Bitcoin analyst and co-founder of CMCC Crest, a multi-manager market-neutral fund, Willy Woo, has said that the crypto industry is on track to reach 1 billion users by the end of 2025.
Woo took to his X (formerly Twitter) where he posted a chart and the parameters that he used to make his prediction.
He wrote,
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“On track for 1 BILLION crypto users by the end of 2025. An extrapolation of many independent prior studies in this chart. Binance estimates 65% of crypto users hold Bitcoin”.
Woo’s prediction is based on a new model mapping crypto user growth, highlighted by Binance’s data on Bitcoin holders.
When asked by a follower how users are defined, he replied,
“Unique KYC’d users. Pre-2016 on the chart (not pictured), in the era when almost everyone was under self-custody, it’s unique entities. Entities are unique users derived by forensically clustered addresses taking into account capital flows between addresses.”
Also, growth capital investor and Bitcoin analyst Daniel Batten commended Woo’s postulation, noting that the chart provides a clear visualization of when the crypto industry will cross the 1 billion users mark.
He wrote,
“Incredible chart. The first view we’ve had of when we’ll cross the 1B threshold, with a full backtrace.”
Can The Crypto Industry Reach 1 Billion Users by The End of 2025?
Recall that the 2022 crypto winter had a brutal impact on the entire market, wiping hundreds of billions of dollars off the global crypto market cap, and negatively impacted thousands of crypto companies across the world. But despite the headwinds and setbacks, investors’ interest in cryptocurrencies has continued to rise.
Amidst growing global interest in digital currencies, the crypto industry is on a trajectory to achieve a significant milestone of users. A January 2024 report from crypto.com disclosed that the number of cryptocurrency owners grew by 34% to 580 million in the previous year.
The report disclosed that anticipation around the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approving 11 spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) spurred an increase in new crypto investors.
In terms of crypto users according to regions, consumers from countries in Africa, Asia, and South America were most reported to have significant owners of cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin, in 2023. Notably, one out of three respondents to Statista’s survey in Nigeria, for instance, mentioned they either owned or used a digital coin, as opposed to six out of 100 respondents in the United States.
To reach one billion users by 2025, the crypto industry would need to see a further 72% increase a steep climb given the current growth rates. Notably, the proliferation of Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) has been a major catalyst for this expansion.
Further insights from a joint 2022 report by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), Bitget, and Foresight Ventures, which compared the adoption curve of the internet to that of cryptocurrencies, predicted that the industry would reach one billion users by 2030, considering the current rate of crypto adoption and market conditions.
BCG highlighted that currently, only 0.3% of individual wealth is invested in cryptocurrencies, compared to 25% in global equities, indicating significant potential for growth.