Author: insights4.vc
Compiled by: ShenChao TechFlow
To help you save time and focus on market hotspots, we have carefully curated over 300 forward-looking predictions for 2025. Each year, top institutions and industry leaders share insights that have far-reaching implications for the future of cryptocurrency. This report gathers perspectives from ETF issuers, investment funds, research institutions, and market pioneers, providing not only a comprehensive overview of market sentiment but also practical advice and actionable insights on emerging opportunities.
The top five themes to watch in 2025 include:
Growth and adoption of stablecoins
Tokenization of Real World Assets (RWAs)
Expansion of Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs
Integration of AI and Blockchain
Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Networks (DePINs)
1. Growth and adoption of stablecoins
Prediction from Jason Yanowitz, founder of Blockworks, and Santiago R Santos, founder of Inversion Capital
By 2025, the market capitalization of stablecoins is expected to account for 10% of the total cryptocurrency market capitalization. This growth may be driven by at least one major bank, tech company, or fintech firm launching stablecoins. For example, BlackRock, Robinhood, and Meta are considered potential participants. Tether is expected to maintain its market leadership through its strategic political connections, while USDC's market share may decline from the current 20% to around 15% due to the entry of new competitors like PayPal. These changes could drive the regulatory process in the U.S., making stablecoins a key driver in payments and e-commerce.
Prediction from 21shares
The current market capitalization of stablecoins has exceeded $170 billion and has made significant progress in the global remittance market, especially in countries like the Philippines and Turkey. As private credit tokenization becomes more prevalent, this trend is expected to further enhance capital liquidity and increase financial transparency. Platforms like Maple Finance are leveraging smart contracts to streamline operations and reduce costs, becoming leaders in the industry. With agencies like Moody's beginning to provide ratings for tokenized credit, this sector is expected to become a mainstream asset class by 2025.
2. Tokenization of Real World Assets (RWAs)
Prediction from Coinbase
The market for tokenizing real-world assets (RWAs) is growing rapidly. It is expected that by 2024, the total value will grow by 60% to reach $13.5 billion, and by 2030, this figure could further soar to $30 trillion. Currently, leading global financial institutions like BlackRock and Franklin Templeton are actively promoting the tokenization of government securities. Tokenized assets are becoming important collateral in the DeFi ecosystem.
Prediction from Paul Veradittakit, managing partner at Pantera Capital
This year, RWAs grew by 60% to reach $13.7 billion, of which 70% is private credit, with the remainder in treasury bonds and commodities. The inflow of funds is accelerating, and more complex types of tokenized assets are expected to emerge by 2025.
Private credit: With infrastructure improvements, Figure added $4 billion in tokenized credit in 2024. More companies are bringing funds into the cryptocurrency space through private credit.
Treasury bonds and commodities: The current on-chain treasury bond market is valued at $2.67 billion, while there are still trillions of dollars off-chain that have not been tokenized. The yields provided by treasury bonds are better than those of stablecoins. BlackRock's BUIDL fund has an on-chain scale of $500 million, while its off-chain scale reaches hundreds of billions. DeFi pools have begun to integrate treasury bonds, thereby reducing the resistance to user adoption.
3. Expansion of Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs
Prediction from Bloomberg ETF experts Eric Balchunas and James Seyffart
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved the first 11 Bitcoin spot ETFs on January 10, 2024, followed by the approval of Ethereum spot ETFs on July 23, 2024. This approval marks a gradual easing of the regulatory environment and lays the groundwork for the introduction of altcoin ETFs. The emergence of altcoin ETFs could further enhance market liquidity and lower the entry barrier for crypto investments.
The asset size of Bitcoin ETFs is expected to surpass that of gold ETFs in 2025. Currently, the asset size of Bitcoin ETFs is $110 billion, whereas gold ETFs stand at $128 billion. The rapid growth of Bitcoin ETFs indicates that this trend may be realized sooner than expected.
If the leadership of the SEC leans more libertarian, it may approve altcoin ETFs, including XRP, Solana (SOL), and Hedera (HBAR), thus enriching the variety of cryptocurrency investment products.
If you would like to learn more about Bitcoin spot ETFs in detail, we recommend referring to the article we published last month. Below is the ETF data as of January 8, 2025:
On-chain holdings of Bitcoin spot ETFs (data source: The Block)
Bitcoin ETF fund flows
Bitcoin ETF trading volume
Ethereum ETF fund flows
Prediction from Bitwise
It is expected that the inflow of Bitcoin ETF funds in 2025 will exceed the record of $33.6 billion set in 2024. This growth is primarily driven by large brokerages like Morgan Stanley and Bank of America, which will provide more clients with investment channels for crypto products. As investor confidence increases and the allocation of Bitcoin in portfolios becomes mainstream, the inflow into ETFs is expected to accelerate further, a trend similar to the development path of gold ETFs over the past few decades.
4. Integration of AI and Blockchain
Prediction from Vaneck
By 2025, the number of AI agents is expected to exceed 1 million. These agents will significantly drive growth in on-chain activities, as they will not only optimize DeFi yields but also automate various tasks and interact in gaming and social media. Platforms like Virtuals Protocol are actively advancing the development of AI technology, expanding the application scope of agents from finance to gaming and marketing, thus creating significant revenue and enhancing user engagement.
Prediction from Haseeb Qureshi, managing partner at Dragonfly Capital
AI agents will widely adopt stablecoins for peer-to-peer transactions, especially as regulations on stablecoins further loosen. This trend will also extend to large corporations that will use stablecoins to replace traditional banking systems for greater flexibility and efficiency.
The training and inference of decentralized AI will see rapid development, driven by projects such as ExoLabs, NousResearch, and PrimeIntellect, providing new options for current centralized AI models. NEAR Protocol is working to build a fully permissionless AI tech stack, making development and deployment more open.
AI-driven wallets will revolutionize user experiences by automating complex operations such as cross-chain bridging, trade optimization, reducing fees, and preventing fraud. This will provide users with a seamless cross-chain experience. By 2026, this automation trend may diminish the significance of blockchain network effects as users will no longer need to interact directly with the blockchain.
5. Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Networks (DePINs)
Prediction from Multicoin Capital
The Trump administration is expected to introduce a national standard for autonomous driving (AD), which will provide new development opportunities for decentralized physical infrastructure networks (DePINs) based on autonomous driving and robotics technology. As GPU clusters scale beyond 100,000 H100 machines, autonomous driving technology will gain practical application capabilities. Some startups funded by traditional venture capital firms may adopt the DePIN model to diversify operational risks and reduce costs. Early adopters of this model will be able to collect critical robotic operation data. For instance, the startup Frodobots has begun exploring this direction, and more similar companies are expected to join in the future. Additionally, Hivemapper is also experimenting with similar innovative concepts.
Prediction from Vence Spencer, co-founder of Framework Ventures
DePIN projects focused on the energy sector (such as Glow and Daylight) are expected to reach trading fee levels comparable to top DeFi platforms. This indicates that the application of blockchain technology in managing and monetizing energy distribution is becoming increasingly widespread. For example, these projects optimize energy distribution efficiency through smart contracts while providing users with transparent transaction records and profit-sharing methods.
