The crypto landscape is evolving at breakneck speed, and few voices carry as much weight as Haseeb, partner at Dragonfly Capital. His insights blend technical depth with forward-looking clarity, making his predictions essential reading for anyone serious about the future of blockchain and digital assets.
Here are Haseeb’s six bold yet grounded forecasts for 2025—spanning Layer 1s and Layer 2s, token distribution models, stablecoins, regulation, AI agents, and the powerful convergence of crypto and artificial intelligence.
L1/L2: The Great Convergence
The distinction between Layer 1 and Layer 2 blockchains is fading fast. In 2025, users won’t care—or even notice—whether a transaction occurs on an L1 or L2. What matters is speed, cost, and user experience.
We’re entering an era where blockchain fragmentation meets consolidation. The market is overcrowded, and survival will depend not on marginal technical superiority but on carving out a unique niche and building strong go-to-market (GTM) strategies that create real user stickiness.
Despite the rise of alternative virtual machines like SVM and Move, the EVM ecosystem will actually grow its market share by 2025. This expansion will be driven by chains like Base, Monad, and Berachain—not because of compatibility alone, but because of data.
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Large language models (LLMs) are increasingly writing application code, and EVM/Solidity has the richest training dataset. LLMs struggle with low-level systems programming, so access to battle-tested smart contract libraries becomes a decisive advantage. In the age of AI-assisted development, developer experience (DevEx) matters less than proven codebases and abundant training data.
Latency will become the new battleground. We’re shifting from a race for transactions per second (TPS) to a war over response time. Projects like MegaETH and infrastructure focused on sub-second finality will raise user expectations to Web2 levels.
Expect broader adoption of optimistic UIs, pre-confirmations, intent-centric designs, email-based onboarding, in-browser wallets, and progressive security models. Solutions like Privy are paving the way for seamless identity management across chains.
Specialized chains focused on specific applications—like Hyperliquid in derivatives—will prove that vertical integration and superior UX can outperform general-purpose monoliths. The dream of one chain to rule them all is dead.
Token Distribution: The End of Farming Culture
The era of massive airdrops fueled by points farming is over. We’re moving toward a two-track model for token issuance:
- Track 1: Performance-Based Rewards
Protocols with clear north star metrics—such as exchanges or lending platforms—will distribute tokens based purely on measurable user activity. These aren't rewards for gaming the system; they're rebates tied directly to core protocol KPIs. If you're using the product, you get paid—regardless of whether you're a "degen" or a genuine user. - Track 2: Crowdfunding for Public Goods
For projects without clear usage metrics—especially L1s and L2s—tokens will increasingly be distributed through crowdfunding mechanisms. Small airdrops may still reward community contributors, but most supply will go to those who financially back the network early.
Airdrops designed solely to boost vanity metrics are dead. So are schemes that enrich industrialized bounty hunters instead of real users.
Meanwhile, memecoins will continue losing ground to what Haseeb calls "AI agent coins"—a shift from financial nihilism to financial over-optimism. (Yes, he coined the term.)
Stablecoins: Real-World Adoption Takes Off
Stablecoin usage will surge—not just among traders and speculators, but within small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Chain-based USD will become the standard for instant settlement in cross-border commerce.
Banks are watching closely. By late 2025, expect major financial institutions to announce their own stablecoin launches. They don’t want to be left behind in the race for digital dollar dominance.
However, despite regulatory shifts and new entrants, Tether (USDT) will likely remain the leader—especially if someone like Howard Lutnick becomes Secretary of Commerce, signaling pro-crypto policy at the federal level.
Ethena is poised to absorb significant capital, particularly if U.S. Treasury yields continue to decline. As opportunity costs fall, Ethena’s yield-generation mechanism—backed by delta-hedged staked ETH positions—becomes more attractive to yield-seeking investors.
Regulation: Incremental Progress in the U.S.
The U.S. will pass stablecoin-specific legislation by 2025, establishing clear rules for issuance and reserves. However, broader market infrastructure reforms like FIT21 will stall due to political gridlock.
While stablecoin adoption accelerates, other TradFi integrations—such as asset tokenization and institutional custody—will lag behind.
Under a potential Trump administration, Fortune 100 companies may feel emboldened to offer crypto services directly to consumers. Tech firms and startups could exhibit higher risk tolerance during what Haseeb calls a “regulatory holiday”—a period of relaxed enforcement until clearer rules emerge.
During this window, expect aggressive integration of crypto features into mainstream Web2 platforms—from social media tipping to in-app wallets.
AI Agents: The Rise and Fall of the Chatbot Hype
The AI agent trend will peak in 2025—but it won’t last.
Today’s so-called “AI agents” aren’t truly autonomous. Most are glorified chatbots tied to memecoins, often with humans behind the curtain preventing disasters. Even Fortune 500 companies aren’t running production AI agents yet due to reliability and security risks.
These agents are easily manipulated into making harmful statements or exploited to drain funds. True autonomy remains rare—check Freysa for a glimpse of what real self-governing AI looks like.
Yet the trend will accelerate. AI-powered influencers can outperform human KOLs: they never sleep, cost less, and scale effortlessly. Basic content aggregation—like what @aixbt_agent does—is already automatable.
But novelty wears off. Watching an AI post tweets is like seeing an elephant paint—it’s impressive once, mundane a thousand times later.
By 2026, public sentiment may swing sharply against AI influencers. Stories of displaced human creators could spark backlash. To survive, AI agents may start hiding their artificial nature, mimicking human behavior to capture attention.
They’ll monetize not through memecoins but via sponsorships, affiliate links, and personal token launches—just like human influencers. Accusations of “AI impersonation” will become common, leading to public scandals.
And there’s a darker side: autonomous scam bots. As LLMs get better at persuasion, expect a wave of AI-driven fraud—rivaling the ransomware explosion post-2017.
But the real disruption isn’t social or trading—it’s software engineering.
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If AI agents can write reliable code, the cost of building software collapses. Seed rounds won’t require millions—just $10K in cloud compute could launch a full-stack dApp. Self-funded projects like Hyperliquid and Jupiter will become the norm.
Security tools powered by AI—fine-tuned on EVM/Solidity or Rust, trained on attack databases, tested in adversarial simulations—will tilt the balance toward defenders. Red-teaming AIs will battle-hardened contracts before deployment.
This software deflation will trigger a renaissance in on-chain innovation.
Crypto x AI: A Symbiotic Future
While AI transforms crypto, crypto also enables new forms of AI:
- AI agents will pay each other in crypto, especially stablecoins. Once regulations ease, even large corporations may use programmable money for inter-agent transactions—it's faster and cheaper than bank transfers.
- Decentralized AI training and inference will gain traction. Projects like Exo Labs, Nous Research, and Prime Intellect are pioneering open alternatives to centralized models. NEAR Protocol is building a full-stack, permissionless AI stack rooted in trustless infrastructure.
- AI-powered wallets will redefine UX. Imagine a wallet that handles bridging, optimizes gas fees, routes transactions across chains invisibly, detects scams in real time, and fixes front-end errors—all autonomously. Users won’t need to know which chain they’re on.
This seamless experience may not arrive until 2026—but when it does, it could dissolve chain-specific loyalties and reshape network effects across crypto.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Will EVM really grow despite competition from SVM and Move?
A: Yes—because EVM has the largest corpus of real-world code and developer knowledge. In an AI-driven world where LLMs train on existing data, EVM’s historical advantage becomes structural.
Q: Are all AI agents scams today?
A: Not all—but most lack true autonomy. Many rely on human oversight ("Wizard of Oz" models). True self-operating agents are still rare and risky.
Q: Can stablecoins replace traditional banking rails?
A: For certain use cases—especially cross-border payments and SME settlements—they already do. By 2025, expect wider institutional adoption.
Q: Will AI make trading easier for retail investors?
A: Not necessarily. While AI levels the playing field somewhat, firms with capital and data advantages will benefit disproportionately. Markets may become too efficient for most retail traders to gain an edge.
Q: How will AI impact crypto security?
A: Positively overall. AI-driven auditing tools will detect vulnerabilities faster than humans. When trained on vast datasets of exploits and countermeasures, defensive AIs could outpace attackers.
Q: Is the memecoin era ending?
A: It’s evolving. Pure speculation is giving way to narratives tied to AI agents and autonomous systems—what Haseeb calls “financial over-optimism.”
In 2025, crypto won’t be defined by chains or coins—but by intelligent systems interacting seamlessly across decentralized networks. The future belongs to those who build for convergence.