“Should Have Bought” is a news podcast from the ForkLog editorial team covering the week’s major industry events and the hottest tokens.
Topics: Ethereum optimism from Michaël van de Poppe, AI agent hype, the future of CBDCs, and rosy forecasts for 2025.
Special guest: Alexander Alekseev, product manager at Broxus (developer of the Tycho protocol).
Participants: ForkLog authors Vladimir Sliper and Alex K.
$8 Trillion and Bitcoin Reserves
Forbes expert Lior Shimron highlighted key events he believes will shape the crypto industry in 2025. Among them: the growing popularity of bitcoin reserves, the doubling of stablecoin capitalization, the dominance of DeFi based on digital gold, and the further spread of cryptocurrency ETFs.
Shimron expects the cryptocurrency market capitalization to exceed $8 trillion, with the integration of blockchain technologies with artificial intelligence and DeFi accelerating this process.
In the US, a shift in SEC policy could revive crypto startups by creating more favorable conditions for innovation. The expert emphasizes that the industry is entering a new era of development and maturity, laying the foundation for the global adoption of digital assets.
Bitcoin at $180,000 and the Tokenization Boom
Analysts at VanEck anticipate that by 2025, the cryptocurrency market will reach new heights: digital gold will set a new ATH around $180,000, Ethereum will exceed $6,000, and Solana will surpass $500.
The development of institutional adoption will continue: a bitcoin reserve may be established in the US, and the SEC may approve new spot crypto ETFs. The market for tokenized assets will grow to $50 billion, and the daily transaction volume with stablecoins will triple.
Thanks to the rapid development of L2 solutions, the TVL of the DeFi ecosystem based on bitcoin will reach 100,000 BTC. Integration with AI will enhance the development of dapps and trading strategies, making on-chain agents an important part of the ecosystem.
Experts are confident that the crypto market will continue to evolve, strengthening its position in the global economy through innovation, adoption, and new technologies.
Betting on Ethereum
Analyst Michaël van de Poppe expects Ethereum to outperform bitcoin in growth rates in January. He pointed to the high chances of the ETH/BTC rate breaking the 0.4 level, last seen in December. This will signal an altcoin rally within the Ethereum ecosystem.
Nate Geraci, president of The ETF Store, forecasts further growth in inflows into ETH-ETFs, strengthening the position of the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization.
AI Agents: Prospects and Trends
In 2024, many crypto projects focused on AI agents—autonomous bots for trading, asset management, and user interaction. An example is Truth Terminal, which attracted attention with its integration with a crypto wallet and received $50,000 in bitcoin from venture investor Marc Andreessen.
Functioning like smart contracts, AI agents are already automating crypto transactions and other operations. By 2025, they could become significant in finance and gaming, coordinating strategies and economies. However, most still require human oversight.
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