Why 2025 Is Bitcoin’s Most Important Year Yet — Hunter Horsley

In this episode of When Shift Happens, I sit down with Hunter Horsley, CEO of Bitwise, to unpack why he believes 2025 is the best year crypto has ever seen, and how the tides are turning in Bitcoin’s favor across Wall Street, Washington, and beyond.

For Horsley, this moment feels monumental. “2025,” he says, “feels like the end of the beginning.” After seven years of building Bitwise into the largest crypto index fund manager in the U.S., with over $10 billion in assets, Horsley is more bullish than ever. 

His optimism is built on a clear-eyed reading of long-term trends from institutional adoption to the slow embrace of Bitcoin by traditional banks.

The Long Game in a Volatile Industry

While the crypto landscape is littered with burnt-out projects and short-lived hype cycles, Bitwise has taken a different approach: survive long enough to win. “It’s a hard but simple thing. Just consistently do what you set out to do,” Horsley says. That consistency, he argues, is an underrated superpower in a space addicted to novelty and speculation.

He recalls how founders often get distracted by hype or discouraged by short-term downturns. He described that phenomenon by quoting Paul Graham, “The leading cause of death for startups is suicide,” And the solution is simply to stop overthinking. “If you love what you're doing, just keep going.”

Optimism, With Data to Back It

It’s never blind optimism with Horsley. It stems from over 10,000 Bitwise conversations annually informing his view, and he’s convinced 2025 marks an inflection point. “Sometimes it feels like the world is reorganising itself to create the perfect environment for Bitcoin,” he says.

The macro environment is aligning: inflation concerns, political distrust, the digitization of money, and a generational shift in financial priorities are all converging. “Bitcoin is an idea whose time has come,” he insists. “And it’s not because Bitcoin has changed, it’s because the world around it has.”

Banks Are Joining the Team

Traditional banks are perhaps the biggest markers of this shift. For the longest period, they were seen as antagonists to crypto, but are now stepping into the ring. “There’s over a trillion dollars in Bitcoin. People don’t want to sell it, but they need cash. And banks are hungry for new digital products,” Horsley explains.

He predicts that by 2025, banks will begin to offer Bitcoin-backed loans, custody services, trading products, and even embrace stablecoins. “The dam is broken,” he says. “Banks exist to serve customers, and they can only resist demand for so long.”

IPOs Will Show the World How Big Crypto Really Is

Looking ahead to 2026, Horsley sees another milestone: a wave of crypto IPOs. He pointed out the Coinbase listing in 2021 and how it gave the public a taste of what a crypto-native company could be. Now, “There are now a dozen multi-billion dollar companies in crypto that no one outside the industry knows about,” he says.

Going public, he argues, is about capital. It extends to visibility and credibility. “Public markets are a measuring stick. IPOs tell the world this isn’t some fringe movement. It’s a serious, professional industry.”

Still, he acknowledges the risks of retail investors mistaking high-profile IPOs for market entry points. “There’s a difference between substance and hype,” he warns. But the companies lining up for IPOs — firms like Circle, Kraken, and Chainalysis, are, in his view, fundamentally strong businesses.

Why Companies Are Buying Bitcoin Too

It’s not just banks and investors, corporations are also adding Bitcoin to their balance sheets. Horsley points to over 70 companies now holding Bitcoin, with two recent additions i.e., Fold and Bitdeer, making headlines.

“Corporations are waking up to the same reality individuals have,” he says. “The dollar is losing value. Bitcoin is volatile, sure, but over time, it preserves purchasing power.” Bitwise even launched a fund to now track accelerating trend of public companies that hold over 1,000 BTC.

Bitcoin Is Worth $2 Trillion — But Who’s Maintaining It?

One of the most striking parts of the conversation was a sobering reality: Bitcoin is now worth more than Facebook, and yet is maintained by just 40 core developers who are in turn funded by grants and donations. “There’s no corporate treasury. No one’s officially in charge,” Horsley says. “It’s kind of crazy when you think about it.”

To address this, Bitwise donates 10% of the profits from its Bitcoin ETF to support open-source development. Horsley hopes more in the industry follow suit. “If we all rely on Bitcoin, we have to fund the people who keep it secure,” he says.

Building Bitwise — and Why There’s Still So Much to Do

When asked why Bitwise raised $70 million recently, Horsley’s answer was simple: there’s still so much to build. From ETFs to alpha strategies, from staking to bespoke solutions for institutional investors, Bitwise is expanding fast. “We’re increasing headcount by 30% this year. We serve thousands of firms and we’re just getting started.”

Yet for Horsley, there’s no finish line. “At Facebook, even when we were bigger than the Catholic Church, people worried about growth slowing from 50% to 40%,” he says. “There’s always something to solve. That’s what makes it captivating.”

Respect Over Rivalry

In a space often driven by highly polarizing arguments and competition, Horsley advocates for a more collaborative tone. “You don’t have to like every project, but respect the builders. Focus on what you love not on tearing others down,” he says. “It makes the whole industry stronger.”

It’s a simple principle that remains foundational to Horsley’s entire approach: build with conviction, stay the course, and uplift the ecosystem, because the future of crypto depends on more than technology. It depends on the people willing to keep showing up and on the culture we create around it.

As Horsley puts it, “If crypto is seen as confusing and unprofessional, everyone loses.”

But if it's seen as credible, collaborative, and worth believing in, then the best is still ahead.

And if this conversation is any indication, there’s a lot to be optimistic about.

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