Another year has passed and crypto is somehow at a decisive crossroads – again. After surviving a comprehensive regulation crusade in the United States and after weathering the last bit of the last bear market, the digital asset sector appears to be on the rise again. By all accounts, 2025 looks poised to be the best year for crypto ever.
But exactly how the industry chooses to navigate this moment of opportunity is far from certain. Regulatory actions, technical updates, and market trends can all still break in a thousand different ways.
Don’t worry, dear reader. Declutter is here to predict the unpredictable. Here are some key questions that experts say will likely shape the year ahead – and what their answers could mean for you.
First, how much political capital will Donald Trump be willing to spend on crypto?
In November, the president-elect’s victory sent crypto markets soaring. It seems nice clearly that the days of the American government were stubborn offensive the main players in the sector are done with it – and that alone is a huge development.
But will the Trump administration be willing to actively pursue policies that industry experts say are crucial to ensuring crypto’s long-term success?
“The end of hostility will in itself be a blessing,” Kristin Smith, the CEO of the Blockchain Association, a prominent crypto lobby group, told me. Declutter. “But we need more than that.”
Even though Trump has made countless of them promises When it comes to the campaigning industry, such commitments to certain constituencies are routinely lost in the chaos once a president takes office and is swamped by competing concerns — all of which will be pressing.
“There will be a lot of priorities within the Trump administration,” Smith said. “If we don’t have someone there who can execute it, that’s going to be a problem.”
A positive indicator for Smith that digital asset policy could make meaningful progress by 2025 is the fact that the Trump White House, in a historic first, appointed a dedicated AI and crypto czar. Venture capitalist David Sacks accepted the position in early December.
A White House crypto adviser will “make sure things get done” by coordinating the administration’s vision for digital assets across the White House, executive agencies and Congress, Smith said.
That kind of focus could have a huge and immediate impact on the power, reach and influence of crypto.
Take the repeal of SAB 121, a US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) rule that discourages US banks from holding crypto assets in custody. In May, the two parties voted in favor in both chambers of Congress nullify the rule, but President Joe Biden soon after vetoed the effort.
If Congress were merely urged to pass the same bill again, and Trump signed it into law, that one step could herald a whole new chapter for crypto in the United States, Smith claimed.
“It really opens up a whole new market,” she says.
Although Bitcoin and Ethereum Spotting ETFs currently trading on Wall Street, a plethora of yellow tape and crypto-related concerns have kept the majority of US investors and companies on the sidelines.
By allowing mainstream banks to own crypto themselves – and implement a foundation market structure law that formally legalizes the sector — would free up untold amounts of still-nauseating TradFi capital for the digital asset industry, Smith said. Such basic steps would “reassure a broader group of investors and market participants that crypto is a safe place to be, that they can come invest here, and that developers can build new businesses here.”
The difference between TradFi dipping its toes into crypto and diving in headfirst would be seismic. The industry might be able to taste some of that difference by 2025.
Edited by Andrew Hayward
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