Despite all the hype and euphoria that surrounded the crypto market in January, only a handful of top cryptocurrencies are actually up for the year. So crypto investors will need to count on a few big comebacks over the next six months.
My top three candidates for a cryptocurrency that will boom in the second half of 2025 are Bitcoin (BTC +0.26%), Ethereum (ETH +0.28%), and Tron (TRX +0.99%).
Bitcoin
Bitcoin is a no-brainer. It's already one of the top-performing cryptos of the year, and has received significant support from the Trump administration over the past few months. The big move by the White House, of course, was the creation of the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve in March. That essentially gave the green light to institutional investors to ramp up their Bitcoin strategies going forward.
CRYPTO: BTC
Key Data Points
One surprising development this year has seen the unprecedented growth of Bitcoin treasury companies. The goal of these companies is simple: buy up as much Bitcoin as they possibly can, as fast as they can, as cheaply as they can. These companies are following the lead of Strategy (MSTR 1.16%), the largest corporate holder of Bitcoin in the world, which rebranded as a Bitcoin treasury company in February.
The big question, of course, is just how much higher Bitcoin can go this year, even with all this new demand. The world's top cryptocurrency turned in triple-digit returns in both 2023 and 2024, and many crypto investors were expecting Bitcoin to turn in a similar performance this year. But Bitcoin is only up 14% for the year. So it will need a massive year-end rally to reach the much-hyped $200,000 price level.
Ethereum
Ethereum may be down more than 25% year to date, but new rules on staking could change that. "Staking" is a popular way of earning yield on cryptocurrency holdings, and has been the subject of much controversy since early 2023, when the SEC launched an investigation into staking activity.
As a result, when the new spot Ethereum ETFs launched in July 2024, they did not include a staking component. That's why these ETFs underperformed when they launched, according to insiders.
However, the pro-crypto approach of the Trump administration quickly led to a shakeup at the SEC earlier this year, and the thinking now is that government regulators will back down on staking. As a result, spot Ethereum ETFs will likely be allowed to offer staking, and that could lead to a tsunami of new money moving into Ethereum.
Crypto investors point to sustained buying of Ethereum by BlackRock, the company behind the popular iShares Ethereum Trust. Over the past few weeks, BlackRock has been buying Ethereum hand over fist, and that's because it is likely expecting an imminent SEC decision on staking.
Tron
Tron is the real dark horse candidate. Even though Tron currently ranks among the top 10 cryptocurrencies in terms of market cap, chances are most U.S.-based investors are not familiar with it.
That's because the founder of Tron is Justin Sun, a controversial Chinese crypto billionaire who has had numerous run-ins with U.S. regulatory authorities. Heading into 2025, he was still facing potential SEC investigations. As a result, it can sometimes be hard to find U.S.-based cryptocurrency exchanges where you can buy and sell Tron.
Image source: Getty Images.
But here's the thing: Justin Sun is now affiliated with the growing Trump crypto empire. In mid-2024, he made a significant investment into World Liberty Financial, the crypto venture affiliated with the Trump family. In January 2025, he immediately scooped up $75 million of the new Official Trump meme coin and later purchased even more of the meme coin, leading to his being able to attend the Trump meme coin dinner with the president. And he has continually found ways to establish ties with members of the Trump family, to the point where Eric Trump recently called him "a great friend and icon in the crypto space."
In late February 2025, the SEC sent a request to the court overseeing its civil fraud case against Sun, asking for a 60-day stay to explore settlement proceedings. Now, Sun is going into overdrive to build out his Tron crypto empire. In June, he announced a reverse merger with publicly traded SRM Entertainment, which will rebrand itself as "Tron Inc." and transform into a Tron treasury company (i.e., primarily holding Tron as its sole asset). He's also partnered with World Liberty Financial on a new stablecoin project.
I completely understand if all this seems a bit speculative, and perhaps even a bit unsavory. However, the whole point of this exercise was to find cryptocurrencies that might "boom" in the second half of 2025. And I can't think of another cryptocurrency that has a similar opportunity to completely reinvent itself in the second half of the year.
And the top pick is...
If forced to choose between Bitcoin, Ethereum, or Tron, my top pick is still Bitcoin. It's the world's most popular cryptocurrency for a reason -- in terms of mainstream adoption, no other cryptocurrency even comes close. Bitcoin might not double in value this year, but I'm still expecting it to boom within the next few months.
