Crypto Predictions for 2025: Bitcoin & Ethereum Outlook

2025 has been a marvelous year for the crypto sector as the rising prices send the total cryptocurrency market capitalization past the $4 trillion mark for the first time.

The first half of this year was a wild one with asset valuation increasing strongly but declining just as swiftly. Now, it is time to see what the rest of the year has in store for the industry. Today, we will take a look at what some of the most prominent voices in crypto space think price is going to do, with a focus on the majors: Bitcoin (BTC -0.58%) and Ether (ETH +3.63%).

With a $2.3 trillion market cap, Bitcoin is the world’s largest cryptocurrency that hit an all-time high (ATH) at almost $123,000 on July 14. As of writing, BTC is trading around $116,500, up 23% YTD and down 5.1% from the peak.

Bitcoin is currently a favorite among institutions, which have deployed tens of billions of dollars in Spot Bitcoin ETFs and now collectively hold $150.97 bln in assets.

Mainstream corporations like Strategy (MSTR -1.71%), Block Inc. (SQ +0.57%), Tesla (TSLA +2.3%), and GameStop (GME -1.68%) are also adding BTC to their balance sheet. In fact, more than 160 publicly-traded companies have adopted Bitcoin as a treasury asset.

What makes Bitcoin attractive is its digital gold narrative. With a fixed supply of 21 million, there is no inflation risk here, as is the case with fiat currencies, making BTC a highly appealing store of value. 

As a result, BTC is often compared to gold as a hedge against currency devaluation and macroeconomic uncertainty.

Then there’s Bitcoin’s long, successful history of being a secure and resilient platform. The Bitcoin blockchain has the largest number of holders and miners supporting the infrastructure. Meanwhile, BTC is the most widely traded crypto asset globally and is listed on almost every exchange. Its decentralised network also makes it highly resistant to censorship and government control.

While Bitcoin continues to dominate crypto, Ether comes second with a market cap of $470 billion. Unlike BTC, Ethereum is yet to make a new high, still 20% off its 2021 peak of $4,880.

The altcoin, however, has started to finally gain traction and make a recovery. As of writing, ETH is trading just under $4,000, up over 50% in the past 30 days and 16% YTD.

These gains come as Spot Ether ETFs began to capture decent inflows, bringing their total assets to $21.8 billion. Also, taking inspiration from Strategy, public companies are now raising billions of dollars to accumulate Ether.

This strategy has also gained the support of co-founder Vitalik Buterin, who said that giving people more ways to access the asset is “good and valuable” but cautioned that if treasuries become overleveraged, that could be disastrous for Ether.

Now, Ethereum is a programmable money, which pioneered smart contracts that power everything from decentralized applications, DAOs, DeFi, and tokenization, to NFTs. Unlike Bitcoin, the Ethereum network is constantly updated to make it faster, cheaper, and scalable. 
So, while BTC is the most secure, decentralized store of value in today’s digital age, ETH is the foundation of the decentralized internet and finance.

Now, let’s see what experts have to say about all that’s in store for Bitcoin and Ether prices this year.

Expert Price Predictions for Bitcoin & Ethereum

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Cathie Wood (ARK Invest)

Ark Invest’s Cathie Wood is one of the biggest Bitcoin bulls in the industry, and she has made some bold calls for the BTC price. Her calls, however, are long-term focused. She has predicted that Bitcoin will hit an eye-popping $2.4 million per BTC by 2030. 

This price tag from the current level means an upside of 1,960% over the next five years.

The thesis behind this aggressive target is that Bitcoin will make up 6.5% of investment portfolios by the end of this decade. The currently suggested allocation among institutions is 2% with many risk-averse investors comfortable with even less than 1% allocation to Bitcoin. 

This is an updated Bitcoin prediction from Wood’s $1.5 million target, reported by Ark Invest’s “Big Ideas 2025” in January. So what changed her views? Well, the Bitcoin supply. She estimated that 40% of the BTC supply is currently “vaulted,” taken off exchanges and moved to long-term storage.

According to the investment management firm, more investors now see Bitcoin as “digital gold”. Moreover, the crypto asset is being increasingly embraced as a safe haven asset in emerging markets dealing with high inflation and currency devaluation.

In the light of recent market developments, including the remarkable success of Bitcoin ETFs, the growing trend of institutional investment and corporate treasury holdings, Bitcoin’s decreasing volatility and maturation, and the evolving regulatory landscape, even the company’s bear-case scenario expects Bitcoin to hit $300,000 in 2030.

While Wood hasn’t made a specific forecast, her stance on the BTC price in 2025 remains very bullish.

Mike Novogratz (Galaxy Digital)

Mike Novogratz, the CEO and founder of digital asset management company Galaxy Digital, has made several lofty price predictions for BTC over time. For some time now, though, his target has been $150,000 per BTC.

In July this year, during a CNBC interview, Novogratz reiterated his “decent” $150k target as Bitcoin enters a period of price discovery, driven by strong market momentum, government spending, and favorable macro conditions. He has emphasized Bitcoin’s role as a hedge against money printing.

But of course, it won’t be one straight line to that: there will be resistance along the way. “It’s not a one-directional trade,” he said, noting that sellers come in and slow things down.

A shift in interest rate expectations, that they aren’t needed due to the strong US economy, could also change the trajectory. But until then, as long as the narratives hold, “we’re destined to go higher.”

However, this week, during Galaxy Digital’s earnings call, Novogratz called out a top on “treasury company issuance,” adding that “the question now is which of the existing companies become monsters.”

$150k per BTC is actually Novogratz’s short-term forecast, and he has also made much larger long-term possibilities, which puts Bitcoin’s value at $1 million, if BTC replaced gold due to weakening USD and increased institutional adoption. “Bitcoin has become a macro asset,” he said. “It’s just becoming institutionalized.” 

Much like Novogratz, the institutional-focused firm’s head of research, Alex Thorn, also predicted Bitcoin to surpass $150,000 in the first half of this year and then “test or best” the $185,000 level before the year ends.

“A combination of institutional, corporate, and nation-state adoption will propel bitcoin to new heights in 2025,” wrote Thorn in a note in Dec. “Throughout its existence, bitcoin has appreciated faster than all other asset classes, particularly the S&P 500 and gold, and that trend will continue in 2025,” he added.

Now, for ETH, Novogratz expects it to break above $4,000, driven by “really powerful” narrative, “really short” market, and Ether treasury companies emerging.

When it comes to Novogratz’s track record, he has made bullish calls that haven’t always landed. For instance, he predicted back in 2021 that the BTC price would be worth $500K in 2024. During the last bear market, he also admitted to being “darn wrong” about the “magnitude of the leverage in the system.”

Tom Lee (Fundstrat)

As a serial predictor, Fundstrat’s Tom Lee has made several calls as to where BTC or ETH would be in the coming years; however, more often than not, they have been the wrong ones.

During the bear market of 2018, Lee called for Bitcoin to make a stellar recovery a number of times, only to end up wrong. The same was for 2020 and then 2021. While the targets were eventually hit by the asset, it was not on time.

Now, Lee’s targets for this year include $250,000 per BTC by year-end, citing potential government Bitcoin accumulation as a key catalyst.

For ETH, his target is anywhere between $9K and $15K. When it comes to Ether, these numbers wouldn’t be that wild, as they only represent an 80% and 200% jump from the previous ATH. But with ETH struggling this cycle, it’s to be seen just how high it can really go.

According to Lee, factors like stronger institutional flows, continued ETF and treasury demand, macro tailwinds, and structural adoption will support the majors’ continued uptrend.

Interestingly, just this week, he said that ETH may even flip Bitcoin’s market cap and take its number one position due to Ethereum’s central role in blockchain infrastructure and becoming the legally compliant, yield-generating asset for traditional finance.

Calling this Ethereum’s “2017 Bitcoin moment”, Lee is taking advantage of the momentum by accumulating ETH with the goal of owning 5% of the total Ether supply, in a move similar to Strategy’s BTC adoption but at a 12x faster rate. 

His new firm, Bitmine Immersion Techs (BMNR +24.59%) has already acquired 833,000 ETH (worth $3 billion) in less than a month, becoming the world’s largest ETH Treasury.

Tim Draper (Venture Capitalist)

Much like Lee, the prominent venture capital (VC) investor, Tim Draper, is expecting Bitcoin to hit $250,000 by the end of this year. This isn’t his new target, though. Draper has repeated $250K as a near-term target multiple times, sometimes pushing deadlines.

The call for this target was first made in 2018 when Draper predicted that BTC would skyrocket to this figure in 2022. Bitcoin not complying with this didn’t deter him, though, as he continued to reiterate that the target will be hit.

The billionaire investor argues that, amidst fiat weakness, Bitcoin will gain dominance as a monetary base over time. 

A couple of months ago, he said on X (previously Twitter) that the dollar will go “extinct,” become worthless, and “people will rush to spend it as it loses value.” In that scenario, people will turn to the safety of Bitcoin, he said.

Draper actually expects Bitcoin to be adopted as a medium of exchange and replace the dollar as the world’s reserve currency within a decade, which, according to him, will make BTC “worth infinity against the dollar.”

Additionally, the crypto-friendly regulatory frameworks and banks adding BTC to their offerings will help Bitcoin’s ascent, he believes. Compared to altcoins and stocks, Bitcoin, he stated, is an “extremely low risk” that people believe in. It is also going mainstream, “earning the title of a store of value.”

While Draper has hits and misses with his predictions, his call back in 2014 that the crypto king would reach a price of $10,000 within three years, which became a reality, made him popular in the crypto space. And since then $250,000 remains his target for BTC.

Michael Saylor (Strategy)

There is no bigger bull in crypto than Strategy’s Michael Saylor. But he not only talks a big game but backs it all up with his actions, which have made Strategy the largest Bitcoin holder. 

With its 628,791 BTC holdings worth over $73 billion, Strategy now owns 2.99% of Bitcoin’s total 21 million supply. Under Saylor’s guidance, the company has been buying Bitcoin constantly through bull and bear markets alike.

Saylor has made several predictions about the Bitcoin price. He called for “six figures by the time 2025 arrives,” which was realized before that as Bitcoin surpassed $100,000 in Dec. 2024. He has also predicted that BTC “will never dip below $60K again”, which we won’t get to know until the next bear market, unless it’s a “supercycle.”

In the long term, he envisions $1 million per BTC someday. The target was raised to $13 million by 2045 at the Bitcoin 2024 conference in Nashville last year. Recently, at the BTC Prague 2025 event in June, he again raised it to $21 million by 2046.

“Twenty one million coins at a $21 million price in 21 years,” and that would be a “very special time in the network,” said Saylor. 

More than the accuracy of his price predictions, ultra-bullish Saylor’s conviction in Bitcoin, which remains consistent, is what makes him stand out. His bull thesis depends on Bitcoin being the ultimate inflation hedge, a treasury asset, and a foundational store-of-value.

Bernstein

The global asset management firm released a research note this year in which it predicted the Bitcoin price to top around $200,000 this year, an increase from the prior $150K. With Bitcoin having already hit $100k, this price target “now looks not as delusional,” said analysts led by Gautam Chhugani.

In March last year as well, the firm had raised its year-end forecast to $90k on the back of a bull cycle, strong ETF inflows, and aggressive miner capacity expansion. The market attained that and continued even higher. 

In an even longer timeframe, Bernstein sees the digital asset reaching $500,000 in the next four years and exceeding $1 million by 2033, driven by scarcity and ongoing institutional adoption trends.

For Ethereum, the analysts predict that it will become the next “institutional darling”, driven by ETH’s utility as a payment and collateral asset. Its limited supply will also help the price, with 28% of Ether staked, 7.8% locked in smart contracts, and 3% absorbed by the ETFs.

Just last month, analysts at Bernstein made another call: they expect the crypto bull market to be a “long and exhausting” one. Instead of retail chasing higher prices, this time institutional adoption could extend it into 2026, they said.

Bitwise

In its end-of-year note in 2023, the institutional crypto investment firm, Bitwise, predicted that “Bitcoin will trade above $80,000, setting a new all-time high.” As we all know, BTC jumped past $100k.

Now, for this year, the firm sees BTC going above $200,000 and surpassing gold’s market cap in the next few years. In the case of Ether, Bitwise expects it to make a new ATH as well at $7,000, fueled by more spot Ether ETF flows, growing activity on layer 2s,  and “massive growth in stablecoins and tokenized projects.”

Standard Chartered

The investment banking firm reiterated its $200,000 target for Bitcoin, expecting huge inflows into Bitcoin spot ETFs. Drawing parallels to precious metal, it noted that much like gold’s price surged 4x after its first ETF launch, Bitcoin’s will do too.

According to the bank’s global head of digital assets research, Geoffrey Kendrick, BTC could see its biggest dollar rally ever in the second half of 2025 against the backdrop of a friendlier policy and corporate treasuries and spot ETFs buying more than 245,000 BTC that they gobbled up in the second quarter.

All this corporate buying, according to Standard Chartered’s expert, will kill the pattern seen in previous cycles, where Bitcoin peaked between 500 and 550 days after the halving. As a result, the post-halving 18-month slump would not be repeated. 

Rate cuts and sovereign buying are pointed out as other factors that will bolster BTC prices this year.

VanEck

The ETF manager was right on point when he predicted that Bitcoin would make a new ATH in 2024. No price target was given by the firm, though.

This time, however, there is a target, and that’s $180,000. As the firm predicted, the bull market will reach a “medium-term peak” in the first quarter, followed by new highs by the year’s end. 

Ether, meanwhile, may exceed $6,000. The report also forecasts that it will generate $1 billion in fees, fueled by the adoption of L2s and use cases like tokenized assets.

Final Thoughts 

2025 is a major year for the entire crypto industry, having already made record highs and seen unprecedented institutional flows.

This is the year when Bitcoin, in particular, has shattered several milestones. Yet, as these predictions show, sentiment continues to be overwhelmingly bullish. For BTC, the target is in the range of $150k to $200k. For ETH, which so far has been a disappointment this cycle but is finally going up, is also expected to make new highs between $5k and $10k. 

So, a lot of green seems to be in crypto assets’ future as the industry gains institutional legitimacy, corporate and national-level adoption, and policies that support innovation!

Click here for a list of the top ten most influential individuals in the crypto space.

This article was produced using analysis of public forecasts and curated expert commentary from reputable sources. It does not constitute investment advice.