Major cryptocurrencies rose over the past 24 hours as the market entered a widely expected bull year, with bitcoin (BTC) inching above $95,000 to recover from last week’s losses.
A CoinDesk analysis on Tuesday noted unusually high trading volumes for XRP coming from South Korean exchanges, which have historically acted as a harbinger of price volatility with a bullish bias.
XRP surged 11% to lead growth among major companies through Thursday, led by trading volumes worth $1.3 billion on Korea-focused exchange UpBit.
Among other large companies, Cardano’s ADA, Solana’s SOL and Chainlink’s LINK added up to 8%. BNB Chain’s Ether (ETH) and BNB rose 3%, while memecoins dogecoin (DOGE) and shiba inu (SHIB) added 5%.
The CoinDesk 20 (CD20), a liquid index that tracks the largest tokens by market capitalization, minus stablecoins, rose 5.8%.
Anticipation of a more cryptocurrency-friendly administration under incoming US President Donald Trump, who has made campaign promises about cryptocurrency-friendly policies and a strategic bitcoin reserve, is largely fueling optimism for 2025.
Historically, the Bitcoin halving event in 2024 led to an uptrend the following year due to the reduced supply of new tokens entering the market. The broader crypto market also tends to follow a four-year cycle influenced by halvings, with memecoins, artificial intelligence, and real-world assets expected to lead the market.
However, predictions are not limited to mere cycles. Firms like Galaxy Research predict large-scale institutional, corporate, and nation-state adoption in bitcoin investments, with at least five Nasdaq-100 companies and five nation-states expected to adopt the asset.
The company is targeting a level of $185,000 for bitcoin and $5,500 for ether (ETH) this year.
Singapore-based QCP Capital echoes that sentiment: “By 2025, while optimism surrounds cryptocurrency-friendly regulations following Trump’s inauguration, we believe the key catalyst may come in January, when institutions readjust asset allocations.”
“With BTC now widely adopted by a broad spectrum of institutions, allocations are likely to increase, strengthening Bitcoin’s dominance, stabilizing spot movements and bringing volatility dynamics closer to equities,” the firm said in a Telegram broadcast. on Tuesday. “Expect more demand for short puts to cover and more selling of covered calls on the top.”
Some say that Bitcoin becoming a mainstream asset may further reduce its infamous volatility, leading to even greater adoption among institutional companies.
“The mainstream effect on cryptocurrencies is most evident through BTC’s high correlation with the SPX, which remains the most correlated asset at the end of 2024,” SOFA Chief Insights Officer Augustine Fan told CoinDesk. in a Telegram message. “Another sign that BTC is headed to become a mainstream asset class is its decreasing observed volatility, which would eventually add more diversification and alpha benefits to the traditional 60/40 portfolio.”
“Volatility should continue to decline as an asset class matures, as our long-held view is that cryptocurrencies would be no different,” Fan added.
