Bitcoin, Stablecoins & the Future of Crypto

All the geopolitical clouds are hovering over the global market, and crypto is reacting in real time.

From the massive structural shift happening behind the scenes to the push for stablecoin legislation, the multi-trillion dollar growth of the store of value market, the stakes have never been higher.

Well joining me to weigh on the outlook for digital assets is Ryan Rasmussen, who is head of research for BitW Asset Management.

Good morning.

Thank you so much for joining me.

Thank you for having me.

It's great to be here with you at DS.

Yeah, so you and I were just talking about all the headlines that are coming in hard and fast and how the crypto market is reacting.

So what do you make of the price action that we've been seeing in Bitcoin?

Oh, you know, it's, it's been crazy times for the crypto market.

We've been in this period really now for 6 months or so of choppiness and up and down, John.

Down 40% from all-time highs.

So I think right now a lot of investors are just trying to figure out what's next.

At Bitwise.

You really think about the long term and we view this drawdown in this kind of sideways price action over the past few months as a great entry point for a lot of investors who maybe were sidelined when Bitcoin was above 10,000 to 125,000.

So we're really optimistic on the long term outlook and we try to stay focused on that.

Yeah, and when we think about traditional markets, for example, The US stock markets or even oil markets as well.

We know that that period between Friday evening until Monday morning we're paying attention to what's happening across crypto.

So given the geopolitical headlines, a lot of this he said, she said, and the market reaction over the weekend, what do you make of how money is moving right now?

Yes, it's really interesting you say that.

Has become a leading indicator in some ways when the markets closed as to how the markets will react to crypto.

I think one thing that recently happened that was interesting is that oil futures started trading on tokenized blockchains over the weekends when people were trying to figure out how the market should react or price what's happening in Iran in oil markets.

And so I think crypto's really become a leading indicator in that way, which is fascinating, and I think one.

Of those catalyst moments we'll look back on that pushes traditional assets and crypto together in a way that they converge that just really makes sense to keep up with the pace of the world, which is 24/7, 365.

Yeah, and you bring up an important point because there's so much to pay attention to, and that means there's a lot of noise.

So when we're trying to find the signal within all of this noise, how are you doing that right now when it comes to crypto?

We like to think about the mega trends that are going to drive crypto higher over the Next 10 to 20 years, and I think there's 3 mega trends right now that we're focused on.

There's stablecoins and tokenization.

There's regulatory tailwinds, and then there's institutional adoption.

So we focus on those as kind of the north stars for where the industry is headed, and we know that stablecoins and tokenization are growing at an incredibly fast pace.

We see regulatory clarity on the horizon, and it's happening in DC, and we see institutional adoption happening every single day when we interact with institutional investors in their offices and webinars. and in in meetings and so I think those three drivers we believe will push the crypto market higher over the long term and that's what we often focus on, yeah, and here at Digital Asset Summit 2026 we've been paying attention to all three of those points that you mentioned, so stablecoins as well as the regulatory outlook and of course institutional adoption.

But I understand that you've called Circle one of the best ways to play the stablecoin boom, but given all this uncertainty about.

Moving forward and the regulatory landscape, do you still think that Circle is the go to choice for big institutions when it comes to stablecoins?

I do think that Circle is the go to choice for institutions when they think about how to get exposure to the stablecoin boom that we're seeing.

You know, estimates of the stablecoin growth is going to go from 300 billion today to anywhere from 2 to $4 trillion over the next 5 years.

And as investors want to get exposure to that growth, Circle is the pure play publicly traded option for them.

To express that desired exposure and so we see a lot of tailwinds for Circle.

I know that the discussions around the Clarity Act and particularly around yield on stablecoins affect Circle pretty directly, but long term we believe stablecoins and Circle are one of the.

Factors of this regulatory clarity and circles very well positioned.

It's onshore US regulated stablecoin issuer.

I think most of the growth in stablecoins will happen from institutional adoption of regulated stablecoin payments.

And so that's where we think a lot of the driver of Circle's growth will come from.

Yeah, and of course we are keeping a close eye on regulatory progress here in the nation's capital.

So which parts of the market do you expect to see the biggest flood of institutional cash if we see more progress here?

I think stablecoins and tokenization really are the next frontier for institutional adoption.

If you think about what Paul Atkins, the SEC, the CFTC are really focused on right now.

It's the evolution of financial markets to adopt digital assets and blockchain technology, and tokenization and stablecoins are the intersection of today's financial system and blockchains and things like tokenized assets that trade 24/7, 365, or stablecoins that make the payment infrastructure around the world more efficient and lower cost and more accessible.

So I think those are where we're going to see institutional investment flow from.

An adoption standpoint and then of course I believe we'll see a lot of institutional flows in terms of investment into these assets via ETFs and Bitcoins, Ilana Ethereum ETFs, index ETFs.

I mean the menu of options for investors is getting bigger and bigger every day.

Yeah.

And finally, I do want to hone in on a price target over at BitWise.

So I've talked to your colleagues and I understand BitWise does have a target of $1 million for Bitcoin.

In 10 years.

So walk us through this, and given the fact that there are so many cycles and you've navigated some of them, tell us what we can expect in the next decade.

Yeah, that's exactly right.

So BitW has been around since 2017, so we've been through this boom and bust cycle before that we're currently seeing play out in real time.

And as I mentioned before, we're very long term oriented.

And so we sat down and looked out over the next decade what we think will happen to Price of Bitcoin and through the institutional adoption that we see happening, allocators who haven't yet allocated to Bitcoin that are now investing in ETFs for the first time starting this year and really haven't started investing for the past few years, even though ETFs have been live.

We see that institutional adoption driving the price higher.

There's a focus here from a lot of investors that we speak to on how to hedge against fiat debasement.

Bitcoin is a natural solution.

In to that and then rising debt and spiraling inflation, investors are looking for hard assets, and we think Bitcoin is emerging as a store value.

It's got a long way to go before it catches up with gold, but we think over the next decade it will take a decent chunk out of the store value market that we're seeing continue to grow with the price of gold rising, and we think the price of Bitcoin will follow.

Well, Ryan, it was great talking to you.

Thank you so much for joining us here at Digital Asset Summit 2026.

Thanks for having me.

Thank you.