From giant corporations like BlackRock getting into Bitcoin ETFs to give it more institutional exposure, to MicroStrategy’s Bitcoin buying frenzy, everything has led to Bitcoin becoming more mainstream.
Bitwise CEO, Hunter Horsley, has added that people would be surprised by the end of 2025, as many traditional financial institutions would start to adopt Bitcoin in a new way. “The mainstream era has started,” he added.
Bitwise CIO, Matt Hougan, has gone a step further and says that this “mainstream” factor has ended the altcoin era.
“The era of crypto being a speculative asset is gone,” he wrote recently on X. “We’ve entered into the fundamental era of crypto, which means more dispersion in individual asset returns.”
While the claim that speculative factors will eventually be diminished makes it feel like parabolic increases may not be a thing anytime soon—especially since Bitcoin is now trading within a narrow range of $84K–$86K—hope is still alive for assets currently available on presale. Among them could be the best crypto to buy now, if the bull run makes a re-entry.
Institutional Interest in Bitcoin Reached New Highs in Q1-2025
Bitwise posted a Corporate Adoption report recently, showing that institutional interest in Bitcoin reached new highs in the first quarter of 2025. There has been an increase of over 16.1% in terms of Bitcoin holdings by institutional investors, with a total of $57 billion worth of Bitcoin held to date.
Seventy-nine companies are now holding Bitcoin, which is a 17% increase from the last quarter. As expected, Strategy—formerly known as MicroStrategy—leads the chart with over 528.7K Bitcoin bought, followed by MARA Holdings with a 47K BTC acquisition. Riot Platforms and CleanSpark come third and fourth in Bitcoin holdings, with over 19K BTC and 11.8K BTC respectively. Elon’s Tesla is also among the top 5 institutional investors, with over 115K Bitcoin held so far.
The report also shed light on companies with plans to acquire Bitcoin this year. A surprising entry is GameStop, a game retail company that has recently raised $1.5 billion to buy Bitcoin. Considering GameStop’s GME is a meme stock, it is clear that the company is trying to rework the magic of “Gamestonks” to generate more interest in its stock through crypto adoption.
For context, Gamestonks was a short-squeeze event in which investors on Reddit banded together against hedge funds that were shorting GameStop stock.
Since it is becoming clear from recent BTC price action and institutional acquisition trends that Bitcoin may no longer be different from a conventional asset, time is of the essence. Investors should consider leveraging the speculative factor—which will likely have a short shelf life—and find the best crypto to buy now. Because if what the Bitwise CIO says is true, mere speculation will soon be over, potentially leading to a lack of parabolic price action in crypto prices.
Best Crypto to Buy Now – Top List
BTC Bull
Bitcoin’s growth has always, in some ways, served the meme market’s interests. However, the impending fear that “speculation may not drive the market any longer” could signal the end of the wild-west days in crypto. Still, there are those who believe the meme market will continue to thrive—and for them, BTC Bull has emerged as a near perfect cryptocurrency project.
Focusing on capitalizing on Bitcoin’s growth to increase in value, BTC Bull is a bull-themed meme coin project that blends iconic imagery and creative tokenomics to give users a taste of parabolic price action.
Each mechanic of BTC Bull—token burns and Bitcoin airdrops—is tied to BTC’s price growth. This approach ensures BTC Bull makes news every time there is a major price movement in Bitcoin. Furthermore, with different mechanics being unlocked, BTC Bull’s growth is directly connected to that of Bitcoin, making it a meme coin equivalent of the world’s largest crypto.
BTC Bull has already attracted the attention of major YouTubers, such as Danjo Capital Master, who have even said the token has 1000x potential as a presale.
While this may seem like a classic case of building hype, Bitcoin has never encountered a project quite like BTC Bull—which is precisely why it’s possible for this meme coin to achieve a high level of growth.
SUBBD
As talks about speculative aspects pulling back from determining crypto’s growth—and market fundamentals taking the lead—continue, one attribute the market should not forget is utility.
Keeping utility at the forefront, SUBBD is a cryptocurrency project offering the world’s first content creation and monetization platform on Web3 that integrates AI tools.
The range of tasks these tools can perform spans from administrative to creative, with requests like custom order fulfillment happening automatically—while also giving creators the chance to build their own AI-driven branding to deliver more value to users.
Fans will also benefit from SUBBD, as the native crypto—$SUBBD—grants them access to exclusive perks and gamification features. Fan-creator interactions will be redefined, allowing users to collaborate with creators on content.
As an AI project, SUBBD even has the potential to replace platforms like OnlyFans, since the added touch of decentralization and customizability could make spicy content… spicier.
SUBBD has raised upwards of $200K in its presale. While this fundraising isn’t exactly parabolic, the fact that people are still investing in this crypto proves that there’s a growing market for utility-driven assets.
Mind of Pepe
Standard market fundamentals aside, there is a belief that both utility and memes will continue to drive the cryptocurrency market. That’s why Mind of Pepe is another asset on this “best crypto to buy” list that could emerge as a leading contender.
Mind of Pepe represents the convergence of two disparate ideas—memes and utility. A Pepe with a cyborg body represents the meme side, and since it functions as an AI agent, users may gain access to market insights in a meme-fied fashion.
Elvora Labs has already done most of the groundwork on the AI agent, and the current focus is on fine-tuning it to deliver sharper insights and better trading alpha calls.
As far as innovative projects go, Mind of Pepe is simple. And while speculation will likely remain the key factor driving its value, its utility could help sustain long-term momentum as well.
Final Words
Bitcoin becoming mainstream will drag all cryptos into the bullseye of institutional attention. With standard market fundamentals becoming key growth drivers, even meme coins could lose their speculative touch as a means of growth.
The downside? A lack of parabolic gains.
The upside? Utility-centric projects could still shine.
That said, that future—if it does arrive—is not here yet. Which means now is probably the right time to find the best crypto to buy. Since an asset’s popularity still hinges on speculative aspects, it’s time to strike while the iron is hot and make early-mover gains—something the cryptos listed in this article could very well deliver.
