Trump Tops Crypto Honors; 2026 Outlook and 2025 Awards
Wall Street and Bloomberg Strategist Split on 2026 Crypto Outlook After 2025 Pullback
Two prominent market voices are offering sharply different expectations for crypto in 2026, underscoring how unsettled sentiment remains after a major downturn from 2025 highs.
Mike McGlone, Bloomberg Intelligence’s senior commodity strategist, said the market’s recent cycle was heavily influenced by political dynamics and may now be moving into a deeper retrenchment phase.
“Trump switched from antagonist to zealot. That pumped [Bitcoin] up to a peak that got too expensive. To me, 2024 was as good as it gets, 2025 is the hangover, and 2026, I think, is more of an extreme bear market,” McGlone said.
In contrast, JPMorgan’s market outlook argues that the industry could continue to perform well even after a sharp decline in overall market value. The bank noted that crypto has shed roughly $1 trillion from a total value that once stood at $4 trillion in 2025, but still sees a constructive setup going into 2026.
Crypto will keep posting big wins in 2026, JPMorgan said, pointing in part to a more favorable regulatory posture in the United States.
The divergence highlights a core debate shaping crypto’s near-term narrative: whether the post-2025 drawdown represents the start of a more severe bear market, as McGlone suggests, or a reset that leaves the sector “well-placed” for continued gains, as JPMorgan’s outlook maintains. Either way, both views reflect the market’s growing sensitivity to policy signals and regulatory conditions as key drivers alongside traditional risk sentiment.
