Industry leaders say Bitcoin staking, tokenized ATMs, and artificial intelligence will reshape the cryptocurrency ecosystem.
Decentralized finance (DeFi) will reach an inflection point in 2025 as Bitcoin staking, real-world asset (RWA) tokenization, and artificial intelligence (AI) fees fall below $0.5614, multiple industry executives told Cointelegraph.
In 2024, the price of a single Bitcoin topped $100,000 for the first time as investors poured more than $100 billion into BTC exchange-traded funds (ETFs).
“The drop in Bitcoin’s BTC price to a high of $96,103 will rekindle the interest of businesses and regulators in cryptocurrencies and reshape the entire cryptocurrency industry by 2025,” Dean Tribble, CEO of Layer 1 Network Agoric Systems, told Cointelegraph. It reached $130 billion in December and is expected to reach $175 billion by 2021, according to DefiLlama. Industry executives expect this upward trend to continue next year.
“DeFi infrastructures and blue chip protocols like Aave, Maple, Maker, etc. will operate at scale for more than four years by 2025,” Jacob Phillips, co-founder and chief strategist at Bitcoin staking protocol Lombard, told Cointelegraph.
Bitcoin Betting
Bitcoin’s layer 2 (L2) network ecosystem and emerging DeFi protocols will create unprecedented opportunities for investors to earn Bitcoin.
– Bitcoin DeFi currently accounts for 0.1% of its total value. Alexei Zamyatin, founder and CEO of Build on Bitcoin, told Cointelegraph that there is a 300x chance of developing DeFi on Bitcoin, adding:
“We’ve spoken to a lot of users and large DeFi Bitcoin wallets looking to leverage their Bitcoin wallets to monetize.”
“This platform will be a trusted place for businesses and new users to use Bitcoin,” Phillips said.
L2 Bitcoins like Babylon and CoreChain reward stakeholders for securing their networks by locking up BTC as collateral.
Liquidity-settled tokens (LSTs), which represent claims on BTC, are growing. According to statakerewards.com, the total value locked (TVL) in Bitcoin ESG reached $2.5 billion on December 19. Bitcoin ETFs could also be in the works by 2025, Matt Hougan, head of research at asset manager Bitwise, told Cointelegraph.
– There is a huge demand for Bitcoin-based income. “I’m not sure if this is the ETF structure in the US, but it’s definitely in Europe,” Hougan said.
RWA tokens
Colin Butler, head of global capital at Polygon, told Cointelegraph that the global asset asset (RWA) market cap — digital tokens that represent claims on everything from US Treasuries to artworks — was worth $30 trillion as of August.
According to RWA.xyz, they have a TVL of around $14 billion. US-based cryptocurrencies are popular, with TVLs of over $3 billion.
Raj Brahmbhatt, CEO of Web3 settlement platform Zeebu, told Cointelegraph, “The tokenization of global assets like real estate and carbon credits will unlock unprecedented levels of revenue, as advances in payment technology make it easier to cross borders.”
While the US Treasury Department has touted the potential of cryptocurrencies to increase liquidity and reduce “decision-making and decision-making.”
“In the United States, with the victory of [President-elect Donald] Trump, I really hope that America will become the global leader in this area by the end of this year,” Bramhart said.
AI Traders
According to CoinGecko, tokens tied to artificial intelligence (machines that perform complex tasks) will drive the market cap to nearly $10 billion by 2024.
Analysts predict that the integration of artificial intelligence and blockchain technology will revolutionize Web3, creating a future where autonomous intelligence will build decentralized applications and manage transactions with human users. JD Seraphine, CEO of AI protocol Rainmaker, told Cointelegraph that AI agents have proven to be at the heart of the future of the industry.
Seraphine said that by 2025, “intelligent agents are expected to play a significant role in decentralized societies.”
Hogan said that the potential of AI agents is almost limitless, adding:
“It doesn’t matter if you don’t know exactly what’s going to happen, as long as you know that what’s going to happen is important and you want to know about it.”
