Rising demand for alternative stores of value, coupled with greater regulatory clarity, is helping lay the groundwork for what could become the next crypto bull market, according to Grayscale.
Speaking Monday on CNBC’s Crypto World, Grayscale head of research Zach Pandl said macroeconomic pressures remain the dominant force shaping the market. Growing government debt, persistent fiscal deficits, and mounting concerns over fiat currency debasement are prompting investors to look beyond traditional assets.
“There’s a lot happening in crypto, but the largest asset in the market — Bitcoin — is primarily driven by demand for alternative stores of value,” Pandl said. “That demand stems from rising debt and deficits and the risk of fiat currency debasement.”
Pandl added that these macroeconomic imbalances are unlikely to ease in the near term, suggesting that investor portfolio shifts toward crypto could continue through 2026.
Grayscale sees greater regulatory clarity in 2026
Regulation is the second major catalyst Grayscale expects to drive the next crypto bull market. The firm anticipates bipartisan progress on a US crypto market structure bill in early 2026, after delays in 2025 caused by political gridlock and a government shutdown. While the legislation failed to pass last year, Zach Pandl said momentum has returned, with lawmakers from both parties showing renewed interest in establishing clear federal rules for digital assets.
“We’ve come a very long way this year in terms of the operating environment for businesses in crypto in the United States,” Pandl said. “However, there is still a long way to go.”
Pandl added that clearer regulation could unlock new use cases, allowing startups, established firms, and even Fortune 500 companies to issue tokens as part of their capital structures alongside traditional instruments such as stocks and bonds. Once the legal status of digital assets is firmly defined, token issuance could become a mainstream financing option, he said.
Big Tech and banks to accelerate crypto adoption in 2026: Dragonfly
Echoing Pandl’s outlook, Dragonfly managing partner Haseeb Qureshi has suggested that a major Big Tech company could integrate a crypto wallet in 2026, potentially bringing billions of users into the ecosystem. He speculated that firms such as Google, Meta, or Apple could either launch their own wallets or acquire existing ones.
Qureshi also expects more Fortune 100 companies — particularly in banking and fintech — to develop their own blockchain networks. These systems are likely to be private or permissioned but interoperable with public blockchains, leveraging infrastructure such as Avalanche and modular frameworks like OP Stack and ZK Stack.
Several major financial institutions, including JPMorgan, Bank of America, and Goldman Sachs, have already built private blockchain platforms, though most remain limited in scope or experimental.
