Grayscale's Bold Call: Bitcoin to Smash All-Time Highs in First Half 2026

Driven by accelerating institutional acceptance, more unambiguous U.S. regulatory frameworks, and rising macroeconomic demand for hard assets as a hedge against fiat currency devaluation, Grayscale Research expects Bitcoin to reach a new all-time high first half of 2026. The company claims that market maturation has made the classic four-year halving cycle obsolete, therefore driving pricing movement. Sustained bull phases are now powered instead by structural inflows from spot Bitcoin ETFs, digital asset trusts, and slower, more purposeful liquidity cycles that circumvent the severe parabolic highs of past eras.

Key arguments for this bullish thesis include growing institutional portfolio allocations to Bitcoin as a strategic alternate asset class, rapid growth in stablecoins enabling on-ramps, and the wider tokenization trend boosting values across the crypto environment. Emphasizing that these institutional and infrastructural tailwinds will produce lasting upward pressure, Grayscale helps to set the present cycle apart from past retail-driven booms.

Grayscale believes the present range to be a temporary bottom, even though there have been negative bearish pressures recently, including a roughly 30% drawdown from highs and continuous miner capitulation at low hash prices. Oversold situations and hedging activity seen on chain data indicate possible selling pressure exhaustion. This optimistic perspective coincides with other institutional projections, like Standard Chartered's $150,000 target by end-2026, so strengthening predictions for great upside as regulatory and adoption catalysts develop in the next year.