Bitwise chief funding officer Matt Hougan is extra assured that crypto markets will growth in 2026, notably as there hasn’t been a late-2025 rally but.
Talking to Cointelegraph at The Bridge convention in New York Metropolis on Wednesday, Hougan stated a crypto market rally on the finish of 2025 would have match the four-year cycle thesis, that means 2026 would mark the beginning of a bear market, related to 2022 and 2018.
When requested to revise his prediction about whether or not the crypto market will growth in 2026, Hougan stated: “I’m truly extra assured in that quote. The largest danger was [if] we ripped into the tip of 2025 after which we obtained a pullback.”
Hougan stated curiosity within the Bitcoin (BTC) debasement trade, stablecoins and tokenization would proceed to speed up, whereas arguing that Uniswap’s fee switch proposal launched on Monday would reinvigorate curiosity in decentralized finance protocols within the coming yr.
“I feel the underlying fundamentals are simply so sound,” Hougan stated. “I feel these earlier forces, institutional funding, regulatory progress, stablecoins, tokenization, I simply assume these are too massive to maintain down. So I feel 2026 will likely be a good yr.”
Bitcoin can nonetheless set a new excessive earlier than yr’s finish
Hougan continues to be optimistic that Bitcoin, Ether (ETH) and Solana (SOL) can set new highs by 2026, however not so far as Maelstrom Fund chief funding officer Arthur Hayes and Fundstrat managing accomplice Tom Lee assume.
The pair predicted a few months in the past that Bitcoin and Ether might attain $250,000 and $15,000, respectively, earlier than the tip of the yr.
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Bitcoin is presently buying and selling at $101,762 and Ether at $3,416, that means that they might have to rise 145% and 340% to attain these lofty targets.
Crypto-native retail is “depressed”
Talking of the present market pullback, Hougan blamed it on “crypto-native retail,” arguing that many early investors have “compressed upside” with massive gross sales these days.
And people who anticipated a repeat of the 2020-2021 bull cycle have been given a harsh actuality test, Hougan stated.
“Crypto native retail is depressed, they have been overwhelmed down by FTX, they have been overwhelmed down by the memecoin debacle. They have been overwhelmed down by the altcoin season not arriving. They obtained damage on the ten/10 liquidation, and I feel they’re simply sitting this one out.”
Then again, “TradFi retail” is prospering, in accordance to Hougan, who pointed to the rise in spot crypto exchange-traded fund inflows during the last two years.
“Conventional retail, like my uncle, he’s shifting into crypto, that a part of retail continues to be alive,” stated Hougan.
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