How do institutions view 2025, and where is the crypto market headed in the new year?
[TL;DR]:
2025 is undoubtedly the peak of a new bull market cycle. Professional institutions have already started exploring potential opportunities and trends within the main themes of the bull market. How do they view the development trends of key sectors in the crypto market for 2025?
Introduction
2024 marked a year of significant recovery for the cryptocurrency market, with clear signs of market differentiation. Meme tokens led the market, while VC-backed tokens generally faced pressure. RWA tokenization emerged as a new focal point, and the AI Agent sector rose rapidly. The market structure continued to evolve, with institutional demand for Bitcoin allocation increasing. These trends are worth closely monitoring in the new market cycle.
As we enter 2025, undoubtedly the peak of a new bull market, how should investors identify potential opportunities and trends in this new cycle? How are smart investors viewing the crypto landscape in 2025? Gate.io has curated institutional insights to help guide your crypto investments in 2025.
Key Predictions for 2025: 5 Major Sectors
- Bitcoin Trends: Expected to skyrocket to $200,000–$500,000
- Stablecoins: Market cap likely to double
- AI Agents: Projected to exceed 1 million in number
- DeFi: Regulatory changes driving strong growth
- RWAs: Market size advancing towards trillions
Bitcoin Trends——Price outlook remains bullish
Prediction by crypto asset management firm Bitwise:——Bitcoin could soar as high as $500,000.
The crypto asset management company Bitwise predicts that if the United States establishes a Bitcoin strategic reserve similar to those for oil or gold, its price could skyrocket to $200,000 or even $500,000. This prediction is based on the logic that an official U.S. Bitcoin reserve would trigger a global “fear of missing out” (FOMO).
At the Nashville Bitcoin Conference in July, Trump proposed using 200,000 Bitcoins confiscated from criminals (valued at approximately $21 billion) as the foundation for a strategic reserve. However, the legal feasibility of this proposal remains unclear—whether it requires Congressional approval or if utive action suffices is still under debate. Meanwhile, pro-crypto Senator Cynthia Lummis proposed a plan for the Treasury Department to manage a Bitcoin reserve. Skeptics, however, argue that Bitcoin’s high volatility could threaten financial stability. Trump has not commented on whether the U.S. would purchase Bitcoin on the open market, adding further uncertainty.
Prediction by Presto Research——Bitcoin could reach as high as $210,000
Bitcoin’s price is projected to reach $210,000 in 2025. Historically, Bitcoin’s MVRV ratio has fluctuated between 0.4x and 7.7x. If we only consider data from 2017 (excluding the early extreme volatility period), the range narrows to 0.5x to 4.7x. In the last two bull markets (2017 and 2021), Bitcoin’s MVRV peaked at 4.7x and 4x, respectively.
Using a more conservative multiplier of 3.5x and assuming that the realized value grows at a monthly compound rate of 5.3% (reflecting the institutional access facilitated by spot ETFs), the realized value is expected to rise from the current $722 billion to $1.2 trillion by Q3 2025. This implies a Bitcoin network valuation of $4.2 trillion (up from $1.9 trillion today), translating to a price of $210,000 per Bitcoin.
Prediction by Bloomberg ETF Experts——ETF trends may reach new highs again
Bitcoin ETFs are expected to surpass gold ETFs in assets under management (AUM) by 2025. Currently, Bitcoin ETFs have $110 billion in AUM compared to $128 billion for gold ETFs. The rapid growth of Bitcoin ETFs suggests this milestone might be reached sooner than anticipated.
In 2025, Bitcoin ETF inflows are projected to exceed the $33.6 billion record set in 2024. This growth is primarily driven by major brokerages such as Morgan Stanley and Bank of America, which are expanding crypto investment channels for their clients. As investor confidence grows and Bitcoin becomes a mainstream portfolio allocation, ETF inflows are expected to accelerate, mirroring the development path of gold ETFs over the past few decades.
Stablecoins——Market cap expected to double, reaching $400 billion
Prediction by Ceteris, Head of Research at Delphi Digital——Market cap set for explosive growth
The stablecoin industry is expected to experience explosive growth, with its market capitalization potentially doubling to $400 billion. Tether and Circle are likely to remain dominant players. However, Hadick warns that their growth may soon stagnate if these companies continue to operate like asset management firms rather than payment companies.
Prediction by DWF Ventures——Institutional entry will drive a massive surge in market cap
Tether and Circle have long dominated the stablecoin market. While stablecoins are primarily used as a medium for transactions and payments, their role as assets is gradually increasing. The profitability of Tether and Circle has attracted more traditional fintech companies into the stablecoin space. Additionally, DWF Labs is incubating a high-yield stablecoin project called Falcoin Stable, which is set to launch this year. Therefore, with accelerated institutional adoption, stablecoin applications will see explosive growth in 2025, benefiting all users through increased returns.
Prediction by Blockworks Founder Jason Yanowitz:——Scope of application will further expand
By 2025, the market capitalization of stablecoins is expected to account for 10% of the total cryptocurrency market. This growth could be driven by at least one major bank, tech company, or fintech firm launching its own stablecoin. BlackRock, Robinhood, and Meta are considered potential participants. Tether is expected to maintain its market leadership through strategic political relationships, while USDC’s market share may decline from the current 20% to around 15% due to new competitors like PayPal. These changes could drive the U.S. regulatory progress, making stablecoins a key enabler in payments and e-commerce.
Prediction by 21shares——Likely to become a global mainstream asset
The current market capitalization of stablecoins has exceeded $170 billion, with significant progress in the global remittance market, particularly in countries like the Philippines and Turkey. This trend is expected to enhance further capital liquidity and financial transparency with the popularization of tokenized private credit. Platforms like Maple Finance, which leverage smart contracts to simplify operations and reduce costs, are becoming industry leaders. As institutions like Moody’s begin providing ratings for tokenized credit, this field is expected to become a mainstream asset class by 2025.
AI Agents:——Numbers may grow to 1 million
Prediction by Asset Management Firm Vaneck——The number of AI Agents will continue to surge dramatically
By 2025, the number of AI Agents is expected to exceed 1 million. These agents will significantly drive on-chain activity, optimizing DeFi yields, automating various tasks, and enabling gaming and social media interactions. Platforms like Virtuals Protocol are actively advancing AI technology, expanding the application of agents from finance to gaming and marketing, generating substantial revenue, and enhancing user engagement.
Prediction by Dragonfly Capital Managing Partner Haseeb Qureshi——Will deeply integrate into more sectors
AI agents are expected to widely adopt stablecoins for peer-to-peer transactions, especially as stablecoin regulations become more relaxed. This trend will also extend to large enterprises using stablecoins to replace traditional banking s for greater flexibility and efficiency.
Decentralized AI training and inference will experience rapid development, driven by projects like ExoLabs, NousResearch, and PrimeIntellect. NEAR Protocol is working to build a fully permissionless AI tech stack, making development and deployment more open. AI-driven wallets will revolutionize the user experience by automating complex operations such as cross-chain bridging, transaction optimization, fee reduction, and fraud prevention, providing users with seamless cross-chain interactions.
Prediction by Robot Ventures Managing Partner Tarun Chitra:——Market cap will increase by at least 5 times
The total market capitalization of AI agent-related tokens is expected to grow at least fivefold, rising significantly from the current $10 billion. Additionally, Solana’s inflation rate will be reduced by at least 25%.
Prediction by DWF Ventures——Will rapidly develop across all aspects of the crypto space
With OpenAI’s launch of o1, which achieves more human-like behavior, the next wave of innovation will introduce more exciting use cases, particularly in commercialization. The number of AI agents will continue to grow, and competition will become increasingly fierce. Finding the right product-market fit (PMF) will be key to standing out. As AI agents become widely adopted, decentralized AI infrastructure will rapidly develop across all levels of the crypto space.
DeFi — A lenient regulatory environment may drive strong growth
Prediction by DWF Ventures——More innovations are expected to emerge
The usage of DeFi protocols has surged rapidly, with protocol revenues for Aave and Pendle reaching record highs. Trading volumes for spot and perpetual contracts on DEXs/CEXs have also doubled since the beginning of 2024, driven primarily by platforms such as Uniswap, Raydium Protocol, and Hyperliquid. As more liquidity flows into the eco, we will witness further innovations, particularly in yield layers and lending mechanisms. With technological advancements in throughput, latency, and ution, along with upcoming projects like Monad, MegaETH, and Hyperliquid’s HyperEVM, the momentum for DeFi innovation will be further strengthened.
Prediction by David Duong & David Han——Changes in the regulatory environment will inject new prospects
Changes in the U.S. regulatory environment could inject new vitality into DeFi’s prospects, potentially including establishing a regulatory framework for stablecoins and pathways for traditional institutional investors to participate in DeFi. Notably, the synergy between off-chain and on-chain capital markets is becoming increasingly apparent. Decentralized exchange (DEX) volumes currently account for about 14% of centralized exchange (CEX) volumes, up significantly from 8% in January 2023. Moreover, in a more favorable regulatory environment, decentralized applications (dApps) may increasingly share protocol revenues with token holders.
Prediction by Delphi Digital——DeAI may completely disrupt traditional interactions
DeAI will fundamentally change how users interact with DeFi. Front-end interfaces will be replaced by intelligent agents, enabling users to complete transactions, currency exchanges, and yield searches through natural language processing. In the future, agents will make most capital allocation decisions. Consumer-grade DeFi represents the next blue ocean. By 2025, on-chain finance will fully serve crypto natives. zkTLS will enable Web2-sensitive data to be brought on-chain while maintaining privacy, facilitating applications like personalized agents and credit scoring. With better-aligned incentives between issuers and distributors, yield-sharing stablecoins will continue to expand.
RWAs: Accelerating toward a trillion-dollar market
Prediction by investment firm ParaFi——The process of tokenizing everything is accelerating
BlackRock CEO Larry Fink has advocated for tokenization for years, envisioning a future where everything from real estate to artwork could be tokenized. The biggest benefits of tokenization include instant settlement, lower costs than traditional securitization, 24/7 liquidity, and transparency. Three years ago, the crypto industry had only $2 billion worth of tokenized real-world assets (RWAs), including private credit, U.S. debt, commodities, and stocks. Today, that figure has reached nearly $14 billion. Venture capital firm ParaFi predicts that the tokenized RWA market could soar to $2 trillion by 2030, heralding a significant shift in asset ownership and trading.
Prediction by Pantera Capital Managing Partner Paul Veradittakit——More categories of assets will be tokenized
In 2024, RWAs grew by 60%, reaching $13.7 billion, with 70% consisting of private credit and the remainder in treasury bills and commodities. Capital inflows are accelerating, and 2025 is expected to see more sophisticated tokenized asset types. With infrastructure improvements, Figure added $4 billion in tokenized credit in 2024. Increasingly, companies use private credit to channel funds into the crypto space.
Prediction by Centrifuge General Counsel Eli Cohen——Traditional financial firms may accelerate their entry
Traditional financial companies focus on tokenizing real-world assets (RWAs) to improve liquidity and transparency. Cohen predicts that yield demand in 2025 will drive more diverse tokenized products. He notes that high treasury yields and competition among stablecoin issuers will push the market toward higher-yield, safer investments. Cohen expects the Trump administration to relax restrictive policies, fostering RWA market growth. He also highlights that with Gary Gensler’s departure, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s regulatory environment will become more favorable for RWAs, potentially helping traditional financial companies overcome internal resistance to the crypto market.
