My thoughts on crypto in 2026

My thesis: User Experience is King

My problem: Solana had this edge for a while during the bear market, being the king of UX. Fast, cheap, contrarian, and retail first. However, the lines have blurred. SUI, APT, and hell, even L2s feel fast and cheap. The best bet for simplicity's sake feels like Solana. But I'm not buying any right now. This feels like the Polygon problem. Back in the last bull market, Polygon was flying high and mighty as a side chain to ETH because it was the only thing retail could really afford to play on. In the bear market that followed it was very much SOL vs MATIC. And now Polygon as a chain is mostly dead except Polymarket, which just begs the question, will every killer app be it's own blockchain? Hyperliquid agrees.

2 cents on Technical Analysis: If your project did not hit a new all-time high during Trump's current presidency, you are on a sinking ship, my friend.

Trump: I believe history will look back at Trump being bad for crypto and the market. Call Biden's Operation Chokepoint what you will, but the BTC and ETH ETF were both approved under Joe. That to me was more bullish that a President launching his own memecoin along with what looks like insider trading on a scale that would make every dead president roll in their grave.

What Market Are We In: We are in a bear market. As famed trader Jeese Livermore said over a hundred years ago, "... a market does not culminate in one grand blaze of glory. Neither does it end with a sudden reversal of form. A market can and does cease to be a bull market long before prices generally begin to break."

Memecoins: Will never die but will likely never see the frenzy of the past 3 years and new Memecoins that gain traction will not survive above 2-4B Marketcap before getting rugged.

Prediction Markets: Will remain a staple product up there with Stablecoins.

Perps Trading: Will become more dominant than Options trading in the next 10 years. Most retail will be exclusive Perps trading for leverage within that time. All equities will be available to be traded 24/7 and on-chain within 10 years.