As speculation swirls around the future path of Bitcoin (BTC) and the cryptocurrency market in general, asset management firm VanEck has released a set of forecasts that add hope for a continued upward trend.
VanEck Bitcoin forecast goes up to $180,000
VanEck predict that the crypto bull market will reach a “medium-term peak” in the first quarter of 2025, followed by new all-time highs by the end of the year. The company predicts that Bitcoin could rise to around $180,000, while Ethereum (ETH) exceeded $6,000, Solana (SOL) could exceed $500, and Sui (SUI) could reach over $10.
The report also suggests that the United States will begin to accept Bitcoin as a strategic reserve, as promised by President-elect Donald Trump, anticipating an increase in overall crypto adoption.
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With expected changes in leadership at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), several crypto spots trade goods (ETPs) are also approved. This includes an Ethereum ETP with staking options, as well as in-kind trading capabilities for both Bitcoin and Ethereum.
According to the report, the asset manager expects the value of indexed securities to exceed $50 billion in the coming months, after growing 61% to $12 billion this year.
Most of this value currently resides on permissioned chains, but 2025 is expected to be a breakthrough year, especially as organizations such as the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) investigate public bridges and private blockchain.
The company plans to transform the stable of payment systems, with daily settlement volume potentially tripling to $300 billion by the end of 2025.
This growth, driven by increased adoption in global commerce, payments, and integration with leading technologies and payment networks, would set the stable to handle transactions equal to 5% of the numbers daily at DTCC.
DeFi to hit all-time highs
Another interesting prediction is the rise of a million new AI agents, which VanEck describes as “digital workers” that perform tasks autonomously or make decisions.
These agents are expected to create significant activity on the chain as they expand their roles further afield decentralized finance (DeFi) into areas such as social media, gaming, and consumer applications.
VanEck expects Bitcoin Layer-2 solutions to accumulate a total value locked (TVL) of 100,000 BTC, building on an impressive 600% growth in 2024 that brought the TVL to 30,000 BTC.
The report predicts that the Ethereum blob space will generate $1 billion in fees, driven by rapid adoption of Layer-2 solutions, rollup optimizations, and high-fee use cases such as tokenized assets and enterprise applications.
VanEck predicts that decentralized finance (DeFi) will hit all-time highs, with decentralized exchange (DEX) volumes reach $4 trillion and total value locked in DeFi rises to $200 billion.
This growth will reportedly be fueled by AI-related tokens, decentralized consumer-facing applications (dApps), and asset tokens that drive liquidity and consumer adoption.
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The non-fungible token (NFT) market is expected to make a comeback, with trade volumes expected to reach $30 billion in 2025. declineniche projects like Pudgy Penguins and Miladys have thrived by leveraging strong community connections and moving into consumer brands.
Finally, VanEck expects decentralized application (dApp) tokens to reduce the performance gap with Layer-1 tokens.
In 2024, Layer-1 blockchain tokens outperformed dApp tokens by a factor of two, but innovative dApps in artificial intelligence and Distributed Physical Infrastructure Networks (DePIN) are expected to drive the trend in performance dynamics.
At the time of writing, the main crypto of the market has recovered the $101,820 level, registering a 2% increase in the 24-hour time frame.
Featured image from DALL-E, chart from TradingView.com
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