Matt Hougan, the chief investment officer at Bitwise Asset Management, said he thinks Solana could plausibly become a trillion-dollar asset within five years—an outcome that would roughly translate into a ~$1,600 SOL price on a simple market-cap-per-token basis, depending on circulating supply. Hougan made the remarks on the Jan. 29 episode of When Shift Happens, framing his Solana view through what he called a “two ways to win” setup: growth in the addressable market (stablecoins and tokenized assets), plus an increasing share captured by Solana versus competing networks. Why Solana Could Hit $1,600+ Within 5 Years Hougan argued that the “infrastructure market” for stablecoins and tokenization is expanding quickly enough that large, liquid L1s should be valued less like niche crypto experiments and more like enabling rails for traditional finance. “The US Secretary of Treasury expects the stablecoin market to 12x over the next four years,” he said, adding that Larry Fink has described a future where “every asset, every fund, ETF, stock, bond, real estate will be tokenized.” From there, his Solana thesis leaned heavily on relative positioning. Ethereum remains the incumbent in stablecoins and tokenization, Hougan said, but Solana is “a legit competitor with an interesting technological differentiation,” and crucially “it’s extraordinarily easy to use and the community has a ship first attitude.” Related Reading: Solana Scores Major Institutional Adoption As WisdomTree Goes On-Chain That usability point, in his view, is underpriced by investors who focus on benchmark-style comparisons. “I think ease of use is a killer app that’s underrated by investors,” Hougan said. “Investors like to talk about throughput and they like to talk… TPS… who cares about this? …For an end user who’s trading, who’s on-ramping, ease of use is the killer app. And Solana is just easy to use, just dead easy to use.” Hougan also acknowledged a common investor blind spot: token supply dynamics can separate price action from market cap growth. He noted that Solana’s market value can rise meaningfully even if the token price revisits prior highs, and suggested staking yield partially offsets dilution, citing “roughly like 7% a year.” Another thread in the discussion was how regulation shaped institutional behavior. Hougan said Solana’s footprint in stablecoins and tokenization was constrained during the prior US regulatory environment, arguing that institutions “couldn’t build on Solana” if they believed it sat “outside of the regulatory perimeter.” With that cloud lifting, he said, mandates are starting to broaden. He also described why the ETF wrapper matters more for a smaller asset. “You put a little bit of inflows into an ETF package and they’re chasing a relatively small supply of Solana,” Hougan said. “It’s one of the best setups for an asset that I’ve ever seen because you have this small constrained size, you have significant institutional demand, you have stablecoins and tokenization… you put all that together and it seems like a winner.” Still, he avoided hard price targets and instead stayed in market-cap terms. “In 5 years I think it could be a trillion dollar asset. I think that’s relatively easy to imagine,” he said. “It’s hard to give a precise target because it depends on the pace of growth on stablecoins and tokenization. It depends on whether Congress passes the Clarity Act. It depends on the sort of crypto market cycles.” E156: @Matt_Hougan from @BitwiseInvest – $6.5M Bitcoin and the strongest Solana setup ever? This might be the most bullish yet rational episode we’ve done on the future of crypto: why debasement, institutional flows & tokenization are just getting started. Timestamps: 0:00… pic.twitter.com/WMqvKL7pCj — MR SHIFT ???? (@KevinWSHPod) January 29, 2026 On simple market-cap math, a $1 trillion Solana valuation implies a four-figure token price depending on supply. The relationship is straightforward: token price equals market cap divided by supply. Using Solana’s circulating supply of roughly 566 million SOL, a $1 trillion market cap works out to about $1,766 per SOL ($1,000,000,000,000 ÷ 566,000,000). Related Reading: Solana Pauses After 20% Drop — This Key Level Could Decide What’s Next If you instead use a fully diluted-style denominator closer to 619 million SOL, the same $1 trillion market cap implies roughly $1,615 per SOL ($1,000,000,000,000 ÷ 619,000,000). In other words, Hougan’s “trillion-dollar asset” framing maps to something like the mid-$1,000s per token on today’s supply assumptions, with the exact number moving as supply changes. Notably, Hougan’s Solana call sat alongside a broader macro narrative he returned to repeatedly: monetary debasement pushing investors toward scarce and non-sovereign stores of value. On Bitcoin, he argued the “two ways to win” are the store-of-value market expanding and Bitcoin taking share from gold, an arc he said could drive multi-million-dollar BTC over decades if the last 10–15 years of adoption trends persist. For Solana, the equivalent is less about being “digital gold” and more about becoming a primary venue for stablecoin flows and tokenized securities. If those rails scale and if Solana continues gaining share as a high-velocity, institution-friendly network, Hougan’s trillion-dollar scenario implies the market is still pricing the opportunity too conservatively. At press time, SOL traded at $115.40. Featured image created with DALL.E, chart from TradingView.com
The bitcoin-to-gold ratio rebounded from recent lows, mirroring a pattern seen in the 2019-2020.
While Fed chair speculation drives uncertainty across equities, rates, and crypto.
A U.S. jury found Linwei Ding guilty of economic espionage and trade secret theft after he stole Google’s sensitive AI infrastructure data.
Bitcoin is struggling to avoid a fourth consecutive monthly decline as the cryptocurrency market grapples with a fundamental shift in momentum that has left most investors underwater. Data from CryptoSlate indicate that the largest digital asset declined by nearly 7% over the last 24 hours to $82,513. According to CoinGlass data, long traders speculating on […]
The post Bitcoin ready to record fourth straight red month and the $81,000 floor is suddenly everything appeared first on CryptoSlate.
BTC could drop to as low as $50,000 in the worst-case scenario after BTC price failed to hold the important $84,000 support level.
Today, XRP is under heavy pressure, falling about 7.5% and trading below $1.73 after the recent gold price crash. The sharp drop triggered around $72 million in long liquidations for XRP traders. Despite this drop, on-chain data from Santiment shows that XRP millionaire wallets are rising for the first time since last September, suggesting XRP …
The shift will take Binance’s insurance-style fund out of US dollar-pegged assets and into Bitcoin within 30 days, raising questions about user protection.
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin just withdrew 16,384 ETH from his personal holdings. The funds will go toward projects the Ethereum Foundation can no longer take on. Buterin announced that the EF is entering a “period of mild austerity” over the next five years. The foundation is trying to hit two goals at once: push forward …
Vitalik Buterin personally pledged 16,384 ETH to fund privacy-focused projects amid the Ethereum Foundation's shift toward mild austerity.
The Bitcoin price crashed to a new two-month low, near $83,000, its weakest level since November. From its recent rebound high near $98,000, Bitcoin has now fallen by almost $14,700, a decline of about 15% in just over two weeks. The steady selling pressure suggests this move may be more than a short-term dip. Even …
Bybit’s upcoming neobank launch via Tether-backed Pave Bank highlights the regulatory hurdles and challenges that crypto exchanges face when entering traditional finance.
Ethereum’s co-founder said the $43 million withdrawal will support a broader “full-stack openness and verifiability” vision as the foundation tightens spending.
U.S.-listed spot bitcoin and ether ETFs saw one of their worst combined outflow days of 2026 as falling prices, rising volatility and macro uncertainty pushed investors to cut exposure.
Bitcoin slid sharply this week, hitting just above $82,000 in early US trading and triggering a wide purge of crowded positions. Based on data from Coinglass, roughly 270,000 accounts were wiped out across exchanges in the past day, and close to $1.70 billion in total liquidations was recorded. Many of the losses came from traders who had bet that prices would keep rising. Related Reading: Gold, Silver Steal The Spotlight As Crypto Hype Fades On Social Media: Santiment Liquidations And Market Shock The move was fast. Long bets were the hardest hit. Reports say over 90% of the liquidated contracts were long positions, mostly in Bitcoin and Ether. The market was shaken quickly as stop orders were pulled and margin calls were forced. Price gaps showed up on some platforms and volatility spiked. This kind of clearing event can leave prices unstable for a bit, even after traders calm down. Geopolitics And Policy Pressure Reports note heightened tensions in the Middle East added fuel to the selloff. A US warship deployment and renewed public statements from US President Donald Trump put risk assets on edge. At the same time, an executive action linked to tariffs on goods tied to certain oil deals raised fresh concern among global traders. Risk appetite cooled as investors mulled how those moves might affect energy flows and trade. Tech Earnings And Investor Mood Microsoft’s earnings miss was another note in the mix. Some big tech names fell hard after results that showed rising costs and slower growth in cloud services. That made investors question the near-term outlook for AI-driven growth stories. With confidence wobbling in both stocks and crypto, many reduced exposure. The market atmosphere turned cautious and buying dried up in minutes. Bitcoin price action, risk aversion and volatility amid conflict headlines were both feeding into the selling. News feeds were full of sharp alerts. Traders who follow headlines closely found themselves adjusting positions quickly. Support Test And Wider Market Drops Bitcoin is trading near a higher-timeframe support area that mattered in recent months. Weekly closes have been caged between roughly $94,000 and $84,000 for several weeks, and that structure faces another test now. If buyers do not step in, deeper weakness could follow. Reports say the wider crypto market lost around $200 billion in value across tokens during the worst of the move. What Traders Are Saying Some analysts called the reaction overblown and noted that prices had already been falling since October. Others warned that a longer correction could be in play if macro pressures persist. Related Reading: Banks And Crypto Firms Back At The Table As CLARITY Talks Restart Benjamin Cowen warned that Bitcoin may continue to act weak compared with stocks, suggesting any hoped-for rapid flip from gold or silver into crypto might not happen fast. According to Trading Economics, gold and silver have climbed to record levels, with gold reaching $5,608 per ounce and silver rising to $121.60. Featured image from Unsplash, chart from TradingView
Former Federal governors, Kevin Warsh’s rising odds as the next Federal Reserve Chair are making crypto investors nervous. As the White House prepares to announce its choice, Warsh has emerged as the leading pick. His history of supporting tight monetary policy is why markets see him as bearish for Bitcoin. Fed chair To Be Announced …
A final court order transfers the legal title of seized cryptocurrency and assets to the US government, closing a case tied to Helix’s operations from 2014 to 2017.
Binance acquired Gopax in 2023 amid its liquidity crisis, opening a pathway for a re-entry into the South Korean market.
Ex-Ripple CTO David “JoelKatz” Schwartz pushed back on viral XRP price calls, arguing that today’s market price is already a referendum on how much credible capital actually believes in a near-term path to $100. His comments also spilled into a broader discussion about XRPL economics and scaling tradeoffs that, in his view, get lost in the hype cycle. Can XRP Reach $100? Schwartz was responding to an X user urging him to tell “xrp supporters” that XRP “can’t and won’t go to 50-100$,” warning that “So many people get poor with investing in xrp.” Schwartz declined to make an absolute claim, but framed the debate in probabilistic terms, pointing to his own history of being surprised by crypto’s upside. Related Reading: 21Shares Drops 3 XRP Price Predictions For 2026: What’s The Upside? “I don’t feel comfortable saying something like that,” Schwartz wrote. “While I don’t think it’s likely, I didn’t think it was likely that XRP would ever hit $0.25. I started selling XRP at $0.10 because it seemed insane. I remember when bitcoin hitting $100 seemed like an impossible dream.” Rather than debating narratives, Schwartz offered a market-math thought experiment: if rational investors truly believed there was a meaningful chance of XRP reaching $100 within a few years, the current price would not sit far below double digits for long. “If many rational people believed that there was a 10% chance that XRP hit $100 within a few years, they definitely wouldn’t sell very much today at much less than $10,” he said. “Those with that belief would quickly buy up most of the XRP, because they’d value it more highly than those without that belief, and soon the supply of XRP well below $10 would dry up.” Schwartz then drew his conclusion from the gap between the hypothetical and the tape. “That the current trading price is well below $10 shows that there aren’t very many people who really think it has a 10% chance of hitting $100 within a few years with enough confidence to put their money where their mouth is,” he wrote, adding: “So anyone who says otherwise is not telling the truth.” He emphasized that readers can “do that same math” with different odds, time frames, and target prices. In a final note, Schwartz argued his baseline assumption is that crypto markets are “rational most of the time,” with major bull runs typically catalyzed by “unpredictable external changes,” rather than widely telegraphed certainties. Related Reading: XRP Risk-Adjusted Returns Signal Consolidation Rather Than Trend Formation – Details In a separate reply, Schwartz revisited an older famous X post by himself where he said that XRP “can’t be cheap.” Asked what he meant by this, he answered: “It means that a low price for XRP actually makes it more expensive to use for payments and exchanges.” The implication is mechanical: if XRP’s price is lower, more units are required to represent the same value in flight, potentially impacting how the asset is used across payment and exchange flows. Scaling The XRP Ledger Schwartz also addressed concerns about XRPL throughput after a user questioned whether “1500 per second (theoretical) is sufficient,” asking about ways to increase on-chain transactions per second. Schwartz said higher TPS is possible, but warned that most approaches shift costs onto node operators. “There are ways, but I don’t think you really want to,” he wrote. “Almost any way you do it imposes costs on everyone who runs a node. They have to receive more transactions, process and store more transactions, and relay more transactions to others.” He argued that decentralization pressure shows up when node costs rise without a matching benefit, and suggested a different optimization target: “This is why I think it makes more sense to try to increase the value of each transaction rather than trying to increase the number of transactions you can support.” With XRPL fees “so low,” he added, many transactions are “very low in value,” leaving room to “get more useful transactions on XRPL, even crowding out the worthless ones,” before throughput becomes the binding constraint. At press time, XRP traded at $1.76. Featured image created with DALL.E, chart from TradingView.com
SEC Chair Paul Atkins has indicated that broad crypto innovation exemptions, covering areas like tokenized securities and DeFi, are unlikely to be finalized this month or next. Initially expected in January, the agency is taking a cautious approach and reviewing details carefully. Wall Street firms, including JPMorgan, Citadel, and SIFMA, recently met with the SEC …
With a 5% to 6% increase over the past 24 hours, the Canton price surged to a new ATH at $0.1812, being the top performer. The volume has also increased reasonably by 45%, reaching close to $45 million, which has backed the rally. This move came as most cryptos, including Bitcoin and Ethereum, were experiencing …
With a 5% to 6% increase over the past 24 hours, the Canton price surged to a new ATH at $0.1812, being the top performer. The volume has also increased reasonably by 45%, reaching close to $45 million, which has backed the rally. This move came as most cryptos, including Bitcoin and Ethereum, were experiencing …
The idea of XRP hitting $50 or even $100 has been spreading fast across social media, exciting many long-term holders. But recently, David Schwartz, Ripple’s Chief Technology Officer, stepped in with a calm and honest take that has sparked fresh debate in the crypto community. Schwartz was asked directly to tell XRP supporters that such …
Crypto markets faced a sharp leverage-driven reset as crypto liquidations accelerated across futures markets, wiping out more than $1.1 billion in leveraged positions. The liquidation wave swept through Bitcoin, Ethereum, and the broader altcoin market, exposing how fragile positioning had become after weeks of compressed volatility. Crucially, this move was defined by derivatives liquidations rather …
Binance announced that it will turn its $1 billion SAFU fund into bitcoin over the next 30 days to support the industry through uncertainty.
The surge in Warsh's prediction market odds followed Thursday reports that Trump is preparing to nominate him as the next Fed chair.
Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, has announced major plans to convert its entire $1 billion to the Secure Asset Fund for Users (SAFU) reserve from stablecoins into Bitcoin. This move highlights the exchange’s long-term confidence in Bitcoin and comes at a time when crypto markets remain highly volatile. Binance Converts $1B SAFU Fund to …
Binance will convert the stablecoin holdings in its $1 billion Secure Asset Fund for Users to bitcoin over the next 30 days, with plans for regular audits.
Today, gold and silver prices crashed nearly 10%, wiping out over $3 trillion in value, an amount equal to the entire crypto market cap. The sudden fall quickly spread to crypto, pulling Bitcoin down nearly 7% as leveraged positions were wiped out. What began as a sharp sell-off in metals soon turned into a broader …
The U.S. Department of Justice has seized over 400 million dollars in cryptocurrency, real estate, and other assets tied to the darknet mixing service Helix. The forfeiture was finalized on January 21, officially giving the government legal ownership. Helix, operated by Larry Dean Harmon from 2014 to 2017, handled around 354,468 Bitcoin, worth roughly 300 …