Ninepoint Unveils 2025 Midyear Outlook!

By: Alex Tapscott, Managing Director of the Ninepoint Digital Asset Group, a division of Ninepoint Partners, and Portfolio Manager of the Ninepoint Crypto and AI Leaders ETF at Ninepoint Partners

This past week, Ninepoint Partners published its 2025 Midyear Outlook, covering insights across fixed income, infrastructure, gold, energy, and cryptoassets from our team of industry-leading portfolio managers. The report offers thoughts on what’s ahead for the back half of the year, including opportunities to build value in these uncertain times.

Indeed, for those who may not be aware, Ninepoint is one of Canada’s leading alternative investment management firms overseeing approximately $7 billion in assets under management and institutional contracts. We manage innovative investment solutions that offer investors the benefits of better diversification, targeting investment strategies that are uncorrelated to traditional asset classes, such as equities and bonds, with the goal of lowering overall portfolio risk. Ninepoint offers a diverse set of alternative strategies spanning Equities, Fixed Income, Alternative Income, Real Assets, F/X and Digital Assets.

As such, this 16-page report has something for everyone. We encourage you to give it a read.

In our cryptoasset section, we discussed how investor expectations entering the year were high, and sentiment was overwhelmingly bullish, following a historic 2024 marked by policy support, institutional adoption and technological progress. While macroeconomic forces took center stage in the first half of the year, dampening momentum across crypto and AI, we believe sector tailwinds are returning and laying the groundwork for a strong second half. We believe a few core themes will shape the next six months: accelerating demand for cryptoassets, the rise of public crypto treasury companies, the convergence of crypto and AI, and more.

Read the full Ninepoint 2025 Midyear Outlook here.

Are Stocks the New Altcoins?

Join Alex Tapscott and Andrew Young as they decode the world of Web3. Listen in as they discuss the growing bifurcation between cryptoassets and crypto equities following the GENIUS Act’s Senate approval, what’s happening in the altcoin market, whether a crypto IPO season is on the horizon, how equities and tokens compare, the accelerating convergence between TradFi and crypto, and more.

As we’ve talked about before, tokens are leading the next wave of financial innovation. The first killer app for tokens has been dollars. Stablecoin supply has grown from under $1 billion in 2018 to $240 billion today, with 170 million holders globally. But as BlackRock CEO Larry Fink has increasingly voiced, the next step for financial markets is the tokenization of all asset types: stocks, bonds, funds, and more. To be sure, this evolution is already underway. Today, stablecoins account for roughly 90% of the $265 billion tokenized real-world asset (RWA) market. But if you strip those out, you’ll notice other asset classes are quietly coming onchain and gaining traction. Together, these represent $25 billion, up 120% in the past year and 270x over the last five. Private credit, U.S. treasuries, and commodities are currently the three largest asset classes in this group, but it’s still early, and other categories could soon overtake them. The two we’re watching most closely are stocks and institutional alternative funds, which currently sit at $365 million and $565 million respectively. Based on recent activity from Robinhood, Coinbase, and Kraken, it’s clear these asset classes are a top priority to tokenize, bring onchain, and open up access to anyone worldwide. Overall, if regulators give the green light, we believe the tokenized RWA market will grow meaningfully and become one of the strongest areas of growth in crypto. Stocks and funds will likely drive a significant portion of that. While stablecoins democratize access to a U.S. bank account, these other emerging tokenized asset classes will do the same for a U.S. investment account.

Chart 2: Bitcoin's Silent Rally Signals Market Maturity. Plus: Stablecoin Summer is Here!

In last week’s Digital Asset Digest, we discussed how this cycle has been very different from past ones. This chart backs that up, but from another angle. It shows two key metrics: BTC price and Google search interest (scored from 0 to 100) for the most popular crypto-related terms. Looking at the last cycle, these moved in lockstep. When BTC hit its peak, search scores for terms like “Bitcoin,” “Crypto,” and “Coinbase” all reached the maximum score of 100. Search interest served as a reliable proxy for retail hype, and BTC topped out when retail attention was at its peak. But this cycle is different. For the first time ever, we’re seeing a clear divergence between BTC price and search interest. That aligns with a broader trend: the crypto market is becoming more institutional, driven by capital flowing into Bitcoin ETFs and public companies adopting BTC as part of their treasury strategies. As the market matures, it’s become far less reliant on retail interest, a key reason why Bitcoin is starting to behave more like a blue-chip asset. To be sure, the rise of AI tools like ChatGPT has undoubtedly impacted search trends, with more people turning to AI for answers instead of searching on Google. Still, we believe this metric remains a valuable signal. And now, with the GENIUS Act clearing the Senate, Circle’s sizzling-hot IPO, and traditional enterprises racing to launch stablecoin initiatives, the crypto community has officially dubbed this moment “Stablecoin Summer.” One clear sign: search interest for “stablecoin” just hit its second-highest level ever. The only time it was higher was in 2022, following the collapse of TerraUSD. The difference this time? The interest is positive.