Bitcoin reaches a historic high, digital asset treasury, and billions of dollars in institutional funds flowing in—2025 is set to be a breakthrough year for the cryptocurrency sector, and this momentum may continue into 2026.
The industry's brightest minds painted an optimistic outlook for the remainder of the year during Cointelegraph's exclusive LONGITUDE event at Token2049 in Singapore.
Arthur Hayes, Chief Investment Officer of Maelstrom, Ethereum co-founder Joseph Lubin, renowned author Neal Stephenson, and Aave Labs founder Stani Kulechov led a deep dive into the major narratives for 2025.
LONGITUDE was co-hosted by Unlimit, a global fintech leader focused on payment processing, banking as a service (BaaS), and providing fiat on-ramp solutions for cryptocurrency, DeFi, and GameFi.
Rayls, Flipster, and ICB Labs also appeared as partners of Cointelegraph's flagship event.
Hayes' fireside chat was filled with his signature spicy viewpoints. He articulated the argument for Bitcoin reaching $3.2 million, based on a model predicting continued monetary expansion by the U.S. Treasury.
"Most of the funds will flow into Bitcoin; I think the new meta-narrative is fundamental season—cash flow and revenue. Token projects that perform well in this altcoin season will have profitability similar to Hyperliquid, using those profits to buy back tokens or engage in some form of issuance," Hayes said.
The Maelstrom CIO also indicated that digital asset treasuries (DAT) may be dominated by a few pioneers.
"This is another tradable financial product. The good thing is that it provides a backdoor opportunity for investors who otherwise couldn't own cryptocurrency to access it," Hayes said. "Capital will concentrate in large companies like Strategy or Bitmine. They will capture the largest share."
LONGITUDE also hosted a debate on DAT among key players focused on distinctly different assets. Joseph Chalom, CEO of SharpLink Gaming, supported the company's Ethereum strategy, claiming that Ethereum offers broader benefits than other tokens.
"I believe that most finance will be fundamentally disrupted by Ethereum and its layer two networks. I believe we are at a point where not just financial markets are changing, but there is a change at the level of civilization."
Andrew Webley, CEO of The Smarter Web Company—behind the UK's most successful publicly listed Bitcoin treasury company—insisted that there is no better choice than BTC on the balance sheet:
David Namdar, who raised $500 million for BNC's BNB treasury, pointed out that the utility and widespread use of BNB Chain, along with Binance's status as the world's largest exchange, are key reasons for adopting BNB.
"If you think about Facebook, Google, Apple, the largest companies in their respective verticals, they are all publicly listed in the U.S. In the cryptocurrency space, the largest company, Binance, may be 5 to 10 times larger than any other cryptocurrency exchange," Namdar said.
Lubin and Stephenson's fireside chat took a more philosophical turn as they explored the latter's accurate predictions about the future of reliance on cryptography and decentralized systems in his acclaimed novels "Snow Crash" and "Cryptonomicon."
Lubin stated that he drew a lot of inspiration from Stephenson's novels in his youth and deeply resonated with Stephenson's vision of a cypherpunk future.
"What is truly positive and striking is how he articulates what cyberspace might look and feel like, and how you enter cyberspace and interact with objects and spaces. It is a clear, vivid vision. I think it has pointed the way for many builders of my generation," Lubin said.
The Consensys founder elaborated on his hopes for SharpLink and Ethereum-based DAT, also revealing that SWIFT is using Consensys-based Ethereum development tools to evolve its existing infrastructure onto a blockchain track.
The event concluded with a rapid panel discussion exploring the synergies between traditional finance and DeFi infrastructure tracks.
Kulechov emphasized Aave's growing dominance in the DeFi space, with net deposits exceeding $70 billion.
"From a background perspective, this is equivalent to the 35th largest bank in the U.S., and we do not consider ourselves that kind of end-user product. We see Aave and DeFi as an infrastructure that gets embedded into these fintech and traditional financial services, which then distribute it."
Kiril Eves, founder of Unlimit, stated that due to the demands of its large customer base, his company had no choice but to integrate cryptocurrency services:
Privacy is another major reason traditional finance is concerned about blockchain infrastructure. Marcos Viriato, CEO of Rayls, stated that Rayls' services are tapping into a growth sector ready for decentralized evolution.
"When it comes to the infrastructure of banks and financial institutions, it needs to be secure, reliable, and abstract complexity for the end user. Our focus is on providing this service to banks so they can serve customers in a way that they do not know is being tokenized but will benefit from it," Viriato said.
Related: Analysts say market crash "will not affect long-term fundamentals"
Original article: “LONGITUDE Summit Review: Bitcoin (BTC) and Digital Asset Treasuries (DAT) Set to Explode in 2026”
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