2025 has been a wild ride for everyone who expected and major altcoins to hit new highs. We’re 3 days away from the New Year, volatility is still insane, the Fear and Greed index has been extreme for dozens of days, and most significant cryptocurrencies are trading well below their ATHs.
However, prominent crypto moguls are slightly optimistic about 2026. We gathered the most significant predictions in one post, and yes, we want to come back here next December and find out if this time they were true.
BlackRock: It’s Time for Stablecoins
BlackRock’s 2026 outlook frames digital assets, especially stablecoins, as financial infrastructure for payments, settlement, and liquidity, rather than a pure speculative trade. The firm highlights the maturing role of dollar-pegged tokens in cross-border transfers and treasury flows. It argues that crypto’s most durable growth now sits beneath the surface in rails that interoperate with traditional finance.
“Stablecoins are no longer niche — they’re becoming the bridge between traditional finance and digital liquidity,” says Samara Cohen, Global Head of Market Development at BlackRock.
Grayscale: New Bitcoin ATH in H1 2026
Grayscale’s annual outlook calls for Bitcoin to set a new all-time high in the first half of 2026. A DCG-owned investment group believes the Bitcoin price will be driven by clearer U.S. policy, rising institutional demand, and the fading dominance of the simple four-year halving cycle as macro liquidity and regulation take the wheel. The firm expects “rising valuations in 2026,” with institutions increasingly treating BTC as an allocatable portfolio asset.
Coinbase: Perps, Prediction Markets, and Stablecoins Are Future
In its report, Coinbase Institutional says market structure, not narratives, will define 2026. The major crypto exchange expects the activity to concentrate on:
* Perpetual futures will anchor price discovery and command most trading volume. Leverage reset in late-2025 is seen as structural, not a retreat.
* Prediction markets will become a credible venue for information and risk transfer. It is worth noting that Coinbase plans its own push into the category.
* Stablecoins and payments will become crypto’s most persistent real-world use case. Coinbase models the stablecoin market cap at approximately $1.2 trillion by 2028.
Galaxy: Real-World Boom and Tokenized Assets
In its paper titled “26 Crypto, Bitcoin, DeFi, and AI Predictions for 2026”, Galaxy, same as BlackRock, focused on the real-world use cases. Stablecoins are forecast to process more volume than U.S. ACH and become core payment plumbing. Tokenized assets are expected to enter mainstream collateral and capital markets. Public chains will rethink value capture, with at least one L1 likely enshrining a revenue-generating app to feed its native token.
