We’re only four months into 2025 and it’s already been a rollercoaster ride. Conditions on the market have been turbulent, and cryptocurrencies have been sucked into economic and political turmoil. The end of 2024 looked promising, with Bitcoin hitting the historic $100,000 tugging along every digital coin on the market. At the beginning of 2025, it seemed like we were in for some money-making year ahead of us.
And then came the tariffs, first the announcement that made investors and speculators nervous, and then the actual implementation and a hard blow of the US import taxes in March. After reaching the peak at $109,000, Bitcoin took a dive and hit the bottom, hopefully that’s bottom, of $74,400. Many small investors got liquidated, others started panic trading selling off their assets below the price, while the whales kept their composure. Did they know something we didn’t? They sure did.
While stocks kept hovering around the low points for weeks, and some are still struggling to crawl their way from the gutter, Bitcoin and other major cryptocurrencies bounced back in a matter of weeks. The initial hit was devastating but being that cryptos are not attached to any government, country and local economy, the recovery was swift. While many were debating whether or not to buy a dip, smart and well-informed investors were already stockpiling their portfolios.
Since then, the tariffs were put on ice for 90 days, while the markets stabilized. Many industries were battered by the new taxes, from retail to car manufacturers and crypto casinos, and some are recovering better than others, especially if they accept cryptocurrencies as a form of payment. However, the aftershocks will last for several months if not years with some businesses even shutting down permanently.
If you’re an investor or just a crypto enthusiast, there is still time to buy your favorite coins at discount prices. By all predictions so far, the summer is going to be bullish pushed by the interest rate cuts from the Federal Reserve. Just keep in mind that these are all opinions, forecasts and speculations since there is no guarantee that one coin will spike and others plunge. Ultimately, it’s up to you and your bankroll whether you’ll jump on the wagon. Is it a runaway train? No one knows, but here are some factors that you should consider before deciding.
Bitcoin
The king of cryptocurrency and the absolute ruler of the markets has experienced some major volatility in the past month. Don’t let this sway you from investing though. Bitcoin is referred to as the new gold since it acts like a fence from high inflation and other disruptions caused by politics. The adoption of the biggest cryptocurrency continues across the world encouraged by the US government friendly policies. BTC also became part of the strategic reserve in March which encouraged even the wary investors to reconsider their suspicions of cryptos being another fad backed by thin air.
At its peak, Bitcoin reached $109,000 back in January. For comparison, a year ago the value was around $65,000, meaning it gained 29% since April 2024. The price is driven by several factors.
A limited supply of only 21 million Bitcoins will always drive the value up. There will be no new coins introduced, and mining is quickly drying up. Also, some of the biggest corporations in the world entered the investment through ETFs, like BlackRock and Fidelity, giving credibility to all digital assets. Liquidity is undoubtedly one of the main reasons investors feel relaxed when adding BTC to their portfolio since it has the biggest cash flow of all cryptos making it easy to enter and exit the trade.
However, like with any trade, there are some risks involved. High volatility has been a problem for all cryptos for years. The price is unpredictable and can change in a matter of minutes. This is why most investors choose to hold on to the digital coins for a longer period, until the price balances out.
Even though the US government has tilted towards Bitcoin usage, other countries are not so eager to implement digital assets into their reserves. EU and India for example, are still on the fence about implementing harsh laws that will hamper the efforts of Bitcoin to become mainstream currency.
Bitcoin has been criticized for the massive energy usage required to mine new coins. With the tariffs in place, miners are moving out of the US to more friendly countries where electricity can be obtained for a fraction of the price. Also, the equipment needed is subject to new import taxes, causing the price of mining to skyrocket.
Regardless of all the risks associated with Bitcoin, speculators and other insiders still think that the price is going to go up by the end of the year. The realistic prediction is that the value might go $95,000 – $130,000. Others are either too optimistic or are claiming some doom scenarios that are unlikely to happen.
Ethereum
If Bitcoin is the king of crypto, Ethereum is the king of smart contracts. The majority of DeFi and NFTs are powered by the Ethereum network. The value is closely related to the value of tech stocks, which is also one of the things driving the price consistently upwards.
The past month was one of the hardest for ETH, precisely for this reason. Traditionally, the stock market is slower to respond to disasters and recoveries after the fact, so ETH keeps chugging along behind the tech stocks. In normal circumstances, Ethereum is spiking due to the constant development and innovation in the tech industry. However, tariffs hit hard on the techies, causing a big, huge plunge into the depths of last year’s prices. Import taxes will raise the price of microchips and semiconductors by 125% which is unbearable for many startups and well-established companies alike.
Still, Ethereum has a very strong presence on the market mainly due to having the largest pool of developers in the crypto world. Also, major banks in the financial world are piloting tokenized securities using Ethereum.
Some risks are still present that might hamper the efforts of the coin becoming adopted more. In the last month, the traffic was super congested on the network which triggered gigantic gas prices. Users got a financial punch in the gut when they saw the fees that were several times more than usual. So, keep that in mind if you’re transferring money or coins. Most users are from the US, so if you live in a different country, or time zone, use that time to avoid long waiting times and significantly higher fees.
ETH is also facing threats from faster Layer 1s like Solana, Avalanche, or Layer 2 solutions. These networks are catching up fast, especially SOL and Ethereum are becoming more sluggish compared to new ones due to their popularity and congestion.
As of April 2025, ETH is trading for $1,680, with a 5% jump in only one day. However, to be honest, on a yearly scale ETH is not doing so great. In December 2024 it reached its peak of $4,000 just before the tariffs hit. Since then, it seems to be struggling more than other cryptocurrencies. As we said, this is due to ETH being intertwined with tech stocks that are recovering very slowly.
The forecast for the younger sibling of Bitcoin is bright though. By the end of 2025 the value should be in the range of $6,500 – $8,000. The hope and the logic behind such an optimistic prediction is that we are still to see the decision about interest rates in June. If the Federal Reserve decides to slow down inflation, they will need to lower the rates which historically results in a bullish market.
Solana
SOL was part of the package that President Trump announced in March will become part of the strategic reserve. Even though the coin was always popular among crypto investments, this fact launched Solana as one of the most powerful digital assets on the market. It showed its strength through Solana Mobile, and increased activity in NFTs and gaming. As developers prioritize speed and user experience, Solana becomes the go-to for gaming and Web3 experiences. The network is capable of beating ETH offering better performance at a lower cost. Needless to say, users love it and are switching to the Solana network en masse. The US administration said that the tariffs for semiconductors will be lower than for other components, which could also lower hardware costs for Solana validators.
On the other hand, not everything is fine and dandy with Solana. Outages and downtimes are slowly becoming the norm for the network, which is not good at all. Users are complaining about unreliability that’s making some of them stick to a more expensive and congested Ethereum network. Also, the validator count is low relative to Ethereum, which is raising concerns about decentralization.
Further, even though Solana is hanging its hopes on gaming and NFTs, both of these industries are vulnerable and highly responsive to changes in political decisions and government policies which makes Solana a bit unstable and unreliable.
FTX’s fallout affected cryptocurrencies in many ways, damaging their reputation and raising more questions about the sustainability of the whole system. Combined, investors lost over $8 billion when FTX collapsed causing havoc on the market. Binance wanted to buy them to prevent further losses but backed out as the news about mismanagement kept coming out.
Even though everyone will be paid back their money with interest, the damaged reputation of cryptos is still bleeding.
As far as price for the rest of the year, Solana is looking at $300 – $450. Right now, Solana is trading for $133 with an upward trajectory. However, it’s still in the red after dropping to $96 on the day the tariffs went into effect after it peaked at $265 in January 2025.
It’s worth saying that even though Solana sometimes looks like it’s related to ETH, and mimics the strategies implemented by it, it’s actually closely related to Bitcoin following the ups and downs of the major currency to the extreme.
Avalanche
AVAX architecture is very unique allowing enterprises to deploy private chains with specific rules. It’s also following the value of Bitcoin, which makes it more stable than some of its counterparts. Big companies like Deloitte, AWS, and banks are experimenting with Avalanche piquing the interest of investors. Also, on AVAX network transactions go through in 2 seconds, which attracts many users, especially the ones gaming online, playing megaways slots, or other table games in online casinos, to make a switch from Solana and Ethereum.
However, the major drawback of AVAX is its relatively small prevalence in media. The coin seems to be not as attractive as Ripple, Solana, or even some meme coins. Still, developers for AVAX keep pushing forward. The coin reached the value of $23.4 back in December 2024, only to crash down together with all other cryptos to $14.3 a month ago, again due to tariffs.
The prediction for this interesting investment is bright, running between $80 – $120. That is almost 400% for this year’s forecast, so if you’re looking to make a quick buck here’s your chance.
Ripple
Well, the king of cross-border transactions is recovering from a beatdown in March. Even though it has a somewhat checkered reputation, often connected and suspected of being used for transactions that are supposed to be kept secret, or at least away from the Internal Revenue, Ripple continues to rip apart the prejudice. Recently, the coin got into negotiations with some of the biggest banks about adopting the coin for international transfers. Even though the names of the banks are hush-hush for now, this could be a major step for both. Ripple will gain credibility and popularity, and banks will be able to offer something new, fast and certainly way cheaper to their international customers.
In March of this year, it reached $2.5, only to dip to $1.65 in April 2025. However, the prognosis is looking great for this patient with $1.80 – $2.50 until the end of 2025.
In short, coins with clear legal frameworks, like XRP and BTC are outperforming speculative tokens. On the other hand, real-world assets (RWAs), bonds, stocks, and even real estate are entering crypto with Ethereum, Avalanche, and Chainlink leading this trend. Whichever coin you pick to add to your diversified investments it will pay you back multiple times over by the end of the year. Happy trading.
