6 Trends to Follow in 2025 as Cryptocurrency Enters the Mainstream

Written by Mark Greenberg, Head of Global Consumer, Kraken

This year promises to see cryptocurrencies become even more deeply integrated into mainstream financial strategies, driven by increased trust, accessibility and innovation. Here are six of our favorite themes for next year.

1. Cryptocurrency becomes an essential part of your ideal investment portfolio

Cryptocurrencies’ historically asymmetric return profile has made it increasingly difficult for investors to justify not including cryptocurrencies in their portfolios.

In 2025, strategies such as dollar-cost averaging (DCA), which allows investors to start small and steadily increase their holdings, will continue to gain ground. In the new year, we expect to see an acceleration of approaches that promote gradual familiarization with the asset class.

2. The cryptocurrency platform has focused on providing customers with a mid- to long-term wealth building strategy, with trust as its biggest differentiator.

2025 will see exchanges and cryptocurrency platforms shift their product strategies towards providing mid- to long-term wealth building strategies for their customers. The foundation of these services is for more sophisticated products and services to be layered on top of them to earn returns on stablecoin holdings.

Given the lessons learned from last cycle with the collapse of FTX, Celsius, and Voyager, customers will emphasize platform trust, security, and longevity when choosing how to approach these opportunities.

3. The stablecoin market is seeing its first real challenge to incumbents, and users are the primary beneficiaries.

It is no secret that stablecoin activity is dominated by Tether and USDC. In 2025, it will face real competition for the first time with the launch of a new generation of stablecoins with regulatory and regional advantages over the Big Two.

Increasing competition will benefit users as they have more tools to manage their digital currencies, and adopting alternatives can help stablecoin issuers manage counterparty risk.

4. Bitcoin receives more attention when inflation rebounds.

Some analysts predict that inflation could remain above the Fed’s 2% target. After the last few years, everyone in the West has now experienced first-hand the not-so-steady erosion of fiat currency values ​​for the first time since the 1970s.

Bitcoin’s strictly fixed supply, which not even gold can provide, could further reinforce mainstream appreciation of its deflationary value proposition. This could spur further adoption as investors seek a means of storing value assets that protect their wealth from the continued devaluation of fiat currencies.

5. Volatility in the cryptocurrency market decreases

Over the past decade, cryptocurrency volatility has generally trended downward. This is because greater adoption leads to more liquidity, making the market less susceptible to violent price movements in either direction.

Cryptocurrency volatility is expected to continue to decline as ETFs make crypto exposure accessible to more investors than ever before. This could make cryptocurrencies a more attractive proposition for investors along the risk appetite curve (and could even act as a tailwind for strategies like DCA).

6. Next-generation banking services based on cryptocurrency have reached the mainstream.

We are already starting to see new investment products, such as money market funds, launching on various blockchains. Established financial institutions are understanding and capitalizing on the efficiencies gained by using this technology and the ability to bring products to entirely new markets.

By 2025, more familiar financial products built on blockchain are expected to hit the market, including payments, high-yield savings accounts, credit cards, loans, and more.

2025: Cryptocurrency enters the main stage

The maturity of the cryptocurrency market in 2025 will open a new era of opportunity and stability for investors and institutions alike. Whether it’s the mainstream adoption of Bitcoin as a store of value, the emergence of competitive stablecoins, or platforms prioritizing long-term wealth building strategies, the impact of cryptocurrencies will further expand into the world of finance.

This transformative year, prioritizing trust and accessibility, will solidify cryptocurrency’s position as an essential pillar of the modern financial ecosystem.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views or opinions of Kraken or its management.

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