We can’t talk about 2024 trends and 2025 predictions without mentioning crypto and blockchain. The second half of this year was monumental for crypto, Bitcoin in particular, which reached a value of $100,000 for the first time.
With the EU’s MiCA regulations fully coming into effect, the UK moving legislation through parliament, and the US Senate looking at the FIT 21 Bill ahead of Donald Trump’s return to office, crypto stakeholders are eagerly awaiting whatever 2025 could bring.
Nick Jones, Founder and CEO of Zumo, a blockchain-based sustainable finance firm, expects blockchain to ‘strengthen its grip on financial services’ and for more use cases to be realised over the next 12 months.
These use models include real-time verification of financial documents for KYC and AML purposes, streamline banking and lending services, reducing counterparty risk, and training large language models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT.
Citing a survey which found that 81% of the world’s leading public companies use blockchain, Zumo’s CEO asserts that stakeholders should be ‘surprised if this hits 100% in 2025’.
However, Jones also expects the ‘regulatory gaze’ to intensify. He says: “It’s fair to say that regulation usually lags behind innovation – but that innovation also attracts scrutiny.
“In 2025, we’ll see significant movement as the world’s regulators seek to balance their objectives of consumer protection and market integrity with allowing room for innovation to thrive.”
In the UK, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has unveiled its regulatory roadmap for British crypto, going in 2026, and the government has moved to introduce legislation around the sector. This shows that British policymakers and regulators are keenly focused on the industry.
Regulatory change is due in the US also. Donald Trump has already nominated Paul Atkins to replace Gary Gensler as new Chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) – this will likely be a move welcomed by the US crypto sector, which has long expressed discontent with Gensler’s decisions. The regulatory changes that could result, however, are anybody’s guess.
“Increased regulatory scrutiny is a positive sign that our industry is maturing,” Jones concludes. “And now companies must respond by adopting appropriately robust frameworks for governance, risk management, and compliance.”
