The cryptocurrency market exudes a pervasive bearish sentiment, with even crypto-focused platforms expressing pessimism about bitcoin’s price trajectory throughout 2025. Reflecting this skepticism, merely 20% of Polymarket traders anticipate bitcoin surpassing $100,000 by year’s end.
While there has been a myriad of positive news regarding bitcoin and crypto this year, price performance has failed to reflect this, and prediction markets are now reacting accordingly.
In a bet with over $112 million in volume, only 20% of the traders believe that bitcoin will be able to close 2025 over $100K. Most traders believe that bitcoin will overcome the $95K level, but will stay there.
While permabulls were betting on the recent Federal Reserve interest rate cuts to provide a launchpad for bitcoin to surpass $100K, this did not happen, as the market is currently facing a so-called liquidity crisis, among other elements bringing bitcoin down.

This year’s bitcoin’s wild ride might also be related to the rise of artificial intelligence (AI), substituting bitcoin as Wall Street’s darling for the time being. This is one of the theories that supports bitcoin’s yearly decline.
But not only is bitcoin hurting, as the dangers of an AI bubble have fueled a recent decline in tech stocks after Oracle shares dropped over 10% over concerns linked to increased spending on data center infrastructure.
Read more: The AI Bubble Isn’t Just Affecting Bitcoin, Even Stocks Are Floundering – Markets and Prices Bitcoin News
Nonetheless, large digital asset treasuries (DATs) like Strategy are unfazed and continue to purchase bitcoin, hoping the cryptocurrency will continue its multi-year bull market in the medium term.
Positive signs are coming from regulatory advancements and increasing inclusion of crypto and bitcoin rails into financial services companies, highlighting upcoming adoption that might help bitcoin and other crypto rally.
It remains to be seen if these developments will impact bitcoin’s price positively, as some analysts expect. For now, bears are not buying it.