Investment advisers are likely to overtake hedge funds as the largest holders of U.S.-listed spot Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded funds (ETFs) next year, CF Benchmarks said on Monday.

A total of 11 spot BTC ETFs launched in the US on January 11, offering investors the opportunity to gain exposure to the cryptocurrency without having to hold and store it in person. Since their inception, they have accumulated over $36 billion in investor funds.

Demand is dominated by hedge fund managers, who own 45.3% of ETFs. Investment advisors, who are considered gatekeepers to retail and private client capital, are a distant second at 28%.

According to CF Benchmarks, this will change in 2025. CF Benchmarks predicts that the share of investment advisors in both the BTC and Ether (ETH) ETF markets will rise to over 50%. CF Benchmarks is a UK-regulated index provider behind several major digital asset benchmarks, including the BRRNY, which many ETFs reference.

“We expect investment advisor allocations to both assets to increase to over 50% as the $88 trillion U.S. wealth management industry begins using these vehicles, driving combined record-breaking net inflows of $40 billion. dollar in 2024,” CF Benchmarks said in an annual report shared with CoinDesk.

“This shift, driven by growing customer demand, a deeper understanding of digital assets and product maturity, is likely to alter the current ownership mix as these products become permanent fixtures in model portfolios,” the index provider said.

Investment advisors are already at the forefront of the Ether ETF market and are expected to extend their lead next year.

Ether’s parent blockchain, Ethereum, is expected to benefit from the growing popularity of asset tokenization, while competitor Solana could continue to gain market share due to possible regulatory clarity in the US

“We expect the asset tokenization trend to accelerate in 2025
“Tokenized RWAs exceed $30 billion,” the report said, referring to real-world assets.

In stablecoins, new entrants such as Ripple’s RLUSD and Paxos’ USDG are expected to challenge the dominance of Tether’s USDT, whose market share has increased from 50% to 70%.

The scalability of blockchains is also being tested, and the expected increase in active user adoption due to regulatory clarity under President-elect Donald Trump’s administration may require a doubling of on-chain capacity to over 1600 TPS.

Finally, the US Federal Reserve is seen taking a more dovish stance and using unconventional measures such as yield curve control or expanded asset purchases to counter the toxic mix of higher debt service costs and a weak labor market.

“Greater debt monetization should raise inflation expectations and strengthen hard assets like Bitcoin as a hedge against currency devaluation,” the report said.