Taking stock of crypto predictions for 2025

With more companies holding BTC, bitcoin yielding strategies could become “a new corporate finance norm,” CoinShares posed

article-image

Many backgrounds/Shutterstock modified by Blockworks

share


This is a segment from the Forward Guidance newsletter. To read full editions, subscribe.


2025 is fast approaching and industry commentators are busy offering their two satoshis on what’s to come. 

With price predictions aplenty as bitcoin posts new all-time highs, we’ll stray away from those this time.

One stock price expectation: Per Bitwise, Coinbase (~$324 Monday midday) will hit $700 as it surpasses Charles Schwab as “the most valuable brokerage in the world.”

The investment firm correctly predicted MicroStrategy’s addition to the Nasdaq 100 index (announced Friday night) and believes COIN will join the S&P 500 next year.

BLOK portfolio manager Dan Weiskopf told me he thinks MSTR’s ascent to that index in 2025 might be “a reach.” Still, it’s only a matter of time, he says.

Weiskopf and the Amplify ETFs team detailed a “fun hypothetical” (should BTC move north of $200k) that MSTR could one day have a larger weighting in the S&P 500 than Bank of America. 

Moving on, VanEck’s Matthew Sigel and Patrick Bush wrote that President-elect Trump’s appointments — Howard Lutnick, David Sacks, Paul Atkins, etc. — signal “the start of a policy framework that positions bitcoin as a strategic asset.” 

What they really mean: the national bitcoin reserve Sen. Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming floated earlier this year.

When asked about a US crypto reserve materializing, Trump himself told market prognosticator Jim Cramer, “Yeah, I think so.”

He added: “We’re going to do something great with crypto. …Others are embracing it and we want to be the head.”

With more companies holding BTC, bitcoin yielding strategies could become “a new corporate finance norm,” the CoinShares team posed

More on the regulations/policy front: Bitwise is forecasting the US Department of Labor to relax its guidance against crypto in 401(k) plans in 2025. This would fit the flood-of-new-buyers narrative spurred by crypto-friendly regulation, with some pension funds and RIAs already making moves. 

A repeal of SAB 121 (a bipartisan effort blocked by President Joe Biden) might not even be necessary in 2025. Ava Labs deputy general counsel Wee Ming Choon told me he believes that particular bulletin will be an easy one for a new SEC administration to rescind (more thoughts from Choon are coming in a future Forward Guidance edition).    

Let’s conclude with a shared prediction from Bitwise and VanEck: The tokenized RWA space will surpass the $50 billion mark. Securitize’s Eric Ervin said during a panel I moderated at Permissionless in October that he thinks BlackRock’s tokenized fund BUIDL, backed by US Treasurys, could grow to $50b on its own in the next few years.


Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

Tags

Decoding crypto and the markets. Daily, with Byron Gilliam.

Upcoming Events

Old Billingsgate

Mon - Wed, October 13 - 15, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

Industry City | Brooklyn, NY

TUES - THURS, JUNE 24 - 26, 2025

Permissionless IV serves as the definitive gathering for crypto’s technical founders, developers, and builders to come together and create the future.If you’re ready to shape the future of crypto, Permissionless IV is where it happens.

Brooklyn, NY

SUN - MON, JUN. 22 - 23, 2025

Blockworks and Cracked Labs are teaming up for the third installment of the Permissionless Hackathon, happening June 22–23, 2025 in Brooklyn, NY. This is a 36-hour IRL builder sprint where developers, designers, and creatives ship real projects solving real problems across […]

recent research

Research Report Templates (8).png

Research

Meta-aggregators like Titan and Kamino Swap improve price execution for users, making the Solana swapping landscape more competitive. Jupiter has incorporated meta-aggregation features into its latest routing engine to keep users on its front end (own the user, own the flow). At large, teams are treating swaps as a commoditized complement, offering incredibly cheap or free swaps to own the end-user and increase demand for high-margin product offerings (multi-product DeFi). On another note, the divergence in the concentration of aggregator volume between DEXs suggests increased specialization at the DEX layer by asset type.

article-image

If we get an altcoin season, it’ll be focused on tokens deemed “ fundamentally valuable enough for traditional public money and capital” to get involved with

article-image

Solana dropped nearly 10% amid mass crypto liquidations triggered by rising geopolitical strife

article-image

Investors moved to safe assets like the US dollar and gold, but bonds faltered

article-image

The Amex offers up to 4% bitcoin back, but the deal is a bit ironic considering crypto’s goals

article-image

Short answer: Subnets are now cheaper to bootstrap than a Celestia rollup

article-image

Few things are more cypherpunk than keeping keys in your brain wallet