CF Benchmarks Reveals 2025 Outlook for Bitcoin and Ethereum: "Year of Records"

According to a new report prepared by CF Benchmarks, investment advisors are expected to surpass hedge funds as the largest holders of US-listed spot Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in 2025.

Today's report predicts that investment advisors will control more than 50% of the Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) ETF markets and will indicate a change in the structure of ETF owners.

Since the launch of 11 spot BTC ETFs in the US on January 11, investors have poured over $36 billion into these funds, providing an easy way for individuals to be exposed to Bitcoin without the need to directly hold or store the asset. Hedge fund managers lead the way with 45.3% ownership of ETFs, while investment advisors managing capital for individual and high net worth individuals hold 28%.

CF Benchmarks, a provider of several key digital asset benchmarks and regulated in the UK, predicts that investment advisors will lead the way in embracing Bitcoin and ETH ETFs within the $88 trillion US wealth management industry by 2025. This trend is expected to stem from increasing demand from clients, better understanding of digital assets, and maturation of crypto products. The firm also anticipates that combined net inflows into BTC and ETH ETFs will surpass the previous year's record of $40 billion.

In its annual report, CF Benchmarks said, 'Allocation of investment advisors will exceed 50% for both assets and reshape the ownership mix of these ETFs,' and added, 'As these products become fundamental in model portfolios, they will likely reshape the market for digital assets.'

In addition to Bitcoin, investment advisors are already in a dominant position in the ETH ETF market and are expected to further strengthen their positions in 2025. The continued growth in asset tokenization and the expectation that tokenized real-world assets (RWA) will exceed $30 billion will further support the demand for digital asset investment tools.

CF Benchmarks also notes that new stablecoins like Ripple's RLUSD and Paxos' USDG are expected to challenge the dominance of Tether's USDT, which has increased its market share from 50% to 70%.

The report predicts that, going forward, the scalability of the blockchain will be tested and that the active user adoption will require increasing the on-chain capacity to over 1,600 transactions per second (TPS) due to regulatory clarity under the administration of President-elect Donald Trump.