Extending from a16z crypto's "2025 Crypto Predictions": What are the top projects to watch for next year?

Original Title: Big Ideas from a16z: Top Projects to Watch in 2025

Author: Stacy Muur

Translation: Scof, ChainCatcher

The end of the year is one of my favorite times because top thinkers in the Web3 industry begin to share their high-confidence ideas and predictions for 2025. It’s an exciting moment to outline the potential of the crypto industry in the coming year. Earlier this month, a16z crypto released their list of big ideas for 2025. Which protocols have already established themselves in these key areas? Let’s explore this new publication.

This time, I want to focus on the article released by a16z crypto: “A16Z Outlook on New Crypto Trends for 2025”.

Core Idea #1: AI Agents Managing Wallets

In short, AI agents have demonstrated the ability to trade independently and operate autonomously. There are many emerging use cases in this field where AI agents can become new players in Web3, participating in trading, investing, bridging, and realizing other intents.

Some projects I’m watching in this area include:

NEAR Protocol: NEAR is positioning itself as the "AI Blockchain." Recently, they launched several significant projects, including Near AI and Near Intents. NEAR has already gained considerable influence in the industry and is expected to become a leader in this field by 2025.
Fetch.ai: Fetch.ai is a platform built for the AI economy, providing tools to build, deploy, and monetize AI services. Its ASI wallet can integrate Fetch's best features and advancements in AI, potentially becoming the first implementation case of AI combined with wallets.
Armor Wallet: Armor Wallet is an AI-driven crypto wallet and trading assistant that supports transactions across multiple blockchains and quickly executes complex trades. It’s worth noting that Armor Wallet is still in the early stages of development.
Coin98 Super Wallet: Coin98 launched their AI wallet at the end of November, equipped with an AI assistant that can recommend tools and simplify complex tasks while supporting natural human interaction.

Core Idea #2: Enhanced Information Aggregation

This concept revolves around new mechanisms based on prediction markets, aimed at aggregating information more effectively and enhancing decision-making processes across various fields.

This is a relatively new idea, and I recommend reading Delphi Digital's report “Markets Will Save the World” regarding this area.

My observation list:

MetaDAO: MetaDAO is the first project to implement Futarchy at scale within a DAO. Futarchy is a governance system that combines prediction markets and democratic voting, aiming to drive decision-making through market trading outcomes.
Futarchy: The concept of Futarchy is similar to that of MetaDAO, emphasizing governance through markets and reflecting the potential impact of various policy options on token value.

Core Idea #3: Mass Adoption of Stablecoins

This idea focuses on the increasing adoption of stablecoins, whose trading volume has surpassed that of Visa, MasterCard, and PayPal. This shift will benefit many market participants, including stablecoin issuers, crypto card companies, and crypto acquiring services.

To better showcase the stablecoin ecosystem, here is an ecosystem diagram from the aforementioned research. Consider adding these projects to your watchlist.

In my view, it is particularly important to highlight the infrastructure that can facilitate the growing trading volume, as these infrastructures will be the main beneficiaries of the widespread adoption of stablecoins.

In addition to TRON (as a well-known USDT transfer engine), a protocol worth paying attention to is Noble. This emerging project is dedicated to developing liquidity infrastructure to help asset issuers participate in the cross-chain economy.

Core Idea #4: Modular Everything

Modularity is not a new concept, but a16z believes that next year will see more modular solutions gain mainstream adoption. The following areas are worth watching:

RaaS (Rollup-as-a-Service): Gelato, Caldera, AltLayer, Conduit, Bison Labs.
Interoperability: Hyperlane, Polyhedra, Omni.
Shared Ordering: Espresso, Radius, Zellular.
Privacy: Nillion, Brevis, Automata, Fhenix, zkMe.
Intents: Anoma, Aori, Native.
Storage: Arweave, Storj, Filecoin, Zus.
Oracles: Pyth, RedStone, Supra, Chainlink.

The focus on infrastructure solutions in 2025 remains crucial.

Core Idea #5: Seamless User Experience

This is one of the trends I consider the strongest. Chain abstraction has become a hot topic this year, and we are finally approaching the moment of turning abstract user experiences into reality, rather than just a concept.

Here’s a great chain abstraction diagram from The Defiant:

These projects are all worth watching, but I particularly want to highlight Particle, which is one of my top picks. Their recently launched “Universal Accounts” allow users to seamlessly trade assets across any chain through UniversalX.

Another project worth noting in this area is Everclear, which serves as the primary clearing layer for Web3. As the solver economy required for chain abstraction expands, solvers need to rebalance assets across different chains, and Everclear is the most cost-effective facilitator of this process.

Core Idea #6: Crypto App Stores

a16z's original report mentioned several noteworthy crypto app store developers, including the Telegram app on TON, Alchemy, Solana's mobile dApp store (Seeker), and Worldcoin's mobile app.

I would also like to recommend a few more projects: Glue, DeFi App, and VeBetter.

Core Idea #7: Tokenization of Everything

Tokenization is a broad topic, especially regarding the tokenization of "non-traditional" assets. Here are some projects worth watching:

Kaito AI: Tokenizing influence (attention economy).
GAIB: Providing an economic layer for an AI-driven future by tokenizing enterprise-grade GPUs.
Compute Labs: Competing directly with GAIB by fragmenting ownership of GPUs.
ShopX: Tokenizing goods and products (RWA in e-commerce).
Eaas: Tokenizing carbon footprints.
AI Agents and DeSci: High-risk, peak hype projects like Dolz (tokenizing adult film stars), PsyDAO (tokenizing psychedelic science and art), Molecule (biopharmaceutical IP tokenization protocol).

These projects bring more innovative possibilities to the crypto world and are worth keeping an eye on.

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