Bitcoin May Be In A Price Slump—But Adoption Is In A Bull Market
The latest Bitcoin (BTC) value efficiency could seem subdued, with the main crypto at present buying and selling under the $65,000 stage and sitting round 50% beneath all-time highs, however a brand new report from River means that adoption traits in 2025 inform a really totally different story.
According to the agency, the community’s progress throughout establishments, companies, monetary advisors, and even nation-states accelerated sharply over the previous 12 months, regardless of market weak spot.
Institutional Bitcoin Demand
One of essentially the most notable developments has been the size of institutional accumulation. River reports that establishments acquired roughly 829,000 Bitcoin in 2025 alone. These consumers included companies, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), funding funds, and government-related entities.
Investment advisors have additionally emerged as regular consumers. Registered funding advisors (RIAs), which collectively oversee round $146 trillion in consumer belongings, have been internet purchasers of Bitcoin publicity for eight consecutive quarters.
Their participation largely started after the launch of spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds in 2024. Over the previous two years, RIAs have invested roughly $1.5 billion per quarter into Bitcoin ETFs, with no single quarter of internet promoting.
Adoption inside this group is already widespread: 29 of the top 30 US RIAs maintain Bitcoin publicity. However, allocations stay minimal, averaging simply 0.008% of belongings, leaving appreciable room for growth.
Surge In Bank, Corporate And Retail Adoption
Traditional banks are additionally transferring nearer to the asset. Around 60% of the biggest US banks are reportedly growing Bitcoin-related merchandise.
Corporate adoption accelerated as nicely. Public firm possession of Bitcoin elevated by 2.5 occasions in 2025, with companies collectively rating because the largest net buyers in the course of the 12 months.
Much of this demand got here from Bitcoin treasury firms, however River notes that many established companies have been quietly including BTC in smaller quantities. The agency expects one of these stability sheet adoption to develop throughout the S&P 500 within the years forward.
Merchant utilization has grown at a speedy tempo. In the United States, the variety of companies accepting BTC payments tripled in 2025, whereas world service provider adoption rose by 74%.
River, which serves greater than 3,000 companies throughout a number of industries, stories that the strongest progress is happening amongst small, privately held firms, lots of which don’t publicly disclose their Bitcoin methods.
Nation-States Expand BTC Holdings
Nation-state involvement additionally elevated. Five extra nations turned Bitcoin holders in 2025. Among them have been Luxembourg and Saudi Arabia, whose sovereign wealth funds acquired publicity, and the Czech Republic.
Governments have collected Bitcoin by way of quite a lot of channels, together with state-backed mining operations, direct purchases, ETF exposure, asset seizures, donations, and even hacking-related recoveries.
Looking forward, River argues that the divergence between value efficiency and adoption is placing. While the present section of progress could not instantly translate into dramatic value multiples, it displays a deeper type of progress:
We anticipate that within the coming years, Bitcoin adoption won’t solely proceed its present development however meaningfully speed up.
As of this writing, BTC is buying and selling at $64,459, marking losses of 26% and 31% over the previous thirty days and year-to-date, respectively.
Featured picture from OpenArt, chart from TradingView.com
