The Bulls Bag Check: Bitcoin, Solana, Hyperliquid

Top crypto analysts share their insights on where Bitcoin, Solana, and other major cryptocurrencies will trade by the year-end. Plus, the latest signals from futures traders and a look at the crypto market sentiment.

The Bulls

Bitcoin ‘best case' is $250,000 in 2025: Charles Edwards

Bitcoin could reach new all-time highs of $250,000 in 2025 if there are no more surprise tariff scares from US President Donald Trump and the Federal Reserve’s policies remain pro-risk assets and pro-liquidity into the back end of the year, Capriole Investments founder Charles Edwards predicts.

“[It’s] an interesting question and one that I get asked often,” Edwards tells Magazine. “I think the best case would be 2x EV (Bitcoin Energy Value), which is around the $250,000 mark.”

Edwards adds that he thinks we are starting to see some Bitcoin treasury flywheel effects play out already, which could go exponential as companies seek to replicate the (Micro)Strategy playbook.

Earlier this year, in April, BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes predicted Bitcoin could hit $250,000 in 2025 if the US Federal Reserve pivots to quantitative easing. Meanwhile, in November 2024, Fundstrat Global Advisors’ researcher Tom Lee gave a 12-month deadline for $250,000 Bitcoin.

Solana ‘may surpass' $500 by the year-end: Cole Kennelly

Solana price may triple in price by the end of 2025 if its adoption rate gains momentum again, says Volmex Labs founder and CEO Cole Kennelly.

“I think SOL price may surpass $500 by the end of 2025, exceeding $250+ billion in network market cap.”

Kennelly argues that Solana is the premier world computer powering a variety of decentralized applications with a single global atomic state. He predicts that growing stablecoin use such as USDT and USDC and an upswing in the broader DeFi sector, specifically derivatives products, will catalyze demand for SOL.

Kennelly’s price prediction matches the same 2025 target that VanEck projected for Solana back in December 2024.

Another big boost for Solana this year could come if the US regulators approve Solana exchange-traded funds (ETFs). On April 30, Bloomberg Intelligence boosted its estimated odds of this happening to 90%.

However, as we saw with Ether, crypto ETF launches do not guarantee that the asset will skyrocket. While Bitcoin surged 73% in the following two months after spot Bitcoin ETFs launched to reach new all-time highs, Ether dropped 36% in the two months after its July 2024 launch.

HYPE giving exchanges a “run for their money”: Ben Simpson

Keep an eye on the native token of decentralized exchange Hyperliquid (HYPE) for the rest of the year, says Collective Shift CEO Ben Simpson, who says the outlook is bullish, but he’s not ready to slap a price target on it just yet.

“No price targets, but it’s doing really well as a revenue-generating layer 1,” Simpson tells Magazine. Launched in December 2024, Hyperliquid’s layer-1 blockchain, HyperEVM, managed to surpass Solana in seven-day fees by the week of February 27.

Simpson says the layer 1 is keeping major crypto exchanges on their toes.

“It’s built for derivatives, so it’s competing against major exchanges and giving them a run for their money by generating revenue on the platform and giving a share back to tokenholders. One I’m bullish on for this cycle,” Simpson says.

The Bears

BTC Classic, ETC and other 'classic coins' may underperform in 2025: Michaël van de Poppe

The OG spin-off tokens, Bitcoin Classic and Ethereum Classic will likely underperform this year price-wise, according to MN Trading Capital founder Michaël van de Poppe.

“The assets within the top 50 that I’m the most bearish on are the Classic coins,” van de Poppe tells Magazine.

“Coins that come from 2017 and are still printing significant lower lows against Bitcoin will likely continue to die down. Coins such as Bitcoin Classic and Ethereum Classic that serve no role and have proven to be wrong in their thesis.”

Both Bitcoin Classic and Ethereum Cash launched in 2017, and van de Poppe says they may still see some gains due to the rising tide lifting all boats.

He says if Bitcoin does another “3x,” then it is “very likely” that these classic coins may even make a “similar move,” but to him, that’s still bearish since