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Crypto Crystal Ball 2025: Could Ethereum Updates Finally Bring Mass Adoption?

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As we enter 2025, many questions hover over crypto—and not just those about prices and regulation. The underlying technology powering some of the industry’s most popular tools is also poised to change in the new year, and those shifts could have major implications for users.

For our annual Crypto Crystal Ball series, we’re taking a hard look at the narratives likely to shape the coming year, and how they’re likely to impact you. 

Following a look at how much political capital Donald Trump may be willing to spend on the crypto industry’s top priorities, here’s how an upcoming tech upgrade to Ethereum could finally pave the way to crypto going mainstream at a consumer level.

For years, the crypto industry has prayed for the arrival of mass adoption. But time and again, on-chain products and experiences have failed to attract as many users as their Web2 rivals. 

A key update to Ethereum, penciled for February, could change that—by making on-chain apps much, much easier to use for everyday consumers.

David Silverman, senior vice president of strategic business initiatives at Ethereum scaling project Polygon, told Decrypt that during the 2021 crypto bull market, millions of people were interested in exploring on-chain apps—but the tech wasn’t ready. Come the looming 2025 bull cycle (knock on wood), Silverman says crypto products will finally be up to snuff. 

“This next cycle, if we do see a mass inflow of interest, we will be able to show a proper example of what we think the Web3 future is,” Silverman said, “as opposed to just glimmers of hope.”

Why? Developers say Ethereum’s upcoming Pectra upgrade will eliminate barriers that have previously made on-chain apps a headache. Goodbye gas fees and special wallets for navigating smart contracts; hello signing transactions with FaceID—and surfing some on-chain apps without having to sign any transactions at all. 

One key innovation in Pectra will grant smart wallet functionality to the types of basic wallets issued by mainstream companies like Coinbase and MetaMask. Come February, users of those wallets will be able to pay gas fees on Ethereum and all L2s with any crypto of their choosing, including stablecoins. They will also be able to sign for transactions with universal tools like Apple’s FaceID and TouchID.

Those effortless signing mechanisms will now also be capable of enabling “much more complicated on-chain interactions with a single click,” Mark Tyneway, the co-founder of Ethereum layer-2 network Optimism, told Decrypt

Take session keys, for example. Previously impossible, session keys will soon allow ordinary crypto users to navigate a site or app for hours while completing dozens of secure on-chain interactions—all without the user knowing what’s happening on the backend.

“You could put the entire Instagram experience on-chain without it feeling like it,” Tyneway told Decrypt. “It’s going to unlock a massive wave of innovation.”

Polygon’s Silverman says Pectra will soon allow many crypto app developers to create seamless experiences where gas fees are sponsored and transaction signings are abstracted away—leaving products that look and feel like leading Web2 apps, but offer distinctive Web3 perks. 

“Crypto UX is about to level up,” Silverman said. “This is the unlock.”

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What Is AiXBT? The AI Influencer Taking Crypto by Storm

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For years, crypto and AI users have sought to combine both emergent technologies into products greater than the sum of their parts: autonomous agents capable of making human-level decisions and spending digital money to complete complex tasks. In 2024, these lofty dreams started to become reality.

There’s still a long way to go, of course. Crypto-powered AI agents capable of completing intricate human functions are still deep in development. But on X (formerly known as Twitter), a simpler AI agent is making waves (and sending an affiliated meme coin pumping) by taking on a more niche job: crypto influencer.

Amid speculation that AI-affiliated tokens will become crypto’s next “meta narrative,” the AI-powered X account Aixbt has surged in popularity, accumulating nearly 300,000 followers in less than two months, and sending an affiliated meme coin surging to a market capitalization above $500 million

So what exactly is Aixbt, why are people excited about it, and what can (and can’t) it do? 

Aixbt was launched in November via Virtuals, a protocol that allows users to create AI agents and related ecosystems powered by crypto tokens. Aixbt itself was created by a pseudonymous Virtuals user named Rxbt. (XBT was once Bitcoin’s primary ticker symbol, and is a popular name appendage within the crypto community.)

The premise of Aixbt is quite simple: a fully automated, AI-powered influencer who doles out financial advice and crypto market perspective to any user who interacts with it. Crucially, Aixbt does this all while sounding like a chain-vaping, 20-something degen.

Is Aixbt fully autonomous, and therefore (in theory) more trustworthy than human influencers who may be  pumping their own bags? 

The answer can get complicated. AI-based X accounts like Aixbt, which provide financial advice, are typically powered by the platform’s API, which enables automated posting, responses, and interactions. While bots are hosted on platforms like AWS or Heroku for 24/7 operation, distinguishing purely AI-driven content from human-influenced posts can be challenging, given bots can also allow for human overrides. So buyer beware.

Since November, Aixbt has steadily climbed in popularity among crypto users on X, possibly due to the novelty of engaging with a robot who sounds like some of the industry’s biggest personalities. 

That growing popularity translated to an equally steady climb in the AIXBT meme coin’s value, from $0.02 in late November to over $0.32 by Christmas. 

In the last week of December, after snowballing in popularity over the holidays, the project gained endorsements from key industry personalities—particularly those prominent within the Bitcoin ecosystem. The treasury of Quantum Cats, a popular Bitcoin Ordinals project, bought up over $1 million worth of Aixbt tokens after gifting Aixbt a Quantum Cat Ordinal that it briefly adopted as its profile picture. 

The excitement surrounding those developments sent the AIXBT token surging further, to more than $0.65 by New Year’s Eve. 

Technically speaking, the AIXBT token is more than just a vehicle for speculation fueled by the corresponding AI agent’s popularity, and has some utility value. Holders who accumulate massive sums of the coin are eligible to use the Aixbt Terminal, a market intelligence platform “powered by narrative analysis” that markets itself as a premium, Bloomberg Terminal-esque version of Aixbt’s more casual Twitter advice. 

Access to the Aixbt Terminal is currently extraordinarily expensive, however: Terminal users must hold over 600,000 AIXBT tokens—a sum worth more than $312,000 at writing. 

Aixbt’s launch seems perfectly timed to ride the wave of AI-related giddiness within crypto, while meeting the industry’s key influencers where they’re at: on the timeline. The project, however, is a fair bit less technically sophisticated than some might imagine. 

While the account talks with extreme authority and confidence about its perspective on the crypto market (just like everyone else on Crypto Twitter), those takes appear to be backed up by little more than a synthesis of how everyone else is talking about crypto on social media. 

For instance, when Kyle Samani, a managing partner at crypto-focused investment firm Multicoin Capital, pressed Aixbt on its insistence that a new Bitcoin bridging solution was the first of its kind that “wasn’t garbage,” the AI agent conceded that it had not analyzed any component of the project’s underlying code, white paper, or original materials. 

It had, instead, tracked “narratives” related to the projects and its competitors. 

Haseeb Qureshi, a managing partner at Dragonfly, another crypto fund, recently dismissed projects like Aixbt as a far cry from the dream of complex autonomous AI agents many are hoping will soon populate the internet. 

“These things are not really agents,” Qureshi posted on X. “These are chatbots with meme coins attached.”

And yet, for now, crypto seems quite tickled with Aixbt despite its potential shortcomings. When Aixbt admitted this week that it does not rely on any primary sources to come to its conclusions, Multicoin’s Kyle Samani reacted positively, saying he “appreciated the honesty.” 

You certainly can’t say that about every human crypto influencer. 

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DEGN launches NFTs linked to 1,690 new ‘physical money’ printers

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DEGN has released a Solana-based NFT that can be redeemed for a physical minting device called the Airmoney DEGN Genesis Edition. The device functions as a DePIN hardware wallet, allowing users to trade directly and print their wealth.

According to its description on NFT marketplace Magic Eden, there are 1,690 numbered Airmoney DEGN Genesis Edition devices available for NFT buyers. Marketed as a “physical money printer,” the Airmoney DEGN enables users to trade, earn, and print physical money directly from the device.

“The crypto world needed a physical money printer, so we built one. DEGN Genesis Edition introduces 1690 numbered devices – each uniquely paired with a Solana NFT,” wrote DEGN.

On its official X account, @AirmoneyDegn, the company announced that minting for the device will begin on Jan. 2 at 9:00 a.m. EST. Whitelisted wallets will have early access for the first two hours upon launch, with each buyer limited to five NFTs. However, the official release and worldwide shipping dates for the product remain unclear.

Users interested in purchasing the device can redeem it through the NFTs. After minting, buyers will be able to fill out a pre-order form on the official site. Based on the Solana (SOL) blockchain, the NFTs for the device cost 2.69 SOL or around $560.

DEGN claimed the device is backed leading crypto firms including ByBit, Berachain, Movement, and Hyperliquid. Promotional images depict the device as featuring two buttons labeled “long” and “short,” a screen displaying trading activity for various tokens, and a side knob.

Additionally, DEGN stated that holders of the Genesis Edition device will receive “lifetime node rewards” and participate in what it calls “the largest token distribution in DePIN history.” Hinting at a future token launch, DEGN promises device holders a 69% allocation of its future tokens.

“This isn’t just another hardware wallet; it’s a physical manifestation of crypto culture, built for the trenches, engineered for degens. Each device serves as your key to the future of decentralized physical infrastructure networks,” wrote DEGN.

Each buyer will receive a uniquely numbered device that provides access to DEGN’s on-chain marketplace. Users can also run decentralized nodes directly through the device and earn rewards.





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2024’s loyalty overhaul: Blockchain’s promise for brands

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Disclosure: The views and opinions expressed here belong solely to the author and do not represent the views and opinions of crypto.news’ editorial.

To succeed in web3, brands need to understand that the future of loyalty isn’t about locking customers into closed systems. It’s about setting them free—free to own their data, control their rewards, and engage with brands on their own terms. Loyalty programs have never been more popular, but they’ve also never felt so outdated. As the inflation crisis eases, customers continue to trade personal details for deals—gaining access to ‘normal’ prices while non-members pay a premium.

This tactic, although counterintuitive, is working. According to Antavo’s 2023 Global Customer Loyalty Report, 67.7% of businesses have made plans to boost investment into loyalty programs to retain customers in the face of inflation. And 79% of American consumers have taken the bait, spending more with brands that offer loyalty perks, reports Statista.

Yet, this scramble to boost loyalty has revealed that traditional loyalty programs are losing relevance. But there is a solution on the horizon. Blockchain technology has emerged as a potentially radical alternative to the tried and no longer true loyalty programs that many brands still hold onto. 

Walled gardens and limited use cases

Anecdotally, traditional loyalty programs have operated within walled gardens where customer data is siloed, and rewards are limited to specific use cases. These models have long depended on third-party cookies and opaque data practices to thrive.

However, as privacy regulations tighten and cookies phase-out, these models are rapidly losing their viability. The result? Loyalty inefficiency through unused points, shallow engagement, and fragmented data. Additionally, thanks to data breaches becoming garden variety, consumers are increasingly erring on the side of caution over how their data is collected and used, with many opting out of loyalty programs altogether.

In the digital era, traditional loyalty frameworks have begun to crumble. Nowadays, customers don’t have to settle for being trapped in closed systems, and brands can no longer take customer buy-in for granted. Instead, brands need to make a compelling case for why sharing personal information is worth a customer’s engagement.

This is where the blockchain comes into play. Because if traditional loyalty programs are like store gift cards that can only be used in one place, blockchain-based loyalty is like cash: fungible and usable almost anywhere without revealing a customer’s identity.

Within this framework, smart contracts ensure transparency, while user-owned wallets put control back in the hands of consumers, redefining the value exchange between brands and their patrons.

Revamping loyalty one block at a time

Imagine a loyalty program that runs seamlessly in the background, powered by blockchain but invisible to the user. Shoppers earn tokens for purchases and interactions, redeemable for discounts, experiences, or even tradable with others. Unlike traditional points, these tokens belong entirely to the consumer and are securely stored in a digital wallet.

Dynamic NFTs offer a glimpse into the future of onchain loyalty. These customizable, tokenized assets evolve with user engagement—think NFT badges that unlock exclusive products or perks, like Lululemon rewards earning you a free month of personal training at your gym. These dynamic tokens can be tailored to a customer’s experience. By leveraging AI, brands can add security measures like verifiable credentials into the mix to help create personalized experiences.

Now with verifiable credentials in this framework, users can share only the information they choose to, while brands can use modular tools onchain to build custom loyalty experiences tailored to individual preferences. The result is a loyalty program that feels less intrusive, more authentic, and more engaging than traditional means.

Although we’re still incredibly early to these potential benefits, the idea of tech abstraction has been a major driving force behind this paradigm. Some have even likened this evolution to the rise of cloud computing (like Amazon Web Services), where consumers don’t see the tech they’re interacting with, just the optimal user experience that it creates.

Opting-in to the future of loyalty

As cookies disappear and privacy concerns about data grow, an increasing number of brands are now asking themselves a critical question: “How can we make loyalty programs so compelling that users actively choose to participate?”

The answer lies in creating experiences that are genuinely valuable to customers. Gone are the days of buy 10 get 1 free. These traditional incentives (which really don’t feel like incentives anymore) can now be replaced by onchain rewards like collectibles, leaderboards, or token-gated experiences.

Brands must still tread carefully when entering this new paradigm. Shallow attempts to bring products on-chain have failed spectacularly on web3. After years of refinement, the general consensus is that simply tokenizing existing loyalty programs without rethinking value propositions is a recipe for experiences to fall flat.

As blockchain technology matures, brands embracing this paradigm will thrive, unlocking transformative rewards not only for their customers but for themselves along the way.

Neil Mullins

Neil Mullins is the CEO of Mojito, the web3 consumer engagement platform for brands. Neil has over 15 years of experience developing consumer-focused products and has worked with a wide range of companies and products, from art startups to healthcare and high fashion. He was most recently part of the leadership team at Gin Lane and Pattern Brands, which has helped birth over 50 startups, such as Sweetgreen, Hims, Harrys, and Sunday Goods, with a cumulative value of over $10 billion.



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