The cryptocurrency industry may be one growth cycle away from full mainstream adoption. Industry insiders said crypto adoption could surpass 5 billion users in the next decade.
A Crypto.com research report estimated 659 million cryptocurrency holders at the end of 2025. The figure shows strong growth from earlier years and highlights the rising role of digital assets.
Thomas Prévot, head of operations in France at Crypto.com, explained this projection at the WAIB Summit 2025 in Monaco.
“We’re about one growth cycle away from full mainstream adoption. I’m not talking about 1 billion users. I’m talking about 5 billion users.”
He added that reaching this milestone would mean crypto adoption at a level comparable to credit card payments today.
Participants included Zoltan Vardai, Zain Ali, Thomas Prévot, Roy van Krimpen, Andrea, and Karen Jouve.
Prévot also noted that the next big wave of mainstream crypto adoption will likely follow the recovery from the down cycle and emerge at the beginning of the next bull market cycle.
Panelists agreed that reaching one billion users would reflect significant mainstream acceptance of crypto as an alternative payment system, in line with Satoshi Nakamoto’s Bitcoin vision.
Adoption projections are also linked to Bitcoin’s potential value.
Willy Woo, a Bitcoin analyst, suggested in August 2024 that mainstream crypto adoption could push Bitcoin to $700,000 per token, based on a 3% portfolio allocation.
This outlook connected large-scale crypto adoption with portfolio strategies and Bitcoin’s role in the broader cryptocurrency industry.
Roy van Krimpen, general manager for Western Europe at OKX exchange, explained two pathways to reach the first billion crypto users.
“We’ve seen that in 2021, where the market more than quadrupled in a span of a few months due to retail speculation and investors.”
He added that the second option is adoption through blockchain use cases, such as crypto payments, which require wider consumer behavior changes.
Chintan Turakhia, senior director of engineering at Coinbase, pointed to usability as a critical factor.
He said that blockchain applications and more beginner-friendly crypto tools will help reach the one billion user mark.
Industry participants at the WAIB Summit underlined that crypto adoption will grow through a mix of price speculation and blockchain usability, depending on how quickly new applications enter the market.
