7 reasons why 2025 could redefine crypto

Crypto winter? On. Fallen empires and legal dramas? In the rearview mirror. The survivors? Battle tested and staring at the horizon like it’s the next gold rush.

After years of conflicts with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Bitcoin and Ether exchange-traded funds have arrived. As of Dec. 16, U.S. bitcoin ETFs held $129 billion in assets, surpassing gold ETFs’ $125 billion, according to Norwegian firm K33 Research.

A post-election cocktail of market euphoria and Donald Trump’s promises to make the United States the “crypto capital of the world” and establish a strategic bitcoin reserve pushed bitcoin past 100,000 dollars.

Solana is having a moment, fueled by the hype of memecoins and new categories such as dePINs, networks that leverage blockchain technology to decentralize control and ownership of physical infrastructure. Platforms like Polymarket, where users bet on the outcome of the US presidential election, and the battle royale game Off The Grid have seen mainstream success. A new wave of “degens” is betting on tokens like fartcoin and dogwifhat, both of which now have a market cap above $1 billion.

“This is the year that crypto entered the mainstream consciousness in a way that it hasn’t since 2021, and that it is now a long-lasting, sustainable asset class term that’s going to have a voice and that’s going to matter,” says Rob. Hadick, general partner at Dragonfly, a crypto venture capital firm based in San Francisco. “If you just look at the effect that crypto has had on elections, both as donors and in terms of promotion in legislatures and for presidential candidates, it has never been done before and is obviously a big step forward in legitimization.”

With Trump and a group of pro-crypto officials about to take office, the stage is set for what insiders are already calling the “golden age of crypto.” Here is what is being prepared:

New All-Time Highs and Bitcoin Reserve in the United States

The art of bold price prediction is back in fashion. Crypto asset manager Bitwise predicts $200,000, or even $500,000, per bitcoin if the United States creates a strategic reserve similar to those for oil or gold. The logic: Official U.S. bitcoin stock would trigger global FOMO.

Trump used 200,000 bitcoins confiscated from criminals (worth $21 billion) to revive the reserve at the Nashville Bitcoin conference in July. But the legal path is unclear: Will it require Congressional approval, or can the executive branch act unilaterally? Pro-crypto Senator Cynthia Lummis proposed a Treasury-managed reserve in July. Skeptics say the asset’s volatility could harm financial stability. Trump’s silence on whether the United States would acquire more bitcoin through open market purchases adds another layer of intrigue.

Crypto Regulation Reset: A Friendly Washington

The new administration is shaping up to be the most pro-crypto yet. Key appointments include:

• United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC): Paul Atkins, a former SEC commissioner and crypto proponent, is set to replace industry nemesis Gary Gensler, whose tenure was defined by lawsuits and crackdowns.
• The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC): Brian Quintenz, policy chief at Andreessen Horowitz and former CFTC commissioner, is the favorite to lead the agency.
• Cash: Hedge fund billionaire and bitcoin advocate Scott Bessent is Trump’s pick for secretary.
• Trade: Howard Lutnik, CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald (the main custodian of Tether’s USDT reserves), is expected to lead the department.
• AI and Crypto Tsar: David Sacks, a longtime venture capitalist who also worked with Elon Musk at PayPal, will oversee policy in two key areas of Trump’s strategy to strengthen national competitiveness.
• The House Financial Services Committee: Rep. French Hill, an Arkansas Republican who worked alongside outgoing Speaker Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) to champion industry-friendly crypto legislation, plans to prioritize the bill over the structure of the crypto market in the first 100 days and to investigate the so-called Operation Choke. Point 2.0, which many believe unfairly targeted the crypto industry through banking practices.

“There is a real opportunity to put good policy in place for the industry,” says Kristin Smith, CEO of the Washington, DC-based Blockchain Association, which represents more than 100 crypto companies. “The White House has indicated that this is a priority. I think we’re going to see a combination of efforts within government, a legislative push for market structure and stablecoins, and a significant shift toward returning much of the innovation to the United States,” she adds.

New public listings and available capital

The pipeline of cryptocurrency IPOs is intensifying. Bitwise names five companies likely to IPO next year:

• Circle: The issuer of the second largest stablecoin, USDC, confidentially filed for an IPO in January.
• Figure: Known for its blockchain-based financial services such as mortgages, personal loans and asset tokenization, the company has reportedly been exploring a public listing since last year.
• Kraken: the US-based crypto exchange has IPO ambitions dating back to 2021.
• Digital Anchorage: its status as a federally chartered bank could pave the way
• On-chain analysis: a leader in blockchain compliance and intelligence services, ready to list.

Additionally, Dragonfly’s Hadick says, “I expect the LP market to improve – they’ll want to put more capital into crypto – and a lot of the traditional Web 2 crossover funds coming back into the space. We are already starting to see it in certain pockets like stablecoins and payments. But venture capital deals tend to lag price increases in the public market by a quarter or two, he adds.

Major inclusions of the index

MicroStrategy’s stock is up more than 400% this year. Now part of the Nasdaq 100, analysts predict inclusion in the S&P 500 will be the next step thanks to new accounting rules that would allow it to reflect its bitcoin investments at market value in its financial statements. This change could bring MicroStrategy into index funds and therefore into the portfolios of countless American investors. Co-founder and Executive Chairman Michael Saylor’s “Bitcoin Treasury” game – selling bonds and stocks to hoard the asset – propelled his $86 billion company into the ranks of the 100 largest companies in the S&P 500. Coinbase, in up 70% this year, could also join the coveted index, according to analysts.

Increase in stablecoins

The stablecoin sector is poised for explosive growth, potentially doubling to a market capitalization of $400 billion as the United States moves closer to long-awaited stablecoin legislation. By 2024, stablecoin transaction volume will reach $8.3 trillion, almost matching Visa’s $9.9 trillion in payment volume, according to Bitwise.

Tether and Circle still reign supreme, riding the wave of high interest rates. However, if they continue to operate more like asset managers than payments companies, their growth could soon stop, Hadick warned.

Stripe’s acquisition of stablecoin platform Bridge for $1.1 billion in October sent a message that stablecoins could become the cornerstone of fintech. Stripe calls them “superconductors for financial services,” touting their unmatched speed, low cost, and global reach. Robinhood is not far behind with its ambitions for a global network of stablecoins.

Meanwhile, next-generation “stablecoin 2.0” models are quietly gaining ground. “There are a number of new stablecoin models that bring revenue to the holders of the token, or indeed to the applications that onboard users,” says Ceteris, head of research at the New York-based crypto analytics firm Delphi Digital. “I could see those being disruptive.”

Accelerated tokenization

BlackRock CEO Larry Fink has been proselytizing for years. From real estate to art, everything could soon have a token. The big advantages: instant settlement, lower costs than traditional securitization, liquidity and transparency 24 hours a day.

Three years ago, the crypto industry had tokenized just $2 billion in real assets (RWA), including private credit, U.S. debt, commodities, and stocks. Today, that figure is approaching $14 billion. Venture capital firm ParaFi predicts that the tokenized RWA market could reach $2 trillion by 2030, heralding a significant transformation in asset ownership and trading.

New applications, better infrastructure

Buzzword of the month: AI agents. Get ready to witness the fusion of artificial intelligence and cryptography in a way that feels more like science fiction.

The first seeds of this trend are already appearing. Look at TruthTerminal, an AI agent who not only made $50,000 from Marc Andreessen, but also became a millionaire leveraging social media on X. His success stems from promoting a play based on a meme nonsense from the early 2000s (the anonymous creator(s) of the token transferred a significant sum to the TruthTerminal wallet, managed by creator Andy Ayrey).

But analysts are wary. Practical AI agents – for example those that attempt to execute complex transactions on blockchains on behalf of users – are rare and early. “Agents are exciting because they’re so new,” says Delphi’s Ceteris, “but they’ll probably be the biggest bubble of this cycle, for better or worse.”

Even though the blockchain industry remains fragmented and most decentralized applications have not yet become mainstream, work on robust infrastructure continues. “Solana started the trend for the era of high-throughput chains (cryptospeak for blockchains capable of processing thousands of transactions per second in the same way as Visa and MasterCard), and you see almost every new chain launch under this umbrella type, so there’s going to be a lot of cheap block space,” says Ceteris.

And just like that, the crypto narrative shifted from survival to euphoria. This is just a taste of what next year might bring. Your choice: grab your popcorn for the show or your wallet for the opportunity. Caution is essential. The market will go through inevitable ups and downs. And this time, the stakes seem higher than ever.