fastest growing digital asset class in 2024 was a testament to the practical utility of real-world assets, especially for institutional adopters.
In 2025, we’ll see high-growth markets like Indonesia and Pakistan driving crypto adoption, not just in trading but in solving structural inefficiencies.
Real estate tokenisation, for instance, has already shown promise, with projects enabling residents in emerging markets to co-own properties in London or New York for less than $100, breaking down barriers to global property investment.
In 2024 alone, over 60% of new crypto wallets were created in emerging markets, highlighting the growing demand for decentralised financial solutions in regions with limited access to traditional banking systems — a trend that is expected to surge further in 2025.
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.
