Bitwise chief funding officer Matt Hougan is extra assured that crypto markets will increase in 2026, significantly as there hasn’t been a late-2025 rally but.
Chatting with 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, which means 2026 would mark the beginning of a bear market, just like 2022 and 2018.
When requested to revise his prediction about whether or not the crypto market will increase in 2026, Hougan stated: “I’m really extra assured in that quote. The largest threat was [if] we ripped into the tip of 2025 after which we bought a pullback.”
Hougan stated curiosity within the Bitcoin (BTC) debasement commerce, stablecoins and tokenization would proceed to speed up, whereas arguing that Uniswap’s charge swap 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 suppose these are too large to maintain down. So I feel 2026 will likely be a great yr.”
Bitcoin can nonetheless set a brand new excessive earlier than yr’s finish
Hougan remains 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 companion Tom Lee suppose.
The pair predicted just 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.
Associated: Altcoins aren’t lifeless; lengthy dwell altcoins
Bitcoin is at the moment buying and selling at $101,762 and Ether at $3,416, which means that they must rise 145% and 340% to succeed in 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 buyers have “compressed upside” with massive gross sales recently.
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 had been overwhelmed down by FTX, they had been overwhelmed down by the memecoin debacle. They had been overwhelmed down by the altcoin season not arriving. They bought damage on the ten/10 liquidation, and I feel they’re simply sitting this one out.”
However, “TradFi retail” is prospering, in keeping with 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 remains to be alive,” stated Hougan.
Journal: Huge Questions: Did a time-traveling AI invent Bitcoin?
