The Apollo Crypto team thought it would be interesting to gather the team’s individual predictions and present them together in one article as we move forward into 2025. This article includes the personal views of much of our team spanning from our investment team to the business development team as a glimpse into the way we are viewing crypto assets in 2025.

Henrik (Chief Investment Officer):

 

Sixteen years after Bitcoin’s launch, we continue to witness the proliferation of new blockchain networks. This development is affirming the reality of the multi-chain future we’ve anticipated. However, a world with numerous chains leads to fragmentation of liquidity, community, and user confusion. Questions like “How do I onboard?”, “Where are my tokens?”, “How do I bridge?”, and “Where is the liquidity?” become prevalent.

My prediction for 2025 is that we will see applications that simplify these complexities for end users. On the technology front, this will be facilitated by innovations such as chain signatures, intent-based networks, AI agents, and cross-chain messaging protocols. If we can address these challenges effectively, getting millions of new users onchain will become significantly easier.

 

Pratik (Head of Research & Portfolio Manager):

From federal to state strategic reserves being discussed, Bitcoin will continue to dominate mindshare and will increasingly be impossible to ignore. Innovative products such as Bitcoin backed housing loans are already taking shape and 2025 will be the year where Bitcoin will be in almost all portfolios via ETFs, options or proxy equities like MicroStrategy.

DeFi has a resurgence and is finally used in traditional finance, either via stable coins or via on-chain borrowing/lending protocols. Traditional finance companies are slow to start but will soon see the benefits of on-chain finance like real-time settlement and atomic swaps.

Crypto is the native currency of the internet, not cash behind closed databases at banks. As AI proliferates and we enter into an agentic era we will see crypto being used in various AI verticals such as bot-to-bot payments. 

 

Wan (Investment Analyst):

I expect we will see a Bitcoin reserve in some capacity in 2025. We currently have multiple US states looking at creating reserves at the state level and an active crypto working group with strong advocates such as senator Cynthia Lummis that are bound to a 6 month timeframe, as such I don’t think it is far fetched to believe this will eventuate into a stockpile for digital assets in some sense. 

As a result I think institutions will become increasingly more comfortable with alternative crypto assets with Ethereum leading the charge. I believe this as Ethereum is still the dominant platform for DeFi applications and institutional level activity. Additionally it is the only other crypto asset alongside Bitcoin to achieve the status of commodity through its successful ETF applications thus far.

From a technological perspective I believe 2025 will be a year that will see multiple more scaling solutions come to market with various alternative/optimised virtual machines being used in order to reach maximum scale for many differentiated use cases. Much like we have seen the proliferation of L2s as a way for protocols on Ethereum to scale & capture further value I believe we will continue to see this play out across the broader smart contract platform landscape through many chains coming to market.

Finally I think we will see stablecoin infrastructure continue in its growth and we will see much wider adoption of stablecoins as a result of crypto friendly regulation and an appetite for firms to want to own the entire stack of value. This will lead to increased acceptance of stablecoins as payment for physical goods.

 

Brad (Investment Partner) : 

The trend of Bitcoin Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) gaining traction will continue in 2025, attracting billions more in investments from both retail and institutional investors. Following the precedent set in 2024, more companies are anticipated to diversify their balance sheets by including Bitcoin, following the lead of innovators who view it as a strategic asset for long-term growth and diversification. Additionally, sovereign states, particularly those looking to expand their financial sovereignty or hedge against traditional economic systems, are likely to increase their Bitcoin reserves. This could manifest in the form of strategic national reserves or as part of sovereign wealth funds, indicating a broader acceptance of crypto assets in national economic strategies.

Ethereum has struggled to find a suitable narrative over the last year as it has been experiencing fragmentation and a lack of a clear north star. As a result there has been turbulence in its price and its leadership. Despite this, over the last year Ethereum has fundamentally scaled its throughput/TPS significantly via its rollup-centric scaling roadmap while maintaining its status as the dominant smart contract platform and home of DeFi. As such I believe Ethereum will experience a significant recovery towards the latter half of 2025.

DeFi in 2025 will undergo a transformation, moving beyond its niche appeal to more mainstream applications through the adoption of Real-World Assets (RWAs). By tokenizing traditional assets like real estate, commodities and existing funds. DeFi platforms will bridge the gap between crypto and traditional finance, enhancing liquidity and providing new investment opportunities to investors globally. Simultaneously, the continued integration of stablecoins with traditional institutions and banks could be a significant force in driving DeFi adoption. By the end of 2025, the DeFi sector might look markedly different, with a blend of traditional financial practices and decentralised approaches. 

Bitcoin’s dominance in the crypto space is also expected to grow in 2025 as traditional finance (TradFi) continues to innovate and integrate Bitcoin into its operations. One notable example is the exploration of Bitcoin in real estate as collateral for loans.

 

Matt (Investment Partner): 

 

I am expecting a medium term top in the bitcoin price in the USD $135-172K zone with alts outperforming. Evidently the launch of $TRUMP has reignited retail interest in the space and with FTX payouts flowing back into the market from Feb, I expect select alts to outperform, not the entire “alt market” as has been seen in previous cycles.

I don’t believe that the 60%+ drawdown on BTC that many might look for based on historic cyclical behaviour will eventuate, due to significant passive daily inflows via listed and regulated products. Beyond my medium term BTC targets, I see potential for a second blow-off leg into 2026 which will take BTC above the USD$200K mark but I will want to see how the macro/regulatory front develops on that one.

Quinn (Analyst): 

 

2025 will be the year of Solana dominance and among the top performing alt-coins will be a select few Solana based DeFi protocols as Solana’s market share continues to grow beyond memecoin activity. I strongly believe that we will continue to see innovation in the Solana ecosystem as a result of the sheer amount of capital and attention brought to the Solana ecosystem from memecoin activity. Memecoin activity will undoubtedly continue as the ‘low hanging fruit’ however this activity will also increasingly incentivize/attract top talent to continue building on Solana as long as interest remains.

Additionally I believe 2025 will be the biggest year for nominal stablecoin growth yet. Stablecoins will continue to proliferate deeply in digital markets as the preferred payment device for AI due to their quality of being natively digital and not having to submit AI agents to the complex and often prohibitive KYC processes associated with traditional financial systems (which is currently impossible to complete without setting up a legal entity for the AI agent and removing AI autonomy). I believe we will see the proliferation of AI-2-AI markets as well as AI-2-human and human-2-AI markets dominated almost entirely by stablecoin payments as the proliferation of AI agents continues.