Crypto's New Dawn: Digital Assets Transform Finance
With Bitcoin trading volumes reaching US$19tn in 2024 - more than double the previous year's US$8.7tn according to Digital Desk - the digital asset sector is demonstrating maturity and resilience that was unimaginable during its early days.
Market Momentum and Institutional Growth
The introduction of spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds has created new pathways for traditional capital to enter the cryptocurrency market.
Standard Chartered's Head of Digital Assets Research, Geoffrey Kendrick, notes that even a modest allocation from the US$40tn in US retirement funds could substantially impact Bitcoin prices.
This institutional interest is reflected in corporate investment trends, with Bernstein analysis projecting Bitcoin holdings to exceed US$50bn in 2025, up significantly from US$24bn in 2024.
Galaxy Digital, a cryptocurrency-focused asset manager, expects US spot Bitcoin ETF assets under management to surpass US$250bn.
Sid Powell, Co-founder of Maple Finance, draws parallels with traditional market development: “If you look historically when we saw gold ETFs come in, the inflows in the first year increased dramatically in subsequent years — and I think we can expect to see that with the bitcoin ETFs,” Powell tells CNBC's Squawk Box Europe.
The Trump organisation's World Liberty Financial launched in September 2024, introducing a proprietary cryptocurrency through a decentralised finance platform developed with his sons.
The subsequent $TRUMP token's market capitalisation soared to US$5.5bn within hours of its launch, later peaking at US$14bn and breaking into the top 20 cryptocurrencies globally.
The token's price more than tripled to US$75 before experiencing a dramatic 60% crash to US$30, though it later recovered to around US$64.
The launch of $MELANIA demonstrated both the volatile nature of memecoins and the massive influence certain brands carry in the digital asset space.
Market Structure and Cross-Border Growth
The market structure continues to evolve, with stablecoin adoption accelerating across various sectors.
Bernstein's analysis indicates that stablecoin market capitalisation is expected to expand 2.5 times through 2025, driven primarily by business-to-business payments and cross-border transactions.
The firm anticipates a clearer definition of cryptocurrency securities classification, enabling platforms to tokenise traditional stock market assets.
Bernstein projects significant growth in cross-border payments, with stablecoins playing an increasingly crucial role in business-to-business transactions.
The firm expects traditional investors to engage more deeply with Ethereum's technical applications in staking, smart contracts and cross-chain operations, furthering the appeal of cryptocurrencies to institutional investors.
Technology and AI Integration
Bitcoin's computing power reached 1,000 exahashes per second in early 2025, while US-based mining pools Foundry USA and MARA Pool now process 38.5% of Bitcoin blocks.
Mining companies Core Scientific and TeraWulf have demonstrated stronger performance by diversifying into artificial intelligence sectors, according to Bernstein's analysis.
The integration of artificial intelligence with cryptocurrency systems marks a crucial development.
According to Morné Rossouw, Chief AI Officer at Kyriba, starting August 2025, transparency requirements for general-purpose AI providers will revolutionise finance teams' insights into AI models.
The EU AI Act introduces specific compliance requirements for finance teams, particularly around transparency and documentation in AI systems for payments and fraud detection.
However, when it comes to AI in crypto, market experts remain cautiously optimistic while acknowledging potential risks.
University of Sussex finance professor Carol Alexander projects summer prices could reach “around US$150,000 plus or minus US$50,000”, while Youwei Yang, Chief Economist at Bit Mining, sees potential for even higher valuations, projecting 2025 trading ranges between US$180,000 and US$190,000 while noting risks from US-China tensions and Federal Reserve policy adjustments.
James Toledano, Chief Operating Officer at Unity Wallet, offers a concluding perspective: “DeFi and crypto are global, and we should always factor this into our calculus.
“What most DeFi veterans are banking on is for the regulatory environment to improve so that innovation and crypto propagation can thrive.”
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