The institutionalization of crypto markets means bitcoin (BTC) is no longer considered a niche investment, and increased adoption is forcing hesitant investors to reconsider the asset class, WisdomTree said in a report Monday that looked at crypto trends for 2025.
The investment manager noted that portfolios with allocations to bitcoin consistently outperform those without the world’s largest cryptocurrency.
Asset managers need to integrate the digital asset into multi-asset portfolios or “risk falling behind in a rapidly evolving financial landscape,” analyst Dovile Silenskyte wrote, adding that bitcoin adoption is expected to grow this year as more clients demand exposure to the asset class.
The launch of spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the US helped make crypto more mainstream in 2024. This momentum is expected to continue this year as the regulatory environment becomes friendlier in the US under President Trump and as more countries approves exchange-traded products (ETPs) for altcoins such as Solana’s SOL and XRP, WisdomTree said.
“This next wave of altcoin ETPs will expand the diversity of crypto investment opportunities and further integrate cryptocurrencies into the global financial system,” Silenskyte wrote.
Ethereum blockchain’s role as “the backbone of decentralized finance (DeFi), non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and Web3 is unmatched,” the report said, but its scalability issues remain a concern.
Still, recent upgrades, including Dencun, are expected to drive layer-2 adoption on blockchain, the report noted.
Stablecoins “are becoming indispensable to the global financial system,” and networks like Solana are ideal for stablecoin payments and transfers, WisdomTree said.
Tokenization, the process of placing ownership of real assets on the blockchain, will expand dramatically by 2025 and will transform industries from private equity to venture capital, the report added.
Read more: Stablecoin deals and China, Europe follow US with Bitcoin Reserve: Wintermute predictions
