We've been talking a lot this week about institutional adoption across digital assets, but in the background, a massive technological threat is looming, and that is quantum computing.
So joining us to weigh in on this is Alex Thorn of Galaxy.
Alex, great to have you here.
Thank you so much for joining me.
Yeah, thanks for having me back, Remy.
Good to see you here in Miami.
Yeah, absolutely.
So we're here at Consensus 2026, and there are a lot of tradly companies, Gi, innovators, policymakers, but how concerned should we be about quantum?
Um, that's a good question.
I don't think that concerned, but it's something in the background that should be worked on.
I think one of the good things, all the altcoins have these foundations.
They have money.
They're putting forth roadmaps and plans.
Bitcoin, of course, doesn't have that.
Instead, it's so decentralized that, I think it's harder to sort of drive some kind of movement towards a goal, right?
I think the good news is that I think Bitcoiners are finding, starting to find some early consensus on what to be done.
Uh, most people agree that working on post-quantum cryptography, at least having it on the shelf ready to go in case we need it, is a good idea.
Um, and, uh, so you're seeing some progress.
Yeah, and Alex, you're coming from Vegas, Bitcoin 2026, and now you're at consensus.
So given where we're looking at price action for the crypto majors right now, we are looking at Bitcoin above that 80,000 level, but where are we right now?
I think it's, it's hard to tell whether we're in a new uptrend or it's sort of just noise inside the shop that we've been experiencing.
I tend to think it's more the latter at the moment.
You know, absent a push above 90 that's sustained, I think very possible we're sort of chopping around here with near term optimism.
I do think you can go higher in the near term.
I also, but it's not quite clear that we're out of the woods yet, you know, on the bear market.
Yeah, and of course you and I are usually on Wall Street at the New York Stock Exchange.
We might pay attention to what's happening in the nation's capital, but we are getting some headlines.
Potential progress or lack thereof when it comes to clarity.
What do you think is going to go down?
I think you're going to get an announcement maybe this week or early next week that the Senate Banking Committee has scheduled a markup on clarity, and so that'll that markup will probably be next week or the week after.
I know Senator Bernie Moreno here said yesterday at consensus that it would be next week.
That's the main next catalyst we're waiting for is when they actually schedule this markup.
Um, I think the bill is good.
It's a good bill.
I think it represents, uh, has strong investor protections and new powers for law enforcement, but it also recognizes the innovative potential of blockchains and crypto for the US economy.
Um, it's the kind of thing that solidifies an industry for 3 decades instead of just 3 years.
So I, I think you're gonna, um, you're going to see it progress.
I think there's still a bunch of tricky pitfalls that could muck it up in the Senate.
And so I, I, I'm not, I still think it's probably slightly better.
Odds than a coin flip that it gets signed into law this year, but I think that's for a complicated bill, that's pretty good.
Those are pretty good odds.
Yes.
And Alex, I know you're very active on social media and you talk to a lot of stakeholders out there.
So in terms of your crypto outlook, where do you stand right now?
Why?
Uh, I'm very bullish.
I, you've never seen, uh, this, I mean, this is the thing we've all been waiting for.
The institutions aren't coming.
They're literally here in the room with us right now.
And, um, now it's kind of a race between the, you know, in the crypto industry to service them, right?
To build the tech that they need.
Um, things like tokenized securities, I think are going to be very big.
Yeah.
Obviously, at a minimum, all the banks and brokerages have to accept stablecoins, but luckily that's the same tech you need to, you know, storing up the keys for a stablecoin wallet.
It's the same tech you need for custody of crypto assets.
Um, so I think there's a lot of institutional adoption, and that's exciting.
I think it's, you know, it's yet another phase in the never ending saga of crypto, but we are now at the big, the big boy table.
Yeah, and speaking of which, you mentioned institutional adoption.
That is something that we've been.
Paying attention to in 2026 as well as tokenization RWAs.
So what does this actually mean for American viewers out there who are watching?
Perhaps they do hold Bitcoin fractionally or they do have access through funds.
What would you say the future looks like?
I think in a in a fracturing geopolitical landscape in a in a world where the world's fiscal situation continues to get worse and there's no sign of reversing.
Uh, owning a scarce digital asset like Bitcoin is a very smart idea, generally speaking.
Where, what that means for, you know, price action here or there, obviously Bitcoin is still a very volatile asset, um, but to me, the case for digital gold, a, a store of value that's not issued by a.
Uh, sovereign that is likely effectively bankrupt.
Most are ours is as well, basically.
I saw that our national debt, uh, has, uh, uh, or our annual deficit has increased past our GDP now 100% of GDP.
Um, that's the case for almost all governments and in a world like that, almost the only solution to pay down those debts is going to be printing more money.
And so gold looks really good in that spot.
I think digital gold does as well and.
The world is really waking up to digital goldstone.
Yes, and you mentioned geopolitics.
That is something we have been paying attention to a lot, that unexpected thing on our bingo card that is affecting not just crypto but all asset classes as well.
So as we continue to monitor the situation in the middle.
East, what do you think prediction markets will look like, say, a year from now?
Yes, they've been playing an increasingly important role.
I love the idea of information markets, which they are.
I think very useful from a situation monitoring standpoint.
Obviously they've performed better than the traditional pollsters during the 2024 presidential election.
Um, there, there are important questions about how, how these get integrated into the market economy.
Uh, the CFTC is doing a lot of work on, on this, which types of licenses should they have or not have, and how can they be traded and by whom?
I think you're going to get a lot of that sorted out.
It's really quite exciting time for prediction markets.
I think they'll become a much bigger part of the, the markets and the economy.
Yeah, and of course we do have some policymakers, as you mentioned, on the ground in consensus.
So when it comes to regulation for prediction markets, where do you stand?
I think they should be regulated.
I think the CFTC, uh, we agree with the CFTC's assertion that they are swaps and derivatives, and it's not necessarily gambling, although of course you could make a prediction market about something that looks similar to gambling.
So we're very supportive of the CFTC acting here and regulating.
I think one of the most interesting questions is what to do with insider trading in prediction markets and.
I think reflexively most people would immediately say like ban it, enforce against it, etc. which is what we of course do in equity markets and other commodity markets.
But quite interestingly, the academic literature and research about prediction markets is it should be treated a little bit more cautiously because their primary value to the public is incentivizing the democratization of secret information, right?
So they're, they're much more valuable if there are some insiders trading.
We have to figure out.
How to reckon with that.
We submitted a comment letter to the CFTC about this last week.
Again, not saying don't enforce against insider trading, but please, when you think about instructing the insider trading regime for prediction markets, do so with this academic research in mind that some, maybe it shouldn't be as black or white as it is in other markets.
Well, Alex, great seeing you here outside of the New York Stock Exchange, outside of New York here in Miami.
So thank you so much for joining us and as always, thank you so much for sharing your perspective.
Thank you, Remy.
