Crypto 2025 Predictions 🔮

Mainstream media v. crypto pubs

In this week’s edition of The Context, we give a roundup of what media outlets are paying attention to heading into 2025.

[Native Sums]

The holidays usually lack product news and company announcements, but media outlets still need content. Hence, the end-of-year tradition of predicting where the industry is headed.

What Crypto Media Said 🧑‍💻:

• Developers think this could be the year that onchain consumer apps finally become a thing. In previous bull markets, “the tech wasn’t ready,” but a coming Ethereum upgrade “will eliminate barriers that have previously made onchain apps a headache,” wrote Sander Lutz (Decrypt). “Goodbye gas fees and special wallets for navigating smart contracts; hello signing transactions with FaceID.”

• Don’t count out Solana, suggested Zoltan Vardai (Cointelegraph). Big firms have applied for a Solana exchange-traded fund, which could be “a potential price catalyst” for Ethereum’s nearest competitor. An SEC decision can come as soon as late January. Two other things to watch: AI trading will get even bigger, but an increase in “mainstream crypto acceptance” could also lead to more “AI-powered crypto scams.”

• That mainstream acceptance means “non-crypto firms are actively muscling into digital assets,” said Eric Johansson & Liam Kelly (DLNews), so we asked Fidelity, Robinhood, and other firms what they expect. They told us: friendlier regulations in the US, UK, and Europe; more strides for stablecoins; room for more investment products that straddle crypto and traditional finance; and more inflows to crypto ETFs.

PR Perspective 🔎:

Crypto publications are providing crypto-native insights on infrastructure evolution. That means they are generally focusing on ecosystem-specific dynamics, predicting Ethereum's outperformance over Bitcoin, the decline of meme coins, and expanded tokenization of real-world assets. They emphasize innovation, such as AI-driven trading and DeFi growth, while dismissing U.S. BTC reserves.

[Price Points]

The end of the year is full of slow news days for everyone, and mainstream publications are no exception. Here’s what they had to say about crypto’s immediate future.

What Mainstream Media Said 🧑‍💻:

• Industry execs see a new record high for Bitcoin, with $200,000 (and even $250,000) within reach, said Ryan Browne & Arjun Kharpal (CNBC).

• Indeed, there are four reasons for optimism about crypto prices, noted Krystal Hur (Wall Street Journal): Trump has embraced crypto, he’s appointing crypto people to government positions, execs are pushing for friendly regulations, and Wall Street firms like BlackRock and Goldman Sachs are getting in on the game. But despite all that, “there is no telling whether cryptocurrencies, known for their boom and bust cycles, will continue their exuberant run.”

• Forget Bitcoin prices. Financial firms—from Visa to Stripe—are more interested in investing in stablecoin projects, said Muyao Shen (Bloomberg). “The coming year is poised to see competition ramp up in stablecoins.”

• Some “new crypto craze” is coming, predicted Mike Isaac (New York Times) for the paper’s Styles Desk. “Cryptocurrencies seemed dead as doornails after the collapse of FTX,” but Donald Trump’s “full-throated endorsement of crypto” will end up “fueling what is likely to be a new age of digital get-rich-quick traders and hustlers.”

PR Perspective 🔎:

Mainstream media tends to go with price-driven narratives. Its coverage is emphasizing BTC’s price surge—driven by political endorsements and institutional adoption like spot ETFs—and the growth of stablecoins as a payments backbone. Pieces highlight crypto's integration into traditional finance, focusing on regulation, company adoption, and sovereign Bitcoin reserves.

[Tax Breaks]

After the IRS finalized a rule requiring “DeFi brokers” to send users 1099 tax forms, the Blockchain Association and other trade groups sued the agency.

What Media Said 🧑‍💻:

• The new rule, which would begin in two years, has been criticized by the crypto industry because “it's not always obvious in DeFi who or what entity would collect and disseminate user data,” wrote Sarah Wynn (The Block). “In some instances, there are no centralized service providers that interface directly with users — making it what some have called an ‘unsquarable circle.’"

• The lawsuit alleges that the “law is arbitrary and capricious,” violates the Fourth and Fifth Amendments, “and invades privacy rights of DeFi users,” noted Ufonobong Umanah & Erin Schilling (Bloomberg Law). Basically, “Blockchain Association said decentralized exchanges aren’t brokers because they only provide software for users to interact with one another.”

PR Perspective 🔎:

Despite the slow news week, this lawsuit didn’t get too much attention, perhaps due to the long time horizon for these rules to take effect, the slow-moving nature of litigation, and the likelihood that the incoming Trump administration will find a way to make these rules disappear.

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The usual disclaimer: This newsletter collates the main themes and headlines of the week in DeFi/crypto/metaverse/Web3/NFT land and tries to provide unbiased context. It's aimed at anyone who wants to keep an eye on the space. It's put together by a team at YAP and doesn't contain any promotion of our clients (if one is mentioned, we'll flag that).

The team: Founder Samantha Yap and consulting editor Jeff Benson, Andrew Wickerson, Emma Murphy, Nathalie Larrea, Trisha Goswami and Shajar Qureshi. Your feedback is, as always, welcome. Ping us at thecontext@yapglobal.com. Old newsletters can be found here.

This newsletter is prepared by YAP Global, an international PR consultancy focusing on helping cryptocurrency, Decentralised Finance (DeFi) and brands through impactful storytelling. Find out more about us here.