Key Highlights
- 1, 2026 at 7:25 pm UTC 6 min read Updated: Jan.
- 1, 2026 at 11:51 am UTC Share Cover art/illustration via CryptoSlate.
- Image includes combined content which may include AI-generated content.
- At the start of 2025, crypto's biggest names issued bold forecasts: Bitcoin to $200,000, Ethereum to $7,000, a US strategic reserve, and stablecoins going mainstream. Twelve months later, the scoreboard reveals a pattern.
- The price targets mostly crashed and burned, while the structural calls on regulation, ETFs, and payments infrastructure quietly came true. Here's who nailed it, who missed the mark, and what the gap between hype and reality says about how this market actually works. Bitcoin $200,000, Ethereum $7,000, Solana $750Bitwise's December 2024 outlook opened with blockbuster numbers: Bitcoin to $200,000, Ethereum to $7,000, Solana to $750, all riding ETF-driven adoption and institutional momentum. The thesis wasn't crazy, as spot Bitcoin ETFs had launched in January 2024, pulling in tens of billions, and the President Donald Trump administration's pro-crypto stance suggested regulatory tailwinds would persist. Bitwise's 2025 outlook predicted Bitcoin reaching $200,000, Ethereum hitting $7,000, and Solana climbing to $750 by year-end. Reality delivered a different script.
