2025 marked a turning point for cryptocurrency – not because of hype or headlines, but because of how serious investors began to treat it. As regulatory clarity improved and institutional participation expanded, crypto moved out of the shadows of speculation and into a more familiar role: a legitimate asset class considered alongside stocks, bonds, and other long-term investments.
What changed wasn’t simply price performance. It was perception. For the first time, large institutions and everyday investors alike stopped asking whether crypto belonged in a portfolio at all. Instead, the conversation shifted to a more practical question: How do digital assets fit within a disciplined, long-term investment strategy?
The big investing change in crypto
The big change has to do with institutional and more and more private investors no longer thinking of cryptocurrencies as a risky outlier to be avoided or, at best, only touched upon in very small amounts.
That’s not to say that crypto doesn’t have risks and volatility involved. All investments do, and it’s this very volatility that enables the growth potential of an investment.
Smart investors have long understood that concept while investing into other market sectors, whether it is the stock market, bonds, real estate, or other types of investments. The lower the volatility, the lower the potential return on investment (ROI).
The converse is true, too: The more volatility, the more risk – the higher the ROI potential.
The trick is to be smart about it by balancing risk with stability so that you can both take advantage of opportunity while still being able to sleep well at night.
This is where the big shift in thinking comes into play. Gracy Chen with Investing.com tells us:
By the end of 2025, digital assets have become part of real portfolios rather than just experiments. Bitcoin ETPs now hold roughly $120–$135 billion in assets worldwide, and tokenized Treasury funds have grown into a multibillion-dollar segment.
And there is the shift hiding in plain sight: crypto has become part of the portfolios of institutional and everyday retail investors instead of being perceived as a gamble that only wildcatter speculators would risk their money in. In fact, Chen says clients no longer wonder whether they should diversify with crypto. Instead, they’re asking how crypto fits in with their other investments.
I believe that’s the right question!
Increasingly, that’s how more and more investors are positioning themselves. It’s about diversifying into crypto and diversifying within crypto – in the context of other assets.
This isn’t something that many people could see just a few years ago. And it’s not just me saying that. A recent article put out by TRM Labs notes:
A decade ago, the idea that the world’s largest asset managers would manage bitcoin (BTC) and ether (ETH) on behalf of everyday investors sounded improbable. Crypto markets were fragmented, lightly regulated, and widely viewed with skepticism by policymakers. Yet by 2025… digital assets had entered the financial mainstream.
There’s simply no question that crypto has moved beyond being on the cusp of going mainstream.
Crypto already is mainstream.
How you can think about crypto
With mainstream acceptance will almost certainly come increased prices for crypto assets. It’s simple supply and demand. The more people who want to buy crypto, the more specific coins will be worth.
Having said that, you would do well to always remember that crypto, with all of its potential upside, is an investment, and that’s why I always recommend that you treat it in the same way that you would any other investment category that you have a long-term vision for in your portfolio.
(You do have a long-term vision for your savings, don’t you? If you don’t, that is your very first step because having a long-term vision will allow you to make smart decisions for you based on your goals – instead of impulsively reacting to daily market moves.)
Within your long-term vision, you can, then, decide how you want to diversify between asset classes and between different specifics within each asset class. In simple terms, this means deciding what percentage of your investment dollars will go to crypto and what percentage will go towards the other investment class(es) that you have chosen to use to reach your investing goals.
Then, you’ll want to use the dollar cost averaging way of thinking, continuing to invest regularly with an eye towards long-term stable growth.
In other words, be smart about it, not impulsive, and play the long game.
As part of that long game, one move that many investors have found to be smart for them is to use tax-advantaged investment vehicles so that they can minimize their tax liability by deferring taxes until retirement. This means that they aren’t both taking on risk for the potential of growth while also having to pay taxes immediately on that risk once the price goes higher on those crypto assets. They can wait until the retirement years when they are often in a lower tax bracket, thus getting the best of both worlds: growth, deferred taxes, and potentially lower taxes to be paid.
To find out more about how you can use tax-advantaged investment vehicles to diversify into cryptocurrencies, you can start your research by getting our free Essential Guide to Crypto IRAs. Or, maybe you’ve made up your mind and you’re ready to put crypto to work for you? The good news is, you can open your Digital IRA online right now in less than 10 minutes.
The 10 minutes you spend right now could move your retirement date up by years… So don’t delay, start today. And if you have any questions, our Digital Currency Specialists are standing by at 1 (800) 299-1567.
