Bitwise, a crypto exchange-traded funds issuer, expects at least five big crypto companies to go public with their shares next year. These include Circle, an issuer of stablecoins, and Kraken, an established crypto exchange.
The predictions were made in a recent report by Matt Hougan and Ryan Rasmussen at Bitwise titled ‘10 Crypto Predictions for 2025’.
They mentioned the possibility that “crypto bank” Anchorage Digital, analytics firm Chainalysis, and crypto exchange Figure will go public. According to them, rising investor interest, more involvement from major financial players, good economic conditions, and more friendly political attitudes will all contribute to making 2025 the “Year of the Crypto IPO”. Circle, Figure, Kraken, Anchorage Digital, and Chainalysis were the five likely candidates for a 2025 IPO.
Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana to reach new records, according to Bitwise
Another prediction included in the report was for BTC to cross $200,000 by the end of next year. The figure would grow to $500,000 if the U.S. government followed through on proposals for a $1 million Bitcoin strategic reserve. A bonus prediction mentioned BTC surpassing gold’s market cap of $18 trillion in 2029.
On the other hand, Ethereum would also hit a record high of $7,000, pushed by increasing activity on Ethereum’s layer two networks, including a “massive growth in stablecoins and tokenized projects” and more cash inflows into Ether exchange-traded funds.
Hougan and Rasmussen expect Solana’s association with “serious” projects to increase its price to $750, a 250% rise from its current price of $215.
“We’ve already seen early examples with projects like Render making the leap. We expect that to accelerate in the year ahead.”
-Matt Hougan and Ryan Rasmussen
The duo referred to Solana as the crypto phoenix, which rose from the ashes of the 2022 market crash and climbed to ‘new heights’ in 2024, fueled by the memecoin mania that eclipsed the GameStop saga.
Hougan and Rasmussen predicted that the rise of the three tokens would be catalyzed by institutional investments, wirehouse approvals, layer 2 scaling, the U.S. strategic Bitcoin reserve, upsized allocations, macro windfall, and better regulatory/ political climate. They also highlighted the potential headwinds as disappointment from Washington D.C., the failure of memecoin mania, leverage blowout, disappointing rate cuts, and selling by governments.
Bitcoin ETFs to record more flows in 2025
The Hougan and Rasmussen report predicted that U.S. spot Bitcoin ETF inflows in 2025 would surpass the record-setting $33.6 billion gathered in 2024 since they were launched. The prediction was based on the fact that Bitcoin ETFs had passed the higher end of the range ($5B —$15B) projected by ETF experts within the first six months. Based on inflows in the first year, U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs smashed the 25-year-old record for the most successful ETF launch of all time.
Hougan and Rasmussen believe that the trillions of dollars managed by Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, Merrill Lynch, and Wells Fargo will start flowing into Bitcoin ETFs in 2025. They also suspected that most investors who bought Bitcoin ETFs in 2024 would double down in 2025 based on the 7-year pattern of building on small allocations witnessed at Bitwise.
The report suggested that the number of countries currently holding Bitcoin reserves would also double in 2025. Nine countries held Bitcoin reserves, led by the U.S. with over 198K BTC and China’s 190K BTC. The UK, Ukraine, and Bhutan held ~61.2K BTC, ~46.3K BTC, and ~$11.7K BTC, respectively, while El Salvador and Venezuela had Bitcoin reserves of ~5.4K BTC and 240 BTC, respectively. Finland and Georgia had less than 100 BTC each.
While Hougan and Rasmussen were unsure whether the U.S. would establish a Bitcoin reserve in 2025, they believed it was possible. They further predicted that the U.S. actively considering building a strategic Bitcoin reserve would trigger a global arms race for governments to stockpile Bitcoin.
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