Bitwise Chief Investment Officer Matt Hougan is more confident that cryptocurrency markets will boom in 2026, especially since there was no growth yet at the end of 2025.
On Wednesday, speaking to Cointelegraph at The Bridge conference in Recent York, Hougan said that a rally in the cryptocurrency market in delayed 2025 would fit the four-year cycle thesis, meaning that 2026 would be the beginning of a bear market similar to 2022 and 2018.
When asked to revise his prediction on whether the cryptocurrency market would boom in 2026, Hougan said: “I’m actually more confident in that quote. The biggest risk was [if] we got to the end of 2025 and then the rollback happened.”
Hougan said interest in Bitcoin (BTC) devalue trading, stablecoins and tokenization will continue to grow, while arguing that Uniswap’s fee change proposal introduced on Monday will reignite interest in decentralized finance protocols in the coming year.
“I think the basic fundamentals are just solid,” Hougan said. “I think these prior forces, institutional investment, regulatory advancements, stablecoins, tokenization, I just think they are too large to contain. So I think 2026 will be a good year.”
Bitcoin could still set a new high before the end of the year
Hougan remains optimistic that Bitcoin, Ether (ETH) and Solana (SOL) can set new highs by 2026, but not as far away as Maelstrom Fund Chief Investment Officer Arthur Hayes and Fundstrat Managing Partner Tom Lee believe.
The pair predicted several months ago that Bitcoin and Ether could reach $250,000 and $15,000, respectively, before the end of the year.
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Bitcoin is currently trading at $101,762 and Ether at $3,416, meaning they would need to increase by 145% and 340% to reach these lofty goals.
Cryptocurrency retail is in ‘depression’
Speaking about the current market slowdown, Hougan placed the blame on “crypto retail,” arguing that many early investors have “compressed growth” thanks to heavy recent sales.
Hougan said those who expected a repeat of the bull cycle in 2020-21 were given a harsh reality check.
“Native retail crypto is depressed, they got beat by FTX, they got beat by the memecoin debacle. They got beat by altcoin season not coming. They got hurt in the 10/10 liquidation and I think they’ll just wait it out.”
On the other hand, “tradFi retail” is booming, according to Hougan, who pointed to an increase in the inflow of spot funds into cryptocurrency trading over the past two years.
“Traditional retail, like my uncle, is moving to cryptocurrencies, that part of retail is still alive,” Hougan said.
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