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A strong desire for Bitcoin among businesses was a prevalent theme in 2024 — however, there appeared to be less interest from everyday consumers.
Cryptonews has gathered a panel of experts to examine whether we will witness increased adoption in 2025 — and the obstacles that hinder BTC from becoming a truly mainstream asset class.
According to Alice Liu, head of research at CoinMarketCap, there are indications that retail investors from previous bull markets are beginning to re-engage.
“Dino/OG class coins have gained remarkable momentum, indicating a retail resurgence. We expect this trend to carry on into the next year.”
Michael Terpin, creator of the Bitcoin Supercycle, mentions that consumers are starting to awaken from a “post-FTX slumber” — alluding to the severe bear market that commenced with the collapse of this exchange in late 2022.
“XRP, Dogecoin, IOTA, and other ‘dino-coins’ have outperformed the broader market. Meme coins are the preferred choice of new investors, and there have been some significant surges, such as the Pudgy Penguin airdrop PENGU and Fartcoin, but it remains to be seen which of them will endure. Dogecoin, Shiba Inu, and newer ‘blue chip’ memecoins like Dogwifhat and Brett are expected to continue rising in 2025, along with newer PolitiFi tokens like Patriot.”
Neil Bergquist, CEO and co-founder of Coinme, concurs that retail investor engagement will increase over the next year.
“In a study we recently conducted with CryptoLiteracy.org, crypto awareness rose from 11% in 2022 to 31.8% in 2024. Similarly, we have observed a significant decline over the past two years in the number of individuals who only recognize crypto by name, dropping from 41.3% in 2022 to 9.2% in 2024. This data indicates that crypto awareness is growing annually among retail investors.”
However, Bergquist informed Cryptonews that challenges persist — as “knowledge gaps” remain in more advanced topics such as DeFi, staking, and self-custody.
“Crypto literacy is linked to crypto ownership. The industry must continue to make concerted efforts to bridge these knowledge gaps through targeted educational programs and straightforward value-added use cases, like crypto payments, that promote adoption.”
Ruslan Lienkha, chief of markets at YouHodler, noted that a significant indicator of retail adoption can be found in the altcoin markets, as smaller cryptocurrencies and low-liquidity meme coins are typically favored by consumers rather than institutions.
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“This trend is likely to continue in 2025, with retail enthusiasm continuing to fuel speculative assets and niche tokens.”
Retail adoption may also occur in unexpected ways — and quite indirectly.
In its recent 2025 predictions, Bitwise stated:
“This trend is likely to continue in 2025, with retail enthusiasm continuing to fuel speculative assets and niche tokens.”
Many individuals investing for their financial futures instead turn to exchange-traded funds that track major indices such as the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100.
Given that crypto-focused companies like Coinbase and MicroStrategy have experienced significant increases in their share prices during the current bull market, these stocks may eventually grow large enough to be included in these ETFs.
“Consider this: $10 trillion in assets currently track the S&P 500, and another $6 trillion is ‘benchmarked’ to the index. If Coinbase enters the index, we anticipate funds will need to purchase around $15 billion of the stock. If the funds benchmarked to the index add Coinbase, that’s an additional $9 billion of buying.”
MicroStrategy has already made its way into the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100, with the company’s stock significantly outperforming Bitcoin throughout 2024.
MSTR stock and BTC two-year price comparison. Source: Saxo
The notable influx of retail investors may also raise questions about when the bull market will come to a sudden stop.
As VanEck recently pointed out, mainstream interest is often “a reliable indicator of speculative mania near the peak” — particularly when non-crypto savvy investors start seeking advice on dubious projects.
The post Will Crypto Adoption Increase in 2025? appeared first on Cryptonews.
