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Enjoy a summary of top 2025 Predictions for the crypto market as well as a round of of December deals & hackathons.

Gm!

Please enjoy the December Deal Flow Digest, a monthly newsletter recapping recent Crypto / web3 funding rounds.

We’re sending this early this month, wishing everyone a happy holidays and hopefully some well-deserved touching of grass.

Be sure to check out the Airtable below with ALL the deals, and the recent hackathon/demo day results (in the links).

Predictions for 2025 (so far)

It’s 22-Dec and not quite the end of the year but the 2025 Predictions are starting to roll in. Follow the links to see the full predictions we’ve seen thus far:

Nobody has a crystal ball, but it’s always fun to read through these.

Cozy up and read through some big trends we’re thinking will happen in 2025. Don’t want to read through all of them? Here are some of the trends we saw across the predictions:

Bitcoin

BTC Price Growth: Bitcoin price predictions for 2025 range from $175K to $350K, driven by supply cuts, ETF approvals, and institutional inflows.
Bitcoin as a Reserve Asset: The U.S. may establish a national Bitcoin reserve, a move that could trigger other nations to follow suit.
Bitcoin Layer-2s: Bitcoin Layer-2 solutions are expected to see rapid growth, with TVL (Total Value Locked) projected to hit 100K BTC, following 2024’s 600% surge to 30K BTC.
Institutional Adoption: The rise of spot Bitcoin ETFs and broader TradFi adoption will bring more institutional investors into the Bitcoin market.

Stablecoin Growth & Payments Expansion

Stablecoin Adoption in Payments: Stablecoins are poised to revolutionize payments, with daily settlement volumes predicted to hit $300B, representing about 5% of DTCC’s daily settlement volume.
Market Cap Growth: The total market cap of stablecoins is expected to rise to $300B to $400B as adoption grows in global trade, remittances, and integration with payment networks.
Enterprise Adoption: More enterprises will adopt stablecoins for payments to reduce costs and improve settlement speeds.
USD Dominance: Stablecoins will increase U.S. dollar dominance as 99% of USD-backed stablecoin assets bolster USD’s global presence.

AI and Crypto Integration

AI Wallets & Autonomous Agents: AI agents will manage wallets, execute transactions, and drive on-chain activity, with agent-driven transactions projected to make up 10%+ of on-chain transactions.
Tokenized AI Agents: AI-driven tokens, including AI memecoins, will become a major trend, with the Crypto x AI market cap expected to grow from $45B to $250B. Memecoins launched by AI agents will drive speculative frenzies, with AI meme tokens emerging as the new speculative asset class.
AI in DApps: Autonomous AI agents will manage DeFi protocols, social media, and gaming applications. To counter AI bots, there will be growth in mechanisms that prove human-ness (Proof of Personhood).
Generative AI Markets: AI agents will create and monetize content in decentralized environments, such as games, social media, and generative art.

Crypto Adoption & UX Improvements

User-First Design: Crypto apps will focus on mainstream adoption with "user-first" designs, hiding complexity (like payment rails) to make crypto easier for everyday users.
Consumer DApps: Projects like Phantom and Telegram will onboard new users into crypto via consumer apps, gaming, and easy-to-use interfaces.

Tokenization of Real-World Assets (RWAs)

Tokenized Securities on Public Blockchains: Tokenized securities are expected to reach a total market cap of $50B+, with open-source blockchain adoption driven by efforts to bridge permissioned and public chains.
RWAs Across Multiple Assets: Tokenization will extend beyond securities, encompassing real estate, art, and other real-world assets, making them more liquid and accessible.
Impact on DeFi: Tokenized RWAs will fuel liquidity growth in DeFi, with significant demand for asset-backed tokens that generate stable yield.

Screenshot 2024-12-16 at 2.45.13 PM — From Coinbase

DeFi Resurgence & Expansion

DeFi Revenue Models: DeFi protocols will activate revenue models, allowing governance tokens to accrue real value, leading to a “DeFi Renaissance.” With the possible exit of SEC Chairman Gary Gensler, regulatory clarity is expected to open the floodgates for institutional investment in DeFi.
Liquidity & DEX Growth: DEX trading volume is forecast to reach $4T, with $200B in TVL driven by tokenized assets and AI-driven consumer dApps. AI-Enhanced DeFi: Autonomous AI agents are expected to operate DeFi protocols, enabling new types of governance, automation, and liquidity provisioning.

Solana & Ethereum Growth

Additional ETF Products. Looking ahead, the industry is focused on issuers potentially expanding the set of exchange-traded products to include additional tokens like XRP, SOL, LTC, and HBAR.
Solana Price Predictions: Solana’s price is projected to hit between $500 and $1,000, driven by its growing role in NFTs, gaming, and scalable DeFi.
Ethereum Price Predictions: Ethereum's price is projected to hit $6K to $7K, with growth fueled by increased usage in DeFi, Layer-2s, and tokenized assets.
Ethereum Fees from Blob Space: $1B in Ethereum blob space fees is expected to be generated from rollup adoption and high-fee use cases like tokenized assets.

Screenshot 2024-12-16 at 2.44.58 PM — From Coinbase

Regulatory Clarity & Policy Shifts

Pro-Crypto U.S. Policies: U.S. regulatory sentiment is expected to shift positively following the potential exit of Gary Gensler and policy changes under a pro-crypto administration.
Global Policy Competition: As the U.S. takes the lead on pro-crypto policy, other nations will be forced to adapt to stay competitive in global finance.

Screenshot 2024-12-16 at 11.27.45 PM — From Coinbase

Top 10 Crypto Funding Rounds

Public | CeFi | Extended Series D | $135.00M | 2024-12-01

Public announced new financing totaling $135 million, including $105 million in equity financing and $30 million in debt. Public is an investing platform that makes building a multi-asset portfolio fast, frictionless, and secure.

FO-X(Hangfeng International) | Web3 | Angel | $100.00M | 2024-12-11

Hangfeng International has raised $100 million. The funding will mainly fuel FO-X (fo.com), a Web3 ecosystem anchored by FoChat—a platform designed to democratize Web3 adoption and empower everyday investors.

BVNK | CeFi | Series B | $50.00M | 2024-12-16

BVNK has raised USD50 million in Series B funding to continue accelerating global money movement using stablecoins. They unify banks and blockchains in a single platform, so innovators can launch new payments products quickly.

Imagen Network | DeFi | $32.00M | 2024-12-04

Imagen Network has successfully raised $32 million in funding to establish itself as a pioneer in decentralized social networking powered by artificial intelligence. The funding will accelerate the development of Imagen Network's ecosystem, anchored by the IMAGE token.

Lens Protocol | Web3 | Strategic | $31.00M | 2024-12-17

Lens has closed a $31 million strategic round led by Faction. Lens is an open-source social graph that allows developers to launch Web3-ready social media platforms and profiles.

Klickl | CeFi | Series A | $25.00M | 2024-12-09

Klickl, a UAE-headquartered leader in Web3 banking services, has successfully closed its oversubscribed $25 million Series A funding round. They facilitate entry into Web3 through an open finance platform providing banking, digital payments, and crypto trading.

COSIMO | Web3 | $25.00M | 2024-12-09

COSIMO, a digital asset holding company founded in 2014, is raising $25 million in a funding round being led by Desmond Mac Intyre, a co-founder of Eolas Capital and a former executive at Bridgewater Associates and Mellon Investments Corporation.

BTC Digital Ltd. | Mining | $20.00M | 2024-12-09

BTC Digital Ltd, a blockchain technology company and leader in Bitcoin mining, announced the successful closing of a $20 million underwritten public offering. The proceeds raised in the public offer support to infrastructure and computing power expansion.

Prometheum | CeFi | $20.00M | 2024-12-16

Prometheum raised $20 million in fresh capital in order to expand its offerings. A tokenized securities firm, Prometheum provides a connection between traditional financial systems and crypto investing through its registered broker-dealers.

Plume Network | Infrastructure | Series A | $20.00M | 2024-12-17

Plume just closed a $20 million investment round, bringing its total funding to $30 million. Plume aims to become the standard in this sector with a blockchain that would let users more easily invest in real-word assets (RWAs) ranging from Pokémon cards to oil reserves to Medicaid-backed invoices.

Click to see all of December’s funding rounds here:

December Crypto VC Fund fundraise Announcements

VCs are continuing to announce their new raises… As a reminder, if you are interested in learning more about Bankless Ventures Fund 2, please fill out this form and we will be in touch!

2024-12-01. Verda Ventures Launches $40 Million MiniPay Fund. With the launch of the $40 million MiniPay Fund in partnership with Opera, Verda Ventures is fueling a new generation of fintech startups designed to revolutionize financial services in underserved regions.
2024-12-10. DWF Labs Launches $20 Million AI Agent Fund. DWF Labs, the new generation crypto market maker and investor, announced the launch of a $20 million fund dedicated to supporting the development of autonomous AI agents.
2024-12-11. Beam Foundation to debut $150M gaming fund in Abu Dhabi. Beam Ventures will launch in 2025, providing funding and acceleration for blockchain gaming startups in the United Arab Emirates.
2024-12-13. Topology raises $75M for new frontier-tech venture firm. Casey Caruso, a former investment partner at crypto-focused venture capital firm Paradigm, raised $75 million to kickstart her new early-stage venture firm, Topology.
2024-12-17: Big Time Studios launches $150M Open Loot Fund for Web3 gaming. Big Time Studios wants to empower game studios leveraging the Open Loot platform. This fund provides financial backing, marketing expertise, and development support to enable studios to create high-quality crypto games.

Hackathons

Upcoming

EasyA Consensys Hackathon | February 18-20, 2025
Hong Kong. Prizes TBA

SuiHub Global Accelerator Program | Apply by January 10
Virtual + Dubai

Demo Days

Finished (results in links)

Polkadot Hackathon 2024 Bangkok Demo Day | November 16

Open Accelerator Applications