Major crypto prices have risen over the past 24 hours as the market enters a widely expected bull year, with Bitcoin (BTC) rising above $95,000 to shake off last week’s losses.
CoinDesk analysis on Tuesday pointed to unusually high trading volumes for XRP stemming from South Korean exchanges, which has historically been a harbinger of price volatility with a bias to the upside.
XRP rose 11% to lead growth among major currencies as of Thursday, Led by $1.3 billion of trading volumes on the Korea-focused exchange UpBit.
Among other major coins, Cardano’s ADA, Solana’s SOL, and Chainlink’s Link added up to 8%. Ethereum (ETH) and BNB Chain tokens rose 3%, while memecoins Dogecoin (DOGE) and Shiba Inu (SHIB) rose 5%.
CoinDesk 20 (CD20) Broad, a liquid index that tracks the largest tokens by market capitalization, minus stablecoins, rose 5.8%.
The expectation of a more crypto-friendly administration under incoming US President Donald Trump, who made campaign promises of crypto-friendly policies and a strategic Bitcoin reserve, is largely fueling optimism for 2025.
Historically, the Bitcoin halving event in 2024 has led to an uptrend the following year due to a reduced supply of new tokens entering the market. The broader cryptocurrency market also tends to follow a four-year cycle influenced by the halving – with meme currencies, AI and real assets expected to be market leaders.
However, predictions are not limited to just cycles. Companies like Galactic research predicted Institutional, corporate and state adoption is widespread in Bitcoin investments, with at least five Nasdaq 100 companies and five nation states expected to adopt the asset.
The company is targeting $185,000 for Bitcoin and $5,500 for Ethereum (ETH) this year.
Singapore-based QCP Capital echoes this sentiment: “For 2025, while optimism surrounds crypto-friendly regulations following Trump’s inauguration, we believe a major catalyst may come in January as institutions adjust their asset allocation.”
“With BTC now widely adopted by a wide range of institutions, allocations are likely to increase, strengthening Bitcoin’s dominance, stabilizing spot movements, and shifting volatility dynamics closer to stocks,” the company said in a broadcast on Telegram on Tuesday. “Expect stronger demand on the downside to hedge and more selling of covered calls on the upside.”
Some say that Bitcoin becoming a mainstream asset could reduce its notorious volatility, leading to more adoption among institutional companies.
“The impact of the trend on cryptocurrencies is most clearly demonstrated by BTC’s high correlation with the SPX, as it remains the most highly correlated asset towards the end of 2024,” Augustin Fan, head of insights at SOFA, told CoinDesk in a message on Telegram. “Another sign that BTC is moving towards being a mainstream asset class is lower realized volatility, which will ultimately add more diversification benefits and alpha to a traditional 60/40 portfolio.”
“Volatility should continue to decline as the asset class matures, as our long-term view is that cryptocurrencies will be no different,” Fan added.
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