From Bitcoin’s historic $100,000 rise to the emergence of artificial intelligence-powered cryptocurrency projects and tokenized real-world assets (RWAs), 2024 has reshaped the cryptocurrency investment landscape.
With favorable regulatory changes and increasing institutional interest, 2025 promises to offer significant opportunities for investors.
To help investors prepare for 2025, Cointelegraph spoke with industry experts to explain the best ways to navigate the cryptocurrency markets.
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Safe Bet: Bitcoin
Not surprisingly, Bitcoin (BTC), the world’s first cryptocurrency, is considered the riskiest bet in the cryptocurrency industry due to its inherent decentralization, strong security, and increasing institutional adoption.
BTC/USD, 1-year chart. Source: Cointelegraph
Thanks to its pegged currency policy and inherent decentralization, Bitcoin is increasingly seen as a hedge against currency depreciation.
Thanks to the presence of spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the United States, more institutions are recognizing Bitcoin as a hedge against inflation. Cointelegraph reported that institutional investors owned 27% of Bitcoin ETFs by the end of the second quarter of 2024.
Bitcoin will generate an impressive 110% return on investment for holders in 2024, outperforming most major asset classes, including Chinese stocks, up 29%, and U.S. stocks, up 21.7%, according to BlackRock data.
Asset class returns through 2024. Source: BlackRock
Analysts expect the launch of President-elect Donald Trump’s pro-crypto administration will lead to improved macroeconomic conditions and stronger cryptocurrency-friendly regulations.
Bitcoin is expected to see another year of strong gains based on the four-year Bitcoin halving cycle, which sets a cycle high in the third quarter of 2025.
According to some analysts, Bitcoin could reach $160,000 in 2025, an increase of more than 72% from its current price tag, Matrixport reports.
BTC could reach $1 million if the Trump administration approves strategic Bitcoin reserves, according to Adam Back, co-founder of Blockstream and inventor of Hashcash.
Nonetheless, investors should be mindful of a potential correction in the first half of 2025. Bitcoin’s correlation with liquidity indices suggests BTC could see a temporary correction to $70,000 after hitting a “local high” of $110,000 in January.
Bitcoin may explode after $100,000. Here’s why: Source: YouTube
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Speculative Investment: AI Cryptocurrency Project
Bitcoin remains the safest investment in cryptocurrencies, but some traders are looking for riskier investment opportunities that offer more upside potential, such as the emerging field of AI cryptocurrencies.
According to Alvin Kan, chief operating officer of Bitget Wallet, Bitcoin’s current correction below $100,000 is driving more interest in AI cryptocurrency projects such as AI platform ai16z and decentralized trading protocol Hyperliquid.
Both ai16z and Hyperliquid are “poised for growth in 2025,” Kan told Cointelegraph.
“Emerging narratives such as AI-based investing, decentralized AI agents, and tokenized assets imply a technology-driven shift, albeit with added risk.”
Ai16z is considering creating a platform similar to Pump.fun to launch AI agents, according to a post on its governance forum. He added that he is also considering “positioning ai16z as an L1 blockchain for AI.”
Demonstrating a lucrative financial opportunity, on-chain AI agents collectively generated $8.7 million worth of revenue in the five weeks to June 2024, according to VanEck data.
Total revenue for AI agents over 5 weeks. Source: VanEck
The industry surpassed 1 million blockchain-based AI agents on June 12, 2024.
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Edwin Mata, co-founder and CEO of Brickken, told Cointelegraph that blockchain’s AI algorithms can create data-driven decisions, automate processes, and increase the efficiency of decentralized financial systems.
“Projects that leverage AI to optimize financial operations, analyze on-chain data, or create new monetization models are likely to receive attention. (…) Emerging areas such as decentralized identity, gaming and innovative infrastructure solutions may exhibit cyclical growth depending on market sentiment.”
The intersection of blockchain and AI is considered a transformative technology paradigm due to their complementary characteristics. AI relies on trusted data sets, but blockchain can ensure transparency and trustworthiness of data sources for AI algorithms.
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Blockchain Infrastructure Play: RWA
A growing number of industry observers are pointing to the growth potential of the real asset (RWA) tokenization sector.
RWA tokenization refers to financial and other tangible assets issued on an immutable blockchain ledger, increasing investor accessibility and trading opportunities for these assets.
Brickken’s Mata said the RWA industry could be the next big story in the cryptocurrency industry in 2025.
“Real-world asset tokenization is transforming traditional markets by enabling assets such as real estate, debt, and stocks to be digitized and traded on the blockchain. This evolution improves transparency, efficiency and accessibility to investments that have historically been illiquid and targeted.”
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Demonstrating the growth of the sector, BlackRock’s Tokenized Finance fund surpassed $500 million in market capitalization in July 2024, becoming the first fund to reach this milestone.
According to forecasts from some of the largest financial institutions and business consulting firms compiled in a Tren Finance research report, the RWA sector could grow more than 50 times by 2030.
Most companies expect the market size of the RWA sector to be between $4 trillion and $30 trillion.
RWA Tokenization, Market Size Forecast by 2030. Source: Tren Finance
If the sector achieves mid-year projections of around $10 trillion, it would grow more than 54 times its current value.
Interest in tokenization is growing as it addresses inefficiencies in traditional financial markets. Tokenized financial products can provide greater accessibility to investors through split ownership, improved liquidity, and 24-hour trading.
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Looking to 2025
The incoming Trump administration is expected to have a positive impact on the cryptocurrency industry thanks to its selection of Paul Atkins as chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
More friendly economic policies in the US, along with a more innovation-friendly SEC leader, have strengthened analysts’ expectations of another upside for the broader cryptocurrency market beyond Bitcoin.
A growing number of investors are hoping for an altcoin rally, fueled by VanEck’s prediction that the price of Ether (ETH) will surpass $6,000 in 2025, which could drive more Bitcoin profits into the smaller cryptocurrency.
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