VanEck Issues 10 Predictions, Including Bitcoin Nearing $200,000
As speculation continues surrounding the future trajectory of Bitcoin (BTC) and the broader cryptocurrency market, asset management firm VanEck has released a series of forecasts that reinforce optimism for continued upward momentum.
VanEck predicts Bitcoin will surge to $180,000
Van Eyck predict The cryptocurrency bull market will reach an “interim peak” in the first quarter of 2025 before hitting all-time highs by the end of the year. The firm estimates Bitcoin could surge to around $180,000, while Ethereum (ETH) may exceed $6,000, Solana (SOL) may exceed $500, and Sui (SUI) may exceed $10.
The report further suggests that the United States will begin to embrace Bitcoin as a strategic reserve asset, as promised by President-elect Donald Trump, and expects overall cryptocurrency adoption to increase.
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With expected changes in U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) leadership, many spot cryptocurrencies exchange traded products (ETP) is also expected to be approved. This includes Ethereum ETPs with staking options, as well as physical trading capabilities for Bitcoin and Ethereum.
According to the report, the asset manager predicts that the value of tokenized securities will exceed $50 billion in the coming months, following a 61% growth to $12 billion for the year as a whole.
Currently, most value exists on permissioned chains, but 2025 is expected to be a breakthrough year, especially as organizations like the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) explore building bridges between public and blockchain . private blockchain.
The company predicts that stablecoins will revolutionize payment systems, with daily settlement volumes likely to triple to $300 billion by the end of 2025.
This growth is driven by increases in global commerce, remittances, and integration with major technology and payment networks, which will enable the stablecoin to process transactions equivalent to 5% of DTCC’s daily transaction volume.
DeFi hits all-time highs
Another interesting prediction is the rise of a million new artificial intelligence agents, which VanEck describes as “digital workers” that perform tasks or make decisions autonomously.
Significant on-chain activity is expected to occur as these agents expand their roles into other areas Decentralized Finance (DeFi) enters areas such as social media, gaming, and consumer applications.
VanEck expects the Bitcoin Layer-2 solution to accumulate a total value locked (TVL) of 100,000 BTC, growing TVL to 30,000 BTC in 2024, an impressive 600% increase.
The report predicts that Ethereum’s blob space will generate $1 billion in fees due to the rapid adoption of layer 2 solutions, rollup optimization, and high-fee use cases such as tokenized assets and enterprise applications.
VanEck predicts that decentralized finance (DeFi) will hit all-time highs, Decentralized exchange (DEX) trading volume reached US$4 trillion, and the total value locked in DeFi rose to US$200 billion.
This growth will reportedly be driven by artificial intelligence-related tokens, consumer-facing decentralized applications (dApps), and the tokenization of assets to drive liquidity and user adoption.
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The non-fungible token (NFT) market is expected to rebound, with transaction volume expected to reach $30 billion in 2025. recessionPudgy Penguins and Miladys, among others, have successfully thrived by leveraging strong community relationships and transforming into consumer brands.
Finally, VanEck predicts that decentralized application (dApp) tokens will close the performance gap with Layer-1 tokens.
Layer-1 blockchain tokens will outperform dApp tokens by 2x by 2024, but innovative dApps in the areas of artificial intelligence and decentralized physical infrastructure networks (DePIN) are expected to drive a shift in performance dynamics.
As of writing, the market-leading cryptocurrency has managed to regain $101,820 levels, up 2% in 24 hours.
Featured images from DALL-E, charts from TradingView.com