Crypto Got Everything It Wanted in 2024 (Video)

Crypto was once a sideshow for the investing public, a problem for policymakers in Washington DC, and an object of ridicule for top Wall Street figures.

That changed in 2024.

Digital assets like Bitcoin (BTC-USD) can now be owned and traded like a stock by everyday Americans. Some of Wall Street’s biggest players think it’s a wise investment. And a new administration in Washington, DC, is promising major legislative changes to support the industry.

The widespread acceptance of cryptocurrencies resulted in big profits for participating investors.

The number of Bitcoin owners has risen 126% since the start of the year as the price of the world’s largest cryptocurrency hit new records, rising above $100,000 following the election of Donald Trump. According to Coinmarketcap, the market value of all cryptocurrencies increased by almost $1.7 trillion.

“Everything is on the line for the crypto industry right now,” Ian Katz, managing partner of Capital Alpha, told Yahoo Finance.

Enthusiasts don’t think the rally will end soon.

This time next year, “we’ll be having the same conversation that Bitcoin has had incredible success,” Bitwise Chief Investment Officer Matt Hougan told Yahoo Finance. Bitwise expects Bitcoin to surpass $200,000 before the end of 2025.

One of the biggest beneficiaries of this shift on Wall Street, BlackRock (BLK) CEO Larry Fink, was once a “proud skeptic” of Bitcoin. The head of the world’s largest asset manager has become one of its best-known supporters.

“I was a proud skeptic, and I studied it, learned about it, and ended up saying, ‘Okay, you know, my opinion (for) five years was wrong,'” Fink said earlier this year when discussing his previous views with CNBC.

His company BlackRock now recommends interested investors invest “up to 2%” of their portfolio in Bitcoin.

“We believe Bitcoin is an asset class in itself; it is an alternative to other commodities like gold,” Fink told analysts during an earnings conference call in October.

BlackRock and 10 other asset managers such as Fidelity Investments and Franklin Templeton were given the green light in January to launch spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds, allowing everyday investors to gain exposure to the world’s largest cryptocurrency without having to own it.

BlackRock’s ETF, IBIT, then became the fastest growing ETF in history. The 11 ETFs that launched had $100 billion in assets under management as of Dec. 18, according to JPMorgan Research.

“There were people who would have invested in Bitcoin, but because there wasn’t a traditionally trustworthy, easy and efficient way to do it for their circumstances, they didn’t,” Robbie Mitchnick, head of digital assets at BlackRock, told Yahoo Finance. “And then the ETFs changed that.”

BlackRock’s commitment to cryptocurrencies (it also launched a smaller spot Ether ETF in late July) coincided with an election year in which crypto-friendly congressional candidates received major industry support. Some of the biggest crypto players – including Coinbase Global (COIN), Ripple and venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz – spent around $135 million through super PACs.

As a candidate, Trump also made some promises to the industry. He promised to fire SEC Chairman Gary Gensler, one of the industry’s biggest adversaries; appoint a crypto presidential advisory board; and build a “strategic national Bitcoin stockpile” with the help of Congress.

Whether the president-elect will make the US government a Bitcoin holder or even a buyer remains a hot debate.

But Gensler has already announced his resignation and, if confirmed, will be replaced by well-known crypto lawyer Paul Atkins. For years, Atkins has made it clear that he supports clearer regulations for cryptocurrencies that do not hinder innovation or impose unnecessary oversight.

Trump has also appointed venture capitalist David Sacks as AI and crypto czar. Through his venture firm, Sacks has already backed a number of crypto and AI companies.

Several other Trump Cabinet members have also disclosed or discussed their involvement in cryptocurrencies in the past.

As if these executive branch appointments weren’t enough, the industry is also eagerly awaiting what will likely be the most crypto-friendly Congress in history.

“People are shocked about this because we are a new industry and have new influence in Washington,” Nic Carter, partner and co-founder of crypto venture firm Castle Island Ventures, told Yahoo Finance.

The Republican Party is expected to push pro-crypto legislation that would provide clear regulation of stablecoins and the broader crypto market, and even give large banks a better way to interact with digital assets.

Carter met with Republicans to discuss the crypto world’s lack of access to U.S. banks.

“We have been an industry that has been relentlessly teased over the last four years and it is only natural that we would seek to protect our interests,” he added.

But many regulated U.S. banks still have no influence over cryptocurrencies, as David Solomon, CEO of Goldman Sachs, noted at a recent Reuters conference.

“Everyone is speculating about how this regulatory framework will evolve, but it is still unclear how the regulatory framework will evolve,” Solomon added.

It’s still hard to imagine how long it might take for the first crypto bill to reach the House and Senate, and then Trump.

“I just want to warn people: If you think that on January 20th a switch will flip and everything will get better and Bitcoin and the digital asset community will flourish, then Washington just doesn’t work that way,” said Anthony Scaramucci, a crypto investor who worked in Trump’s first administration told Yahoo Finance.

However, these unknowns don’t give some crypto evangelists much cause for concern.

“For the last four years I have said every day: Buy Bitcoin, don’t sell it. “I’m going to buy more Bitcoin,” MicroStrategy chairman and staunch Bitcoin bull Michael Saylor told Yahoo Finance this month.

“I will forever buy Bitcoin at the top.”

Even some remaining skeptics on Wall Street admit it would have been wise to get in earlier.

“Of course I wish I had bought something that was trading at 100 times what it was trading at a few years ago, right?” Citadel CEO Ken Griffin said at the NYT DealBook Summit earlier this month.

“We all have FOMO.”

David Hollerith is a senior reporter for Yahoo Finance, covering banking, crypto and other financial areas.

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