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The crypto space has been on a huge recovery path in 2024 — a year which saw the approval of spot Bitcoin ETFs (exchange-traded funds) in January, deemed by many a landmark decision for the crypto industry. This was followed by the most recent approval of spot Ethereum ETFs in May, and their trading debut in July.
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Bulls are getting more bullish by the day, with some putting bitcoin’s price at more than $100,000 before the end of the year. For instance, Bernstein analysts said in a note that it will reach $200,000 by mid-2024, and $500,000 by 2029, according to Decrypt.
Against this backdrop, here is what experts said about their predictions for the crypto space next year.
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Bitcoin at $100,000
As of Aug. 26, Bitcoin stood at $63,900 — up 145.1% in the past year, according to CoinGecko.
Peter St. Onge, economist and visiting fellow at the Heritage Foundation, said he predicts Bitcoin to hit $100,000 next year, although the timing is unclear.
“Bitcoin at $100,000 has been a rallying cry for bitcoiners, and it’s now in sight with Powell’s pivot on interest rates,” said St. Onge. “Bitcoin jumped several thousand on the announcement — with gold jumping over $2500 as well — because it signals more inflation from a Fed that’s now trapped by a failing jobs market.”
As he further noted, this is really the first election where Bitcoin (and crypto holders more broadly) have had a voice.
“According to the Fed, tens of millions of Americans own crypto, and many of them are passionate, single-issue voters,” he added.
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Bitcoin Will Hit a Low of $30,000
According to Matthew Webb, co-founder of wevr.ai, 2025 will be a year of “mostly prosperity for Bitcoin.”
“However, I believe there will be some heavy turbulence. If a recession occurs, I could well see Bitcoin going as low as $30,000,” he said.
He noted, however, that if the new government can steer America out of a recession and into prosperity, he could see Bitcoin hitting $100,000.
“Going over this however will be a hard push in 2025, the psychology of round numbers will cause many investors to sell around $100,000 and it may be hard to power through that sell pressure unless there’s significant positive government support for Bitcoin and the broader cryptocurrency market,” he added.
Vijay Marolia — founder and CIO of Regal Point Capital Solutions — conceded that while price predictions are hard to make, he expects prices to be north of $100,000, “if not soon, next year.”
“As more people understand the genius that is blockchain technology, demand will skyrocket, just like it did when the institutions finally got wise,” he added.
Memecoins Will Continue to Have Momentum
Carter Feldman, founder of QED Protocol, also noted that while Bitcoin, “the king of crypto assets,” is poised to have another breakout year, memecoins are also going to continue to experience significant momentum.
“Dogecoin in particular is likely to do well because of the huge amount of mindshare that it holds among people all around the world,” said Feldman.
On top of this, there are efforts to add innovations to Doge that will help that particular network expand its capabilities, he said.
Broader Adoption
One of the “mega trends” for the digital asset industry in 2025 will likely be broader adoption, several experts suggested.
Already, we’ve seen the world’s largest financial institutions such as BlackRock embrace Bitcoin and Ethereum by launching ETF products for those digital assets. We could see ETFs launched for yet more digital assets in 2025, according to Stephanie Vaughan, co-founder of Veda.
“In addition to this, institutions and even governments are looking more seriously at how to tokenize stocks, bonds and other assets using blockchain technology,” she said. “In short, despite the regulatory hurdles faced in certain jurisdictions, overall the crypto ecosystem is poised to grow because of rising adoption from both retail and institutional users.”
The Ethereum Ecosystem Will Experience a Surge
Another potential trend, according to Vaughan, is that the broader Ethereum ecosystem is poised to experience a surge in growth thanks, in part, to a macroeconomic environment that is starting to ease as the Federal Reserve prepares to cut interest rates.
According to her, with the Federal Reserve set to begin cutting interest rates soon, the knock-on effect might involve a lot of capital that’s currently parked in money market funds getting redeployed to growth assets and sectors.
“One of these sectors, I suspect, will be the emerging decentralized finance (DeFi) world,” she said. “The Ethereum ecosystem is the leader when it comes to DeFi, and I suspect that yield-generating opportunities within this ecosystem will become more and more attractive.”
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This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: I’m an Economist: Here Are My Predictions for Crypto in 2025