Analysts at venture firm Pantera Capital have shared forecasts for multiple sectors of the crypto industry.
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Tokenised assets (RWA)
The firm expects the RWA segment (excluding stablecoins) to account for 30% of total TVL across all blockchains in 2025.
In 2024 the niche grew by 60% to $13.7bn. In 2025 the analysts expect further inflows and the adoption of more sophisticated types of tokenised assets.
“The infrastructure for building and supporting RWA protocols has become much simpler. Operators now have a deeper understanding of the risks associated with blockchain operations and effective ways to mitigate them,” the experts noted.
DeFi on Bitcoin
Analysts also expect growth for native financial protocols on Bitcoin’s blockchain.
They reckon high yields and interest in assets based on digital gold will attract into BitcoinFi around 1% of all coins. The experts highlighted protocols such as Babylon, which do not require bridging, as well as Bitcoin-based assets—Runes, Ordinals and BRC20.
Fintech as a crypto gateway
In 2024 the experts noted the emergence of a number of platforms that became de facto gateways into crypto for a broad audience.
Projects such as TON, Venmo, PayPal and WhatsApp drew particular attention. Although they do not promote their own crypto applications or protocols, these platforms let users interact with cryptocurrencies.
“Every fintech will become a crypto gateway, whether deliberately or due to their inherent ability to support third-party applications. The spread of such projects will continue, and they may even compete with small centralised exchanges by the number of assets,” Pantera believes.
Many firms, including Robinhood and Stripe, are already integrating crypto features.
The potential of Unichain
In Pantera’s view, Unichain—an Ethereum-based L2 from Uniswap—could become the undisputed leader among similar solutions. To achieve that, the platform would need to capture at least half of its parent exchange’s trading volume.
Uniswap’s TVL is about $6.5bn, with daily trading volume of $1–4bn across 50,000–80,000 transactions. The analysts stressed that the platform accounts for a third of Arbitrum’s $1.4bn in daily turnover and a quarter of Base’s $1.5bn.
NFTs return to their original role
Pantera’s specialists note that NFTs are finding uses in on-chain gaming, AI and a broad spectrum of consumer applications:
“NFTs can be integrated into ID transactions, transfers, ownership and membership systems, and can also be used to represent and assess assets, leading to monetary, possibly speculative growth. This flexibility is what gives NFTs their strength.”
They expect the list of use cases for non-fungible tokens to keep expanding.
Restaking
Pantera’s experts suggest that launches of several restaking protocols in 2025, including Symbiotic and Karak, will bolster infrastructure.
Despite a “loss of relevance” during 2024, the niche remains a “multi-billion-dollar market”.
Integrating off-chain data via zkTLS
ZkTLS is a data-transmission solution using zero-knowledge proofs and the TLS cryptographic protocol.
The technology enables data to be brought from the Web2 world onto blockchains with verifiable authenticity.
ZkTLS is in the implementation stage. Pantera’s experts believe that in 2025, if the technology matures successfully, industry firms will look to integrate it with their on-chain services.
Regulatory support
According to the analysts, the United States has for the first time formed a political environment friendly to the crypto industry.
They pointed to a sizable pro-crypto majority elected to the House of Representatives—278 supporters versus 122 opponents. Another positive was the departure of SEC chair Gary Gensler and the nomination of Paul Atkins to the post.
“We hope for an end to SEC lawsuits, a clear definition of cryptocurrencies as a separate asset class, and [work] on taxation,” Pantera concluded.
In December, seven executives of crypto companies shared their predictions for 2025.