What will happen to crypto in 2025? Nobody knows, but we can review the events of 2024 to see the ups and downs that were wilding the crypto industry.
If we want to review any crypto events, we must first start with the US. This is because of its high trading volumes and its wildly rich corporations who hold the biggest institutional bags of crypto.
While we may feel all important in our respective countries, the reality is that the USA is the daddy when it comes to crypto lore. And a lot of crypto shiz went down in the US in 2024 that needs to be mentioned.
2024 was a sliding door year. If the Democrats had won, the outlook for crypto may have been much less sunny. The party went in on a promise of tighter regulation while also saying at the last minute they were pro-crypto. It was all very confusing and according to some commentators they "fumbled the bag” on crypto.
Of course, Trump went in on a pro-crypto pitch, saying he would be a pro-crypto president. And that’s what the crypto bros and the crypto sisters wanted to hear. And they may have voted that way. Considering that there are an estimated 40 million people who hold crypto in the US, this could have been a deciding issue in the 2024 election.
It’s hard to know what the deciding factors were in the end that got Trump over the line. But there is hope for crypto enthusiasts that they may get a government in the USA that understands their cryptographic souls.
Since the US elected a pro-crypto President, a lot of stuff has exploded across the crypto realm. So let’s start our list with this exact pivot shift in the crypto landscape.
1. Pro-crypto President Trump was elected
With Donald Trump's presidency, there was a notable shift towards pro-crypto policies. He vocally supported the idea of cryptocurrency being "made in the USA" and even discussed the potential of creating a Bitcoin strategic reserve, signaling a new era of governmental backing for digital assets. However as he settles in to the Whitehouse, no Bitcoin reserve has been created as yet.
2. SEC Chair Gary Gensler resigned
The resignation of Gary Gensler from the SEC was met with celebration in the crypto community due to his perceived overreach on crypto regulations. This event potentially paved the way for a more crypto-friendly regulatory environment.
Not a soul in crypto was sad about this (allegedly). Bye Gazza. Don’t be coming back now.
3. Bitcoin Halving
The Bitcoin halving event in April 2024 reduced the reward for mining new blocks from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC. In other words, some miners don’t feel the reward for mining Bitcoin is worth the effort and bow out of the race. This means that there is less new Bitcoin entering circulation.
Usually, the year after the Bitcoin Halving sees the price of Bitcoin in a solid uptick. But not always. Remember kids, crypto is volatile and can plunge towards the undertunnels of hell in a short period of time without warning, so we are all really guessing about what will happen, no one knows for sure.
That said, in 2024, the price of Bitcoin did jump after the halving, making the average crypto bro and sis delighted with themselves.
4. Bitcoin's All-Time High
Apparently, in 2024 the above three events were the right ingredients to bake into a moon cake. The price of Bitcoin broke through the US$100K barrier on December 5, 2024. At the time of writing (03 Feb 2025), the price of Bitcoin was US$97,277.21
And there’s more good news to come. Bitcoin not only surpassed the symbolic US$100K barrier, fuelling market activity and investor enthusiasm, it went higher again. BTC price hit US$108,135 on December 17, 2024.
While it has come back down to US$100K at the time of writing (Dec 19), the price surge has shown crypto enthusiasts that this isn’t a little hobby on the side for a lot of people anymore.The reason why we speak about Bitcoin price as a gauge of all cryptos is that historically altcoin prices tend to follow the Bitcoin price fairly closely. Of course, remember kiddies, what goes up can come down, and you can lose everything you’ve pasted into the crypto market, so don’t invest more than you can afford to lose.
5. XRP price surge
XRP experienced a significant price surge in December of 2024, flipping Tether on December 2, to become the world’s third-largest crypto by market cap. At the time of writing, Tether has flipped back on top again, however early investors in XRP who HODLed are still delighted with themselves as the price (at the time of writing) has hovered around US$2.34.
At the time of writing, XRP had slid to US$2.44, which shows just how volatile crypto can be.
A lot of the XRP price movement was around Gensler’s exit. He was thought of as the arch nemesis of XRP, indulging in “witch hunt” legal battles (which he tended to lose). Again. Bye Gazza. Please retire somewhere far, faaaar away from crypto. Perhaps you’d like to try out the office supplies industry? Or the fast food game?
6. Increased institutional adoption
2024 saw the big fish move in on crypto. While companies like Microstrategy and Tesla have been hoarding Bitcoin for a while, big investment houses like Blackrock sliced off a large part of the Bitcoin pie for themselves.
The SEC's approval of spot Bitcoin and Ether ETFs was a landmark moment for mainstream acceptance, making it easier for investment houses to sell crypto products to their customers. All they had to do was own the digital asset first. So they bought up big.
Along the same lines, Hong Kong's introduction of Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs further solidified the global trend of institutional crypto adoption. Yep, these sharks are circling “the people’s money”. And they are eating them up good.
7. Germany's unfortunate BTC Sale
Germany made headlines by selling a large portion of Bitcoin at a less-than-ideal time, potentially missing out on future gains as the market continued to rise.
In fact, they potentially lost US$1.1 billion in profits had they made a different selling decision. That potential loss hits different now that Germany is facing economic instability. Face palm. Hard.
8. El Salvador's Bitcoin investment pays off
President Nayib Bukele's decision to invest in Bitcoin paid off handsomely for El Salvador, with the country reaping substantial profits as the cryptocurrency's value soared.
Bukele has faced razor-sharp criticism over the years for making Bitcoin legal tender in the country. And as the bear market hit in 2022, he faced more criticism as his country’s hoard of BTC sank in value.
But as the bull market kicked in again, he’s a hero once more. It’s a volatile ride in crypto, and every crypto sis or bro feels this hard. Of course, if it all goes wrong and we are all thrust into a bear market again, Nayib will be in the doghouse again. Bukele, we feel you, man.
9. Crypto adoption outpaces internet growth
A new report highlighted that crypto adoption was growing faster than the internet did in its early days, indicating a rapid mainstream integration of digital currencies. Crypto enthusiasts knew that this would happen, so we are being all smug, can’t stop won’t stop.
10. Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) sentencing
Sam Bankman-Fried, crypto criminal at large, once the CEO of FTX, was sentenced to 25 years in prison for his role in the collapse of his crypto exchange FTX.
TLDR: This guy stole crypto from the customers of the FTX exchange, to plug financial holes in another one of his companies that was going under, called Alameda. SBF had installed his girlfriend, Caroline Ellsion as the co-CEO of Alameda and she became famous for making absolutely terrible trades and losing billions of dollars (which wasn’t even their money to lose in the first place).
Hopefully the jailing of these two crypto cowboys and the absolute shizshow they caused is a signal flare that effective regulation is sorely needed. Fingers crossed that 2025 will see a step forward in this area of crypto.
What will happen in 2025 in cryptoland?
So for 2025, there are a few issues facing crypto lovers. At the time of writing, hedge funds were starting to make bets that the traditional stock markets were going to crash in 2025. While hedge funds often misjudge the market, and the future is uncertain, crypto prices have frequently declined during past stock market downturns.
It will be interesting to see if investors see Bitcoin as a store of value, and a safe harbour from economic turmoil. While this has been the theoretical goal since Bitcoin’s inception, it may not play out like that in practice. Only time will tell!
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