Three Major Trends Set to Define the Crypto Market in 2025

• Real World Asset (RWA) tokenization and AI narratives will dominate the crypto market in 2025, setting the foundation for decadal growth.
• Meme coins, which fueled significant growth in 2024, are anticipated to continue their impact in 2025.

In 2024, the cryptocurrency market made inroads into the global financial system with the launch of crypto ETFs, leading to greater adoption. Market analysts expect the Bitcoin bull run to continue with even greater demand for crypto investment products in 2025. While the meme coin sector dominated in 2024, narratives like AI coins, real-world asset tokenization (RWA), etc, are likely to gain further traction in 2025 in the crypto market, as per Brickken, a leading Real-world Asset tokenization (RWA) firm.

RWA and AI Agents to Dominate Crypto Market Narrative In 2025

Last month, in December 2024, crypto asset manager Bitwise published a report dubbed “The Year Ahead: 10 Crypto Predictions for 2025,” predicting that Wall Street can continue to embrace digital assets moving into next year.

Throughout 2024, Bitwsie has been active in bringing products like Bitcoin ETF and Ethereum ETF to the market with steady growth in its assets under management (AUM). The asset manager continues to file for new crypto-linked products, with the latest filing being the Bitcoin Standard Company ETF, which tracks firms holding 1,000 BTC and more and which actively trade on Wall Street, reported CNF.

For this year, 2025, Bitwise predicts that the Real World Asset (RWA) sector will surpass $50 billion in value. Highlighted as one of its top 10 crypto market predictions for the coming year, the report notes that just three years ago, tokenized RWAs were valued at less than $2 billion. Some blockchain platforms like IOTA have already identified the early trends and are making key inroads into this sector, per the CNF report.

Venture capital firm ParaFi and the Global Financial Markets Association (GFMA) share optimistic projections for the Real World Asset (RWA) market in 2025, aligning with Bitwise’s outlook. ParaFi anticipates the RWA crypto market could expand to $2 trillion by 2030, while GFMA has set an ambitious target of $16 trillion within the next five years. Edwin Mata, CEO and co-founder of Brickken, said:

RWA is going to matter a lot to key players. Big players like BlackRock and JP Morgan are jumping in to provide just what we need for the RWA space to matter. I see AI agents embedded in the process. Bitcoin as treasury could be cemented in different countries. From the technological point of view: RWA, AI agents are two key narratives for the coming year.

How Will Meme Coins Contribute This Year

As said, meme coins were among the key contributors to the crypto market rally in 2025. Crypto market analysts believe that this trend could continue further with growing demand for AI-based meme coins, Solana, and Base-based meme coins. Dario Lo Buglio, Chief Technology Officer at Brickken, said:

“Meme coins could fade away with some time or experience some growth next year. Maybe it can find a place for itself in the market. It is a trend, we welcome trends and embrace them.”

Edwin concurred, emphasizing the significance of the category establishing itself as a distinct vertical alongside others like Layer 1, Layer 2, AI, and DePIN.