By 2025, the number of AI Agents is expected to exceed 1 million.
Author: insights4.vc
Compiled by: Deep Tide TechFlow
To help you save time and focus on market hotspots, we have carefully compiled over 300 forward-looking predictions for 2025. Each year, top institutions and industry leaders share insights that have far-reaching implications for the future development of cryptocurrency. This report gathers the views of ETF issuers, investment funds, research institutions, and market pioneers, providing you not only with an overall overview of market sentiment but also practical advice and actionable insights on emerging opportunities.
The five most notable themes for 2025 include:
Growth and Popularization of Stablecoins
Tokenization of Real-World Assets (RWAs)
Expansion of Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs
Integration of Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain
Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Networks (DePINs)
1. Growth and Popularization of Stablecoins
Predictions from Blockworks founder Jason Yanowitz and Inversion Capital founder Santiago R Santos
- 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 a stablecoin. For example, BlackRock, Robinhood, and Meta are considered potential participants. Tether is expected to maintain its market leadership through its strategic political relationships, while USDC's market share may decline from the current 20% to about 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.
Predictions 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. With the popularization of private credit tokenization, this trend is expected to further enhance capital liquidity and improve financial transparency. Platforms like Maple Finance are leveraging smart contracts to streamline operations and reduce costs, becoming leaders in the industry. As agencies like Moody's begin 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)
Predictions from Coinbase
- The market for tokenizing real-world assets (RWA) is rapidly growing. It is expected to grow by 60% by 2024, reaching $13.5 billion; by 2030, this figure could 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.
Predictions from Paul Veradittakit, Managing Partner at Pantera Capital
This year, RWAs grew by 60%, reaching $13.7 billion, with 70% being private credit and the remainder in treasury bills and commodities. The influx 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 Bills and Commodities: The current on-chain treasury bill market is $2.67 billion, while there are still trillions of dollars off-chain that have not been tokenized. Treasury bills offer yields superior to stablecoins. BlackRock's BUIDL fund has an on-chain size of $500 million, while its off-chain size reaches hundreds of billions. DeFi pools have begun to integrate treasury bills, reducing the friction for user adoption.
3. Expansion of Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs
Predictions 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 launch of altcoin ETFs. The emergence of altcoin ETFs could further enhance market liquidity and lower the entry barriers for cryptocurrency investments.
The asset size of Bitcoin ETFs is expected to surpass that of gold ETFs by 2025. Currently, the asset size of Bitcoin ETFs is $110 billion, while gold ETFs stand at $128 billion. The rapid growth of Bitcoin ETFs indicates that this trend may materialize sooner than expected.
If the SEC leadership leans more libertarian, it may approve altcoin ETFs, including XRP, Solana (SOL), and Hedera (HBAR), further enriching the variety of cryptocurrency investment products.
If you wish to learn more about Bitcoin spot ETFs, we recommend referring to our article published last month here. Below are 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
Predictions from Bitwise
It is expected that the fund inflow for Bitcoin ETFs 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 access to cryptocurrency investment products. As investor confidence increases and the allocation of Bitcoin in portfolios becomes mainstream, the fund inflow for ETFs is expected to accelerate further, mirroring the development path of gold ETFs over the past few decades.
4. Integration of Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain
Predictions from Vaneck
- By 2025, the number of AI Agents is expected to exceed 1 million. These agents will significantly drive the growth of on-chain activities, as they can not only optimize DeFi yields but also automate various tasks and enable interactions in gaming and social media. Platforms like Virtuals Protocol are actively promoting the development of AI technology, expanding the application of agents from finance to gaming and marketing, thereby creating substantial revenue and enhancing user engagement.
Predictions from Dragonfly Capital Managing Partner Haseeb Qureshi
AI agents will widely adopt stablecoins for peer-to-peer transactions, especially as stablecoin regulations are further relaxed. This trend will also extend to large enterprises, which will replace traditional banking systems with stablecoins for greater flexibility and efficiency.
Decentralized AI training and inference will experience rapid development, driven by projects like ExoLabs, NousResearch, and PrimeIntellect, providing new alternatives to current centralized AI models. NEAR Protocol is working to build a fully permissionless AI technology stack, making development and deployment more open.
AI-driven wallets will revolutionize user experience 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 operation experience. By 2026, this automation trend may diminish the importance of blockchain network effects, as users will no longer need to interact directly with blockchains.
5. Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Networks (DePINs)
Predictions from Multicoin Capital
- The Trump administration is expected to launch 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 the scale of GPU clusters surpasses 100,000 H100 units, autonomous driving technology will gain practical application capabilities. Some startups funded by traditional venture capital firms may adopt the DePIN model to decentralize 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 already begun exploring this direction, and more similar companies are expected to join in the future. Additionally, Hivemapper is also attempting similar innovative concepts.
Predictions from Framework Ventures co-founder Vence Spencer
- DePIN projects focused on the energy sector (such as Glow and Daylight) are expected to reach transaction fee levels comparable to top DeFi platforms. This indicates that the application of blockchain technology in the management and monetization of 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.
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