As large asset managers and industry experts begin to make predictions for 2026, one analyst from Crypto Twitter (CT) has outlined what he generally expects for the cryptocurrency market next year.
The consensus emerging from CT suggests that the market is preparing for a more selective, fundamentals-driven phase rather than a general speculative surge.
Promising cryptocurrency sector in 2026
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In a recent post on
“It’s the complete opposite of where the consensus was for a bull market in 2022,” the analyst said.
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At the time, many investors took positions that Ethereum (ETH) and altcoins would outperform Bitcoin. But in reality, Bitcoin led the market while the rest of the market lagged behind. There was strong optimism that the value of large assets would increase this year.
But the market moved differently than expected. As a result, the outlook for cryptocurrency Twitter has become more cautious and focused. CT’s outlook for which entities will achieve good results in 2026 is summarized below.
1. Bitcoin
Bitcoin is widely seen as a major outperformance asset ahead of 2026. This confidence continues despite the recent weakness in Bitcoin.
BeInCrypto reported that BTC underperformed gold and stocks in 2025. Additionally, Bitcoin is down 6.2% since the beginning of the year.
If the downtrend continues, Bitcoin could end the year with a loss, breaking its two-year run of gains. Nonetheless, CT’s consensus still favors Bitcoin over the overall cryptocurrency market.
At the same time, concerns about quantum computing are also being discussed. Advances in quantum technology could pose a structural risk to Bitcoin cryptography. However, analysts are divided on whether this threat will occur immediately or whether it will take several years.
2. Real World Assets (RWA)
Real-world assets (RWA) and tokenization are emerging as one of the key growth areas in cryptocurrency in 2026. The RWA field has already overcome the market downturn and steadily increased distributed value and users, and this trend is expected to continue.
“Real-world assets and tokenization will grow significantly, but it is difficult to find solid proxy indicators (plasma, stable lousy TGE, etc.) to bet on growth,” Ignas wrote.
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In particular, Plume CEO Chris Indo predicted that despite conservative forecasts, the value and number of users will increase 10 to 20 times by 2026. Additionally, Jesse Newtson, Head of Operations at Bitfinex Securities, expects the tokenization market to reach at least $100 billion by the end of 2026.
3. Prediction market… perpetual financial product
CT expects prediction markets and perpetual contract products to expand to include real-world events and pre-listed financial products, “financializing everything.”
According to a recent report from BeInCrypto, interest in prediction markets surged by the end of 2025. In October and November, trading volume on prediction market platforms was higher than that of memecoins and non-fungible tokens (NFTs). User activity has also increased, with participants betting on a variety of outcomes, from election results to weather forecasts.
Institutional investors are also continuing to enter the market. Large companies such as Coinbase and Gemini have begun entering this sector to respond to the growth momentum.
The permanent contract market is also attracting attention. Coinbase previously identified real-world asset-backed perpetual contracts as a key investment theme for 2026, citing its potential to open up new forms of on-chain financial exposure.
“Because perpetual contracts do not require securing an underlying asset, markets can be formed based on almost anything, enabling the ‘perpetualization of everything,’” Coinbase said.
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Cryptocurrency sector under pressure
Beyond Bitcoin, Ignas pointed out that the CT consensus is likely to result in large profits being concentrated in a small number of winners. As funds flow more selectively, many sectors may come under continued pressure.
1. Entire altcoin market
The market expects pressure to continue across the altcoin sector, with many tokens at risk of converging to zero. This may be due to high token issuance volume, limited retail investor participation, and weak institutional demand.
Expectations for an extensive altcoin season like 2021 are currently low. In October, Bitget CEO Gracie Chen stated that an altcoin season was unlikely in both 2025 and 2026.
2. DeFi token
The analyst added that the recent governance dispute involving AAVE leads to concerns about all DeFi tokens.
The crux of this debate lies in Abe’s decision to integrate Cowswap into the frontend to replace Paraswap. Critics claim that this decision was finalized after Abe Labs received a grant from Cowswap, resulting in the DAO losing about $10 million in potential annual revenue.
In response, Abe founder Stany Kuletsov and Abe Labs stated that the revenue generated from the front-end is separate from the core revenue of the protocol and that this was done voluntarily.
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Ethereum success… Will ETH continue to rise?
Meanwhile, the author said there is no clear market narrative about what will happen to Ethereum (ETH).
One side is optimistic that Ethereum will benefit from the rapid expansion of tokenized assets. On the other hand, some are not convinced that this adoption will bring any real benefits to ETH holders.
“As an asset, ETH does not necessarily benefit from tokenization. Ethereum becomes just a boring infrastructure layer, with most of the profits going to user-friendly apps. Just like Facebook and Microsoft benefited the most when the Internet grew.” – Ignas
Crypto Twitter Market Attention in 2026
Additionally, Ignas explained that tokens that are released with limited circulation and high fully diluted valuation are considered “perma shorts.” This means that these tokens are consistently suitable for selling (betting on price declines).
Market data also supports this view. According to Memento Research’s analysis, among the 118 token creation events held in 2025, projects that started with high fully diluted market capitalizations had difficulty maintaining momentum. Notably, none of the 28 tokens launched with a fully diluted market cap of over $1 billion are currently trading in positive territory.
Lastly, the importance of token holder rights is increasing in the market, and discussions about monetization are also expanding. These discussions are expected to intensify further until 2026.
As the cryptocurrency industry matures, its speculative nature will decrease and it will grow in a direction that is not focused on borrowing, but its scale is likely to expand significantly. At the same time, Crypto Twitter’s market narrative influence may weaken, and the status of cryptocurrency’s unique voice is expected to gradually decline.