Exploring Pantera Capital’s Anticipated Crypto Trends for 2025
Venture capital titan, Pantera Capital, based in California, anticipates Bitcoin-centred finance and Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) to be significant players in driving innovation. Additionally, numerous real-world assets, along with fintech platforms, are expected to widely adopt crypto by 2025.
Real world assets—referred to as RWAs—like Treasury bills, private credit and commodities, observed impressive traction, growing 60% in 2024, amassing $13.7 billion in value. As per Paul Veradittakit, the managing partner at Pantera Capital, RWAs are anticipated to account for 30% of the total value locked on-chain as we head into 2025. This is a remarkable rise from the earlier standing of 15% at the beginning of the year.
“There are specialized companies that manage wallets, minting mechanisms, Sybil sensing, crypto neo-banks, and more, meaning it may finally be possible and feasible to introduce stocks, ETFs, bonds, and other more complex financial products on-chain.”
– Paul Veradittakit
Private credit has been at the forefront, with platforms like Figure adding assets worth $4 billion in the preceding year. Treasury bills have also been impressive draw cards, generating steady yields. Moreover, according to Veradittakit, potential for introducing more complex financial products like stocks and bonds into the on-chain ecosystem exists.
Bitcoin-Finance Gains Momentum
Bitcoin (BTC) has consistently held its place as a layer-1 network, standing its ground against competitors like Ethereum, which delved into decentralizing its architecture via layer-2 solutions to combat scalability concerns. However, the coming phase may hint at a shift, with protocols like Babylon potentially steering 1% of all BTC into Bitcoin-Finance (Bitcoin-Fi).
Veradittakit heralds that Bitcoin-Finance—promoted by Bitcoin-oriented finance protocols which don’t necessitate bridging, like Babylon—is slated to push 1% of Bitcoins by leveraging high returns, increased appetite for more BTC assets, and high Bitcoin prices.
Role of Gateways
Applications like PayPal, Venmo, TON—which is financially backed by Pantera Capital—and WhatsApp are rapidly surfacing as crucial gateway avenues for crypto usage, asserts Veradittakit. The rise in popularity can be attributed to the ease of accessing cryptocurrencies without binding users to specific protocols. For instance, WhatsApp users can now perform money transfers via stablecoins, owing to services like Felix, while Venmo has facilitated crypto purchases through MetaMask.
“Whether intentionally or because of their ability to support third-party apps, every fintech will become a crypto gateway. Fintechs will grow in prevalence and may perhaps rival smaller centralized exchanges in crypto holdings.”
– Paul Veradittakit
Unichain set to Lead L2 Transactions
Counting on the influence exerted by Uniswap in the layer-2 ecosystem, its nigh network, Unichain, could potentially emerge as the leader in terms of transaction volume. Presently, Uniswap accounts for significant degrees of activity on prevalent layer-2s such as Arbitrum and Base, both supported by Pantera Capital. If Unichain manages to bag half of Uniswap’s volume, it could outpace the largest layer-2s to emerge as the leading layer-2 by transaction volume.
Revival of NFTs
Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are beginning to evolve further, moving from the status of collectables to be used more extensively in gaming, artificial intelligence, identity verification, and consumer applications. For instance, Blackbirds’ restaurant rewards application or Sofamon’s web3 bitmojis.
Veradittakit emphasized that NFTs could potentially be used to represent transactions, transfers, ownership, memberships, and even value assets. This enhances monetary growth, and potentially speculative growth—expounding on the immense flexibility offered by NFTs.
Mainnet Launches and Restaking Protocols
Protocols focused on Restaking, like EigenLayer and KaraK, are lined up to launch their mainnets this year, likely boosting the value and use cases of staking across multiple networks. Restaking allows investors to generate returns from additional networks, creating value as these protocols evolve. While recent attention paid to restaking has seen a decline, the industry remains a multi-billion dollar market, noted Veradittakit.
Unleashing web2 Data on Blockchain
A fresh cryptographic approach that enables websites to authenticate and share their data on-chain, without exposing sensitive information is on the horizon. Termed as zkTLS, the method is still in development, offering considerable potential particularly for oracles and data services by transforming information verification and processing across blockchain networks.
“This is a new idea, but we predict that companies will step up to begin building this and integrating it into on-chain services, like verifiable oracles for nonfinancial data or cryptographically secured data oracles.”
– Paul Veradittakit
Expected Crypto-friendly Regulatory Shift
For the first time in many years, the U.S. regulatory landscape seems to favor crypto. The anticipated incoming SEC chair, Paul Atkins, is presently perceived as a pro-crypto advocate, which will likely influence a pro-crypto regulatory shift. Moreover, President-elect Trump has announced plans to establish a legal framework for crypto. Experts speculate that this new environment will reduce lawsuits, clarify crypto regulations, and simplify tax considerations.
At the end of the day, Pantera Capital’s predictions hint at an increasing possibility of crypto becoming more integrated into mainstream finance and technology. As Veradittakit suggests, these trends will only accelerate, making 2025 a pivotal year for crypto.
