The decentralized exchange Raydium has surpassed Uniswap (#UNI) in monthly trading volumes for the second consecutive month, according to Messari.

Raydium's success is largely attributed to its dominance within the Solana ecosystem amid the meme coin frenzy.

In 2024, Binance attracted $21.7 billion in user deposits, 36% more than the combined total of the 10 largest exchanges.

The platform's user base grew to 250 million, compared to 60 million on Bybit, the second-largest exchange by trading volume.

Bitcoin Above $200K and Other Bitwise Predictions for 2025

Analysts from the American asset management firm Bitwise have published their predictions for the next year, which they believe will be positive for the cryptocurrency market:

▫️ Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana will reach new all-time highs, with Bitcoin trading above $200,000.

▫️ Bitcoin ETFs will attract more capital than in 2024.

▫️ Coinbase will become the most valuable brokerage in the world, surpassing Charles Schwab, with its stock price reaching $700 per share.

▫️ 2025 will be the "Year of Crypto IPOs": at least five crypto "unicorns" will go public on U.S. exchanges.

▫️ Tokens launched by artificial intelligence agents will lead a meme coin mania even bigger than in 2024.

▫️ The number of countries holding Bitcoin will double.

▫️ Coinbase will join the S&P 500, and MicroStrategy will enter the NASDAQ-100, indirectly adding cryptocurrency exposure to (almost) every American investor’s portfolio.

▫️ The U.S. Department of Labor will ease its recommendations against using cryptocurrencies in retirement savings plans, unlocking billions of dollars for crypto investments.

▫️ The market capitalization of stablecoins will double, reaching $400 billion, following the adoption of long-awaited stablecoin legislation in the U.S.

▫️ The value of tokenized real-world assets (RWA) will exceed $50 billion, driven by growing support from Wall Street.

Bonus Prediction from Bitwise: By 2029, Bitcoin will surpass the $18 trillion gold market and trade at over $1 million per Bitcoin.

Exactly a year ago, the company released a similar list of predictions for 2024, forecasting Bitcoin's price to exceed $80K, approval of Bitcoin ETFs in the U.S., a significant reduction in Ethereum fees, a boom in prediction markets, and the emergence of AI agents.

You can view the full company report and 2025 predictions via this link.

The founder of the brokerage firm Interactive Brokers, Thomas Peterffy, believes investors should own Bitcoin but limit their investments.

In an interview with Bloomberg, Peterffy discussed Donald Trump's policies and the cryptocurrency market. According to the publication, Peterffy's net worth is estimated at around $54 billion, placing him 26th on the billionaire list.

"I would recommend investing 2% to 3% of your wealth in Bitcoin. For instance, we do not allow anyone to invest more than 10% of their assets in Bitcoin, as I believe that would be very risky."

Peterffy admitted that he is "a little wary" of cryptocurrencies due to their price volatility. In his opinion, they lack any intrinsic value. The billionaire stated, "Their only value is the same as that of a paper dollar, which is none."

Peterffy also said he is "extremely optimistic" about the next four years and beyond but expressed concern that markets are becoming oversaturated. He predicts a downturn in the markets in the future, though he does not expect it to be very severe.

In 2021, Interactive Brokers began offering its clients the ability to trade Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies such as Ethereum, Litecoin, and Bitcoin Cash.

10 predictions from VanEck for 2025:

▪️ Crypto market reaches new heights. A mid-term peak is expected in Q1, with new all-time highs by the end of the year. Bitcoin could reach $180,000, and Ethereum may surpass $6,000.

▪️ The U.S. and Bitcoin. BTC will become part of the U.S. strategic reserve. With new SEC leadership, new crypto ETPs, including staked Ethereum, will emerge.

▪️ RWA and asset tokenization. The value of tokenized securities will exceed $50 billion, driven by the launch of assets on public blockchains. This will be a breakthrough for traditional markets.

▪️ Stablecoins changing the game. Daily settlement volume will triple to $300 billion, representing around 5% of all DTCC transactions.

▪️ AI agents in the economy. More than a million autonomous digital agents will begin managing investments, moderation, and other tasks.

▪️ Layer-2 for BTC. Locked funds will reach 100,000 BTC, continuing a 600% growth trend from 2024.

▪️ Ethereum growth. Explosive growth of Layer-2 solutions and new applications will bring Ethereum $1 billion in blob-space fees.

▪️ DeFi at historic highs. Decentralized exchange volumes will hit $4 trillion, and total value locked (TVL) will grow to $200 billion.

▪️ NFT comeback. NFT trading volumes will rise to $30 billion, fueled by projects with strong communities like Pudgy Penguins and Miladys.

▪️ dApp innovations. Decentralized application tokens will compete with Layer-1s, driving the adoption of new technologies, including AI and decentralized infrastructure.

MicroStrategy founder Michael Saylor proposed a digital asset regulation policy to U.S. authorities, outlining principles for integrating new technologies into the country and long-term opportunities.

Among other things, the plan includes creating a Bitcoin reserve, which, according to Saylor's estimates, could generate up to $81 trillion for the national treasury and significantly reduce the national debt. The entrepreneur believes that close cooperation with tokenization could position the U.S. as a global leader in the 21st-century digital economy, strengthen the dollar, and make American investors, as the primary beneficiaries, even wealthier.

Renowned cypherpunk and cryptographer Adam Back stated that advancements in quantum computing are more likely to strengthen Bitcoin than destroy it.

The United States has regained its prominence in the crypto sector after Asia claimed industry leadership for most of 2023. This region was a "major beneficiary" of the strict measures implemented by the outgoing administration of Joe Biden, which Donald Trump, promising to make America the "crypto capital" of the world, plans to overturn, Bloomberg reports.

Several factors indicate that the activity of crypto market participants is now largely concentrated in the U.S. These include data on the time of day when cryptocurrency trading is most active, trading volumes of exchange-traded fund (ETF) stocks, interest in cryptocurrency futures in America, and the recovery of market depth.

The share of daily Bitcoin trading against the dollar during U.S. exchange hours has risen to approximately 53% from 40% in 2021. Bloomberg's sources note that the shift in "liquidity dominance" toward America was driven by the growing participation of institutional players.

A chart illustrates periods of activity in cryptocurrency trading in dollar pairs by time from 2021 to 2024. Peak hours occur during the U.S. trading session—from 13:00 to 20:00 UTC, which corresponds to 16:00 to 23:00 Moscow time.

Source: Bloomberg

In 2024, nearly $15 billion was distributed through airdrops.

Strive Asset Management, led by Vivek Ramaswamy, Elon Musk's partner in the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), plans to launch an ETF for bonds of companies that have adopted the Bitcoin standard.

The Crypto Fear and Greed Index has reached 65 — its lowest level since October 15.

Banks, observing how Tether started earning billions of dollars, are now actively entering the stablecoin market and launching their own stablecoins for payments and other services — Bloomberg

Tether earned $2.5 billion in Q3 2024 and reported record profits of $7.7 billion for the first nine months of 2024.

In 2023, Tether earned more than BlackRock ($6.2 billion vs. $5.5 billion). Tether has 100 employees, while BlackRock employs 20,000.

Venture investments in crypto projects in 2024 amounted to $13.6 billion, and by 2025, they may grow to $18 billion. Blockchain startups received 4.9% of the total venture funding, which reached $279 billion.

The industry is gradually recovering after $10.1 billion in 2023 but remains far from the 2021 record of $32.4 billion.

Coinbase’s Product Director Conor Grogan claimed to have discovered over 400 bitcoins (worth more than $47 million) spread across dozens of wallets, which allegedly belong to Ross Ulbricht — the founder of the darknet platform Silk Road, who was pardoned today by Donald Trump.

In 2013, Silk Road was shut down by U.S. law enforcement agencies. Ulbricht was arrested and charged with drug trafficking, money laundering, and creating a criminal organization. In February 2015, he was sentenced to two life terms plus an additional 40 years in prison.

According to Grogan, the bitcoins he discovered were not confiscated by law enforcement when Silk Road was shut down and have remained untouched throughout Ulbricht’s entire prison term or longer.

At the time of Silk Road’s closure in October 2013, bitcoin was trading at approximately $120–130. This means that the value of the remaining bitcoins has increased nearly 1,000-fold to date.

Grogan noted that it is unclear whether Ulbricht still has access to these wallets. For now, all the coins remain untouched.

Reuters: The ECB views the digital euro as a response to Trump’s stablecoin strategy

The European Central Bank (ECB) stated that plans for creating a digital euro have gained momentum following Donald Trump’s executive order prohibiting the Federal Reserve from issuing a digital national currency (CBDC), Reuters reports.

On January 23, Trump signed an order supporting dollar-backed stablecoins to "promote their development worldwide." According to ECB board member Piero Cipollone, this creates new challenges for banks and makes the digital euro a necessity.

"This U.S. strategy reduces the role of banks: they lose fees, clients… That’s why we need a digital euro," Cipollone said at a conference in Frankfurt.

The ECB is currently only experimenting with the digital euro. A final decision on its launch will be made only after the approval of the necessary legislation.

CZ believes that "all governments should track all their expenses on the blockchain, an immutable public ledger."

"Unpopular opinion: Altseason isn’t happening!" writes technical analyst Ali Martinez.

According to his observations, there are currently 36.4 million different altcoins on the market. For comparison, during the 2017–2018 bull run, there were about 3,000 "alternative coins," and in 2013–2014, fewer than 500.

"With such a massive supply, the market has changed significantly," the expert concluded.

China's DeepSeek Neural Network Shakes the Markets

A Chinese company utilized idle GPUs to train an AI model using a unique parameter optimization technology. The result: $10 million spent to create a powerful open-source model. In comparison, OpenAI has spent nearly $17 billion.

DeepSeek requires almost 30 times fewer resources for generating responses compared to OpenAI and operates autonomously on smartphones, disrupting the GPU market.

As a result, tech giants are losing investor trust as the ROI in AI now seems doubtful. Companies like Nvidia risk losing up to $2 trillion earned during the AI bubble.

Most of DeepSeek's functionality is freely available to everyone: chat.deepseek.com.