Author: Mark Greenberg, Head of Global Consumer Business at Kraken
Translated by: Baihua Blockchain
Looking ahead to 2025, cryptocurrencies are playing an increasingly vital role in shaping the evolving financial landscape. From their gradual incorporation into diversified portfolios to the development of blockchain-driven financial services, cryptocurrencies continue to exert a profound impact on traditional finance.
This year, with the ongoing growth of trust, accessibility, and innovation, cryptocurrencies will achieve deeper integration into mainstream financial strategies. Below are six trends that I am particularly focused on as we approach 2025.
1. Cryptocurrencies Become an Essential Component of an Ideal Portfolio
The historically asymmetric return characteristics of cryptocurrencies make it increasingly difficult for investors to justify not including them in their portfolios. By 2025, strategies like Dollar-Cost Averaging (DCA) will continue to gain favor, allowing investors to start with small investments and gradually increase their holdings. I anticipate that methods promoting a gradual familiarity with this asset class will accelerate in the new year.
2. Crypto Platforms Will Focus on Providing Medium- to Long-Term Wealth Accumulation Strategies, with Trust as the Key Differentiator
In 2025, trading platforms and crypto platforms will shift their product strategies to offer clients medium- to long-term wealth accumulation plans. The foundation of these services will be earning yields through stablecoins, layered with more complex products and services. Given the lessons learned from the collapses of FTX, Celsius, and Voyager during the previous cycle, clients will place greater emphasis on the trustworthiness, security, and longevity of platforms when choosing how to access these opportunities.
3. The Stablecoin Market Will See Its First Real Challenge to Existing Giants, Benefiting Users
The stablecoin market has long been dominated by Tether and USDC, which is no secret. In 2025, these two giants will face genuine competition for the first time as a new generation of stablecoins is launched, leveraging regulatory and regional advantages to challenge the existing leaders. This competition will bring affordability for users, who will have more tools to manage digital fiat currencies, while the adoption of alternative tokens will also help manage counterparty risks associated with stablecoin issuers.
4. Bitcoin Will Gain More Mainstream Attention in Times of Inflation Resurgence
Some analysts predict that inflation may stay above the Federal Reserve’s 2% target for the long term. For the first time in recent years, people in Western countries have personally experienced a sustained decline in the value of fiat currencies, a phenomenon not seen since the 1970s. Bitcoin’s fixed supply—which gold cannot offer—may drive more mainstream recognition of its anti-inflation value proposition. This will promote further adoption of Bitcoin as a value storage asset that protects wealth against fiat currency devaluation.
5. Reduced Volatility in the Crypto Market
Over the past decade, the overall volatility of cryptocurrencies has been on the decline. This is due to increased adoption leading to greater liquidity, which makes the market less susceptible to drastic price swings. As ETFs enable more investors to access cryptocurrencies, we expect the volatility of the crypto market to continue decreasing. This may make cryptocurrencies more appealing to investors with a higher risk tolerance and support strategies like Dollar-Cost Averaging (DCA).
6. A New Generation of Cryptocurrency-Based Banking Services Moves to the Forefront
We are already beginning to see new investment products—such as money market funds—launched on various blockchains. Traditional financial institutions have recognized and are leveraging the efficiency improvements that this technology brings, as well as its potential to open up new markets for products. By 2025, I expect more familiar financial products to be built on and brought to market via blockchain— including payments, fixed-term savings, high-yield savings accounts, credit cards, and borrowing alternatives.
7. Conclusion: 2025—Cryptocurrencies Take Center Stage
By 2025, the maturation of the cryptocurrency market will usher in a new era of opportunity and stability for investors and institutions alike. Whether through mainstream adoption of Bitcoin as a store of value, the emergence of competitive stablecoins, or platforms prioritizing long-term wealth accumulation strategies, the influence of cryptocurrencies will further extend into the financial world. With trust and accessibility at its core, this year will mark a turning point for cryptocurrencies as they solidify their position as a crucial pillar in the modern financial ecosystem.