Editor's Note: This article looks ahead to the key trends in the crypto space in 2025, including the rise of altVMs and Chain abstraction technology, driving cross-chain transactions and a more seamless user experience. The next generation of L1 platforms and Rollups-as-a-Service (RaaS) will continue to develop, and AI technology, especially AI agents, will play an important role in more applications. Meanwhile, projects like pendle fi and nillionnetwork will also see new breakthroughs, injecting new vitality into the crypto market.
Original Content (edited for readability):
What I'm most excited to see develop in 2025 is:
altVMs
altVMs have performed well this year. The Fuel Network has successfully launched its mainnet, Cartesi continues to progress, and MoveVM has gained some adoption with the support of Aptos, SuiNetwork, and MovementLabsXYZ. 2025 could be the year of altVMs' promise, ushering in the next wave of on-chain application explosion.
FluentXYZ and its hybrid execution approach will play a key role in this space, as by integrating EVM, SVM, and Wasm into a single execution environment, Fluent may become the go-to solution for developers seeking the most comprehensive and flexible way to build applications. The coolest part? This design is scalable, meaning any virtual machine can be added, and it may ultimately become the "final boss" of virtual machines.
Chain Abstraction
Chain abstraction shone brightly in 2024, initially just a rough idea: creating a user experience where users can operate seamlessly as if using a single chain, even with hundreds of chains working together. No more need to switch wallets, manage multiple gas tokens, or worst of all, cross-chain bridges.
ParticleNtwrk's UniversalX allows you to trade any token on any chain through a single interface, feeling like Binance, but many new on-chain products will emerge, and more importantly, many existing projects will start using these solutions. This narrative is very worth watching, showcasing the real collaboration between EverclearOrg, SOCKETProtocol, NEARProtocol, sedaprotocol, and routescan.io, and 2025 will be the year of onboarding users to these new solutions.
L1s
A year without new L1s in crypto won't be as exciting, and Sui and Aptos were clearly the stars in this field in 2024. For 2025? We have a lot to look forward to. Monad.xyz, berachain, and HyperliquidX may become the "holy trinity". The release of Hyperliquid's HyperEVM is worth watching, especially given the recent hype around Hyperliquid. How the entire Hyperliquid ecosystem connects with exchanges will be an exciting highlight.
RaaS
This is a narrative that has been discussed less, perhaps because it's a boring industry, but looking back, boring industries are often the most interesting. In 2024, Rollups and L2 have been hot topics in the crypto space, spoiler alert: this trend is not going to change anytime soon. As inkonchain and AbstractChain are released in the coming months, the debate around L2 will continue, but one thing is clear: L2 will become more and more prevalent.
Whether it's generic or application-specific, the numbers speak for themselves. Rollup-As-A-Service platforms like Calderaxyz have already launched around 100 chains this year, providing countless integrations and customizations from day one. Conduitxyz and alt layer are also following the same pattern. The demand for RaaS providers is undeniable.
AI
According to Kaitoai's data, AI has accounted for over 40% of the attention this year, which is simply crazy. My intuition is that this is just the beginning. Ai16zdao's Eliza GitHub repository has been one of the most followed projects in the past few months. Could this be a way to bring new developers into the crypto space? Time will tell, but it certainly looks like an interesting Trojan Horse.
We've already seen the first real-use case of the aixbt agent, built by Virtuals.io, which has gained significant attention in the CT community and provided very accurate information. Will our future revolve around the idea of reading AI agents? Who knows, but in 2025, more AI agents will take on tasks that were once performed by humans.
Other Mentioned Projects:
Pendle fi continues to grow exponentially and can now be seen as a DeFi OG. $10B TVL in 2025?
Kaitoai is leading the vanguard of InfoFi, what will the future hold? Maybe next year can give us the answer.
Polymer Labs will be a strong competitor in the interoperability space, and I think this will be an important topic in 2025.
OndoFinance is bringing big players into the on-chain space, and RWA and tokenization will continue to exist, but they have yet to break through.
Will 2025 be a year of more friendly regulation?
Nillionnetwork's mainnet launch is planned for February, and with increasing focus on privacy issues, this could be a major breakthrough. Extra bonus points? It may trigger a new wave of on-chain application hype.
See you in 2025.
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