2024 was a watershed year for Bitcoin (BTC).
For the first time, the world’s largest cryptocurrency surpassed $100,000 per coin on the back of growing institutional demand and a new pro-crypto administration in the United States.
Looking ahead to 2025, many Wall Street banks, asset managers, and financial experts expect Bitcoin’s price to rise further. Here’s where they predict the BTC price to peak next year.
Bitcoin price predictions for 2025
| Forecaster | Bitcoin 2025 peak price prediction |
| Ernst & Young | $173,000 |
| VanEck | $180,000 |
| Bernstein | $200,000 |
| Standard Chartered | $200,000 |
| Bitwise | $200,000 |
| Tom Lee | $250,000 |
| Robert Kiyosaki | $500,000 |
Demand for Bitcoin surged in early 2024 after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved 11 spot BTC ETFs. One of those ETF issuers, VanEck, believes capital flows into Bitcoin will persist into 2025.
The asset manager recently predicted that Bitcoin will surge to a peak of $180,000 in 2025 due to increased crypto adoption, the potential for a strategic Bitcoin reserve in Washington, and a speculative mania.
However, VanEck warned that the stairway to new highs won’t be smooth.
The asset manager believes Bitcoin will reach its first peak in the first quarter followed by a nasty 30% correction. After a long period of sideways action, Bitcoin will reach its apex for the year in the fourth quarter.
Brokerage firm Bernstein is slightly more optimistic than VanEck, calling for a Bitcoin price peak of $200,000 in 2025. Analysts led by Gautam Chhugani said the price target “now looks not as delusional” after BTC approached $100,000 in November.
“We are entering a stage where we expect intrigue will turn to bears for the Bitcoin bears,” the Bernstein analysts wrote.
Standard Chartered echoes this price target and sees BTC hitting $200,000 by the end of 2025.
The “Trump-ublican sweep means digital assets are finally going to come of age,” said Geoffrey Kendrick, head of research at Standard Chartered. “I look for the entire asset class to 4X by the time of the US mid-terms in late 2026.”
Kendrick’s forecast is based on expectations that the SEC will stop policing crypto with an iron fist once current chair Gary Gensler steps down in January.
Asset manager Bitwise has adopted similar reasoning in calling for a BTC price top of more than $200,000 in 2025. The asset manager believes Bitcoin ETFs will attract more inflows next year than they did in 2024—setting the stage for an explosive rally.
To put that into perspective, the U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs have attracted more than $35 billion in net inflows in 2024. That’s equivalent to more than 500,000 BTC, according to K33 Research.
“U.S. ETFs have absorbed more than 2.5% of the circulating supply since their launch in January,” K33 Research’s Vetle Lunde said.
These targets are by no means the most bullish Bitcoin price predictions for 2025. Fundstrat co-founder and managing partner Tom Lee believes the BTC price will top around $250,000 in 2025 thanks to “friendlier” government regulations in the United States.
Meanwhile, David Kiyosaki, the famed author of Rich Dad, Poor Dad, recently predicted that Bitcoin could reach a high of $500,000 in 2025 as investors seek “real money” alternatives to the U.S. dollar.
“Keep trading fake money [...] for real money and you will get richer,” said Kiyosaki, who was comparing fiat currencies like the dollar to BTC.
Most Bitcoin price predictions are based on an assessment of industry adoption, institutional demand, and government policy. However, Ernst & Young researcher Danny Marques used textbook technical analysis to forecast Bitcoin’s trajectory in 2025.
Based on Bitcoin’s previous cycle patterns and Fibonacci levels, Marques forecast a BTC “base target” of $173,000 by the end of next year. However, the researcher said his model could see Bitcoin peaking as high as $461,000.
While not a precise target, Marques’ analysis suggests Bitcoin’s explosive run will continue well into 2025.
4 things to watch next year
As the 2025 Bitcoin price predictions clearly suggest, there are many reasons to be optimistic heading into next year. However, most of the bullish price targets are largely contingent on the following:
- Pro-crypto Trump administration
- Bitcoin ETF inflows
- Bitcoin as a corporate treasury asset
- Growing crypto adoption
Incoming Trump administration
There’s arguably no greater catalyst for a bullish 2025 than the incoming Trump administration. Since Donald Trump and the Republicans swept the November elections, the Bitcoin price has rallied more than 58%.
Over that period, Bitcoin ETF inflows have surged by nearly $10 billion.
Trump has promised to make the United States the Bitcoin and crypto capital of the world by enacting favorable policies to help the industry grow.
Trump has also elected pro-crypto policymaker Paul Atkins to head the powerful SEC beginning once Gary Gensler steps down in January.
Although a long shot, Trump’s biggest election promise—creating a federal Bitcoin reserve—has the potential to fuel a bigger price rally in 2025.
“We’re gonna do something great with crypto because we don’t want China, or anybody else […] but others are embracing it, and we want to be ahead,” Trump said during a CNBC interview.
When asked about whether the U.S. will establish a Bitcoin strategic reserve where the government buys and holds BTC, Trump said, “Yes, I think so.”
Bitcoin ETF flows
The approval of spot Bitcoin ETFs in January 2024 made it easier for institutional investors to purchase BTC using a traditional investment vehicle.
Over the past year, these funds have been gobbling up more Bitcoin than the network produces, creating what industry analysts have described as a “supply shock.”
According to Farside data, the Bitcoin ETFs were the most successful ETF launch of all time. However, as Bitwise noted, the first year is typically the slowest for ETF launches.
If demand increases in 2025, Bitcoin’s price is likely heading much higher, especially as major wirehouses like Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo begin recommending BTC ETFs to their clients.
Bitcoin as a corporate treasury asset
Corporations currently hold nearly 560,000 BTC, valued at $57.6 billion, on their balance sheets, according to industry data.
By far, the largest single holder is MicroStrategy (MSTR), the business intelligence firm turned Bitcoin bank. MicroStrategy has acquired a staggering 423,650 BTC, which are currently valued at $43.6 billion.
Since adopting Bitcoin as a corporate treasury asset in 2020, MicroStrategy’s BTC buys have only gotten bigger. Recently, the company has been using proceeds from multibillion-dollar bond sales to acquire more BTC.
As MicroStrategy continues to smash-buy Bitcoin and other corporations add BTC to their balance sheets, 2025 could be the most bullish year yet for the digital asset.
As Brian Dixon of Off The Chain Capital recently discussed, new crypto accounting rules approved by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) will go into effect in 2025, making it much easier for corporations to hold Bitcoin on their balance sheets.
“Now, in 2025, it officially goes into effect where these public corporations can actually acquire Bitcoin and market at fair value,” said Dixon.
“Before, if you acquired Bitcoin and it went up in value, you could not mark that on your books above the cost basis, but if it went down in value, you had to mark that against your earnings,” he explained.
Growing crypto adoption
Crypto adoption has been growing steadily over the years, driven by institutional interest, greater use of blockchain technology, and rising ownership of digital assets among ordinary Americans.
According to Security.org, 40% of U.S. adults own crypto as of 2024, up from 30% in 2023. This means America could be home to 93 million crypto holders.
Nearly two-thirds (63%) of crypto holders said they expect to add to their bags over the next year.
Globally, the number of crypto users is forecast to reach 1 billion by 2030, according to a joint study by Boston Consulting Group and Foresight Ventures. A huge swathe of those users will hold Bitcoin.
Crypto ownership usually rises during a bull market as widespread media attention attracts more users to the sector. This trend is expected to intensify in 2025 as Bitcoin reaches its apex price.