Original title: 5 narratives to watch in 2025. Original author: 0xNairolf, crypto Kol. Original translation: zhouzhou, BlockBeats.
Editor’s note: This article looks ahead to key trends in the crypto space for 2025, including the rise of altVMs and Chain abstraction technologies, driving cross-chain transactions and a more convenient user experience. The next generation of L1 platforms and Rollups-as-a-Service (RaaS) will continue to develop, while AI technologies, especially AI agents, will play an important role in more applications. Meanwhile, projects like pendle fi and nillionnetwork will also see new breakthroughs, injecting fresh vitality into the crypto market.
The following is the original content (organized for better readability):
What I most want to see developed in 2025 is:
altVMs
altVMs have performed excellently this year. The fuel network has successfully gone live on the mainnet, the cartesiproject continues to make progress, and MoveVM has gained some adoption with the support of Aptos, SuiNetwork, and movementlabsxyz. 2025 could be the year of commitment for altVMs, leading to an explosion of the next wave of on-chain applications.
Fluentxyz and its hybrid execution approach will play a key role in this space. By merging EVM, SVM, and Wasm in one execution environment, Fluent could become the preferred 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 might ultimately become the 'final BOSS' of virtual machines.
Chain abstraction
Chain abstraction will shine in 2024, initially just a rough idea: to create a user experience that allows users to operate seamlessly as if using a single chain, even with hundreds of chains working together. No more switching wallets, managing multiple gas tokens, or, worst of all, dealing with cross-chain bridges.
UniversalX 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 importantly, many existing projects will start using these solutions. This narrative is definitely worth watching, showcasing the real collaboration between EverclearOrg, SOCKETProtocol, NEARProtocol, as well as sedaprotocol and routescan io. 2025 will be a year of introducing users to these new solutions.
L1s
A year without new L1s wouldn’t be as interesting in crypto; Sui and Aptos are clearly the stars of this space in 2024. For 2025? We have high expectations. Monad xyz, berachain, and HyperliquidX could become the 'holy trinity.' Hyperliquid's HyperEVM launch is worth watching, especially with the recent buzz around Hyperliquid. How the entire Hyperliquid ecosystem connects with exchanges will be an exciting point of interest.
RaaS
This is a narrative that has been discussed less; what is the reason? It could be because it’s 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, the debate around L2 will continue, but one thing is clear: L2s will become more prevalent.
Whether general-purpose or application-specific, the numbers themselves say it all. Rollup-as-a-Service platforms like Calderaxyz have launched around 100 chains this year, providing countless integrations and customizations from day one. Conduitxyz and alt layer are also 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 just 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 a 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, gaining 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 by 2025, more AI agents will take on tasks once performed by humans.
Other mentioned projects:
Pendle fi continues to grow exponentially and can now be seen as a DeFi OG. $10B TVL by 2025?
Kaitoai leads the way in 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, and I believe this is an important topic for 2025.
OndoFinance is bringing big players on-chain; RWA and tokenization will continue to exist, but they have yet to break through.
Will 2025 be a year of more friendly regulation?
The mainnet plan for nillionnetwork is set to launch in February, and with growing concerns around privacy, this could be a significant breakthrough. Bonus point? It could trigger a wave of new on-chain application trends.
See you in 2025
Original link