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2026 Crypto Predictions: Dragonfly’s Hadick Calls Outlook ‘Constructive’

Dragonfly normal associate Rob Hadick struck an upbeat tone on crypto’s medium-term setup, arguing that current volatility has obscured a broader pattern of adoption, particularly in stablecoins and prediction markets, that he expects to speed up into 2026.

Speaking on CNBC’s Squawk Box on Dec. 24, Hadick pushed again on the concept that crypto has entered a brand new “winter,” framing the yr’s disappointment as a operate of recency bias slightly than a clear break in market construction.

“It hasn’t had an amazing yr. But I feel it’s essential to zoom out,” Hadick mentioned. “If you take a look at the returns for bitcoin relative to the day earlier than the election in ’24, bitcoin is up about 26%, Nasdaq is up about 28%… even additional than that two years, bitcoin’s doubled, Nasdaq is up 50%.”

Hadick emphasised he’s not buying and selling chart patterns. “I’m not a technical investor. I’m a long-term investor. We’re a VC fund,” he mentioned, including that he “proceed[s] to see a powerful and constructive 2026.

2026 Crypto Predictions

Pressed on what “a very good 2026” means in follow for the crypto market, Hadick tied his outlook to macro situations and what he sees as compounding real-world utilization. “For the token costs themselves—bitcoin, ethereum—there’s prone to be continued momentum,” he mentioned. “I feel from a macroeconomic perspective… we’ll have higher financial coverage. And then we’re going to have increasingly adoption of tokenized belongings.”

One knowledge level he mentioned: “McKinsey simply mentioned that they suppose 3% of all cross-border funds is going on in stablecoins proper now. That’s up from principally 0% a yr in the past,” Hadick mentioned, including that he expects “one other tenfold enhance.”

Hadick described Dragonfly as intentionally non-ideological throughout chains and sectors, positioning the agency much less as a “bitcoin vs. ethereum” store and extra as a wager on market-structure innovation. “We spend money on everyone that’s doing something that’s attention-grabbing in tokenized digital belongings,” he mentioned. “We’re not what I’d say ideological about crypto. What we’re is investing in the way forward for innovation in monetary markets.”

When the dialog turned from majors to classes, Hadick leaned into two themes: stablecoins and prediction markets. “Stablecoins I feel are right here to remain. I feel it’s going to develop tenfold,” he mentioned. “I feel prediction markets are right here to remain. I feel they’re going to develop tenfold.”

On prediction markets particularly, Hadick argued the addressable market extends properly past sports activities betting, regardless of the present overlap. He pointed to Polymarket’s progress as proof of increasing use circumstances. “If you take a look at Polymarket quantity right now, they’ve gone from $50 million a month in early ’24… they’re now going to do most likely about $4 billion of quantity this month,” he mentioned, including that “solely about 35% of that’s sports activities,” placing Polymarket in distinction with Kalshi, which he characterised as “extra of a sports activities platform as a result of they’re infrastructure for Robinhood.”

Hadick additionally invoked Intercontinental Exchange CEO Jeff Sprecher’s long-running tokenization thesis to argue prediction markets could converge with broader monetary infrastructure slightly than stay a distinct segment wagering product. “If you speak to Jeff Sprecher over at ICE… he’ll inform you he believes within the tokenization of all markets,” Hadick mentioned. “I talked to him earlier than he made the funding in Polymarket… his perspective is that that is going to be as huge as ICE itself. Probably.”

He recommended the practical framing is much less “bets” and extra programmable danger switch. “I talked to an insurance coverage firm possibly a month in the past that was enthusiastic about how they will hedge out danger in climate associated actions,” Hadick mentioned. “That’s only one use case… each single factor and each single market and final result that may be put [into] a market—or actually only a binary choice, which is what it’s.”

Ethereum Vs. Solana

Asked to choose sides within the Ethereum–Solana debate, Hadick refused the “MySpace vs. Facebook” framing. “No, they’re each Facebook,” he mentioned, arguing the market would require a number of settlement environments if tokenization turns into mainstream. In his view, Ethereum’s benefit is the place worth and stablecoin liquidity already sit, whereas Solana’s edge is high-throughput, low-cost stream.

“Most stablecoins right now are on Ethereum,” Hadick mentioned. “Ethereum is the place a considerable amount of… financial exercise exists… however in case you take a look at the buying and selling quantity, it’s taking place extra on Solana, which is extra optimized for that sort of transaction stream and for low price transactions.”

Still, Hadick conceded the platform layer is just not frozen. He mentioned Dragonfly is invested in a more recent chain, Monad, describing it as “attempting to be a Solana killer,” and cited figures he mentioned mirrored early-stage market positioning: a roughly $2 billion valuation and a token worth round $0.002.

At press time, the full crypto market cap stood at $2.92 trillion.

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