Crypto Strategy, Market Trends & Bitcoin’s 2026 Outlook

Joining us now for a one on one interview here at the balcony of the New York Stock Exchange.

Bobby Yong, CEO and co-founder at Coin Gecko.

Thanks for joining us.

Good to have you here.

Good to have you.

If you had to invest $1000 into the crypto ecosystem right now, how would you divvy it up?

Yeah, I'll probably go to the standard one, Bitcoin, mostly, uh, and then you have the major Ethereum, Solana, and I think increasingly a lot of people are looking at the, the hype token.

Uh, it's like a perpetual, uh, decentralized exchange.

Uh, market and, and that's one of the interesting tokens out there.

The hype token.

Yeah.

What do people like about it?

Hyperliquid is a pub deck and a lot of trading is happening on this thing and it's trading a lot of real world assets.

I think one of the interesting thing is, uh, it starts tracking tokens like tokenized gold, oil, and so on, and the, the, the, the, it has its market is open 24/7 and there's a lot of volume happening even during the weekend and then it's tracking the.

The price action, the price action is tracking the, the, the action in the Iranian war, for example, for the oil market.

We are expecting a new incoming Fed chair, Kevin Warsh down in Washington, and we are expecting him to be more dovish, at least the president would like him to be more dovish.

What are your expectations for the impact of central bank policy on the crypto majors and, and how they may perform, even, let's say between now and the end of 2026?

Yeah, I think, I think the new incoming Fed chair will be more dovish and, uh, you know, kind of build reduced interest rate or has a lot of expectation.

Obviously with the Iranian war and, and, and oil prices going up, it's gonna be a tricky balancing act.

But I mean, uh, a lowering interest rate will be good, uh, supportive of a crypto price appreciation, uh, and that's kind of what I, my, my baseline expectation is that interest rates gonna get cut and, and, and, and price gonna do well for, for Bitcoin and cryptos.

I, I was, I, I wanna get your take on something that happened just, just within the last few days.

We heard from Treasury Secretary Scott Besson.

He said to increase the global reach of existing supply.

US Treasury is providing a temporary authorization to permit countries to purchase Russian oil currently stranded at sea, Part of the administration's effort to try and increase supply, keep prices low.

We actually saw Bitcoin and some of the crypto majors jump.

On a news item like that, is that a surprise as the administration is trying to figure out its way through the broader conflict in the Middle East that we do have the Bitcoin response we've had in these early days?

Yeah, I think Bitcoin in general kind of lead the market, uh, and, and, and I mean, especially during weekends when, when the markets are closed.

So, uh, I mean, we had like 345 months of pretty rough action for the for the Bitcoin.

Market, I think it's kind of done and then moving forward, I think it's going to be good as well.

Um, I wanna get your take on the Clarity Act.

Everything from defining, finally, what is a security, what's a commodity, anti-money laundering provisions for DI protocols.

As of now, it's got the support of the White House, passed the House, it's kind of caught up in the Senate.

What is your expectation for the timeline if it passes?

And if so, what are you most looking forward to that we'll finally be able to do?

Yeah, I think what's important is we need this industry needs clarity on what it can or cannot do, and for the longest time under the previous administration, There was no rules, no, no clarity on what you can do, and then everybody's kind of hamstrung on what you can do.

I think the Genius Act passing was a fantastic piece of regulation that now a lot of, that's what we're seeing with all the growth of stablecoins.

I think the Clarity Act, there's a lot of horse trading going around right now.

Uh, it's probably just a matter of time, probably by mid-yield, so hopefully it gets passed.

I don't know, but I think once that passes, then it's a very bullish thing because then everybody.

It's clearly defined what you can or cannot do, and, and, and then people can start building on top of it.

So, so yeah, I'm excited for this, uh, and, and then we start seeing all the institutions coming in and playing in this, in this space before this, they can't really play because they can't do it.

Bobby, what is one reality of the crypto landscape that you wish more crypto users better understood?

Yeah, I wish everybody pay more attention to security.

Um, it's one of those things where You know, crypto square is self-custodial and you kind of have to be responsible for the, the, the, the coins that you, that you control and if you're not careful, a lot of people, I've seen too many cases of people losing their, their coins for, for not having good hygiene, good, good security hygiene.

So I wish a lot more people like pay more attention to, to kind of upskill themselves how to take care of their wallet security better.

Base case or prediction for where Bitcoin or any other crypto major will be trading by the end of 2026.

Yeah, I think it wouldn't surprise me for Bitcoin to hit 1500 by the end of the end of the year, early 2026.

1500 by the end of this year.

What are the main catalysts?

Is it the passing of clarity among other things?

Yeah, passing of clarity.

Uh, that's the end of year election, mid mid-year election as well.

So, you know, interest rates probably going to go down as well.

So the uranium wars probably not going to last too long as well.

So all these bullish catalyst we're seeing like pig bear sentiment right now, but I think things will improve.

Bobby Ong, CEO co-founder of Coin Gecko, I apologize for throwing my pen at you halfway through the interview.

You're a total pro.

Thank you for visiting us here at the New York Stock Exchange.

I missed your many travels.

Great to have you.

Thank you.

Good to see you here.