If you’ve got $10,000 and want to put it into crypto in 2026, veteran crypto investor Dan Tapiero doesn’t hesitate: “I think you just split it between bitcoin BTC$95,080.37, ether ETH$3,321.16 and solana SOL$142.19, and decide how you like to split it.”
But zooming out from retail portfolios, Tapiero says some of the biggest opportunities lie in the crypto ecosystem, specifically the infrastructure that’s finally breaking into the mainstream.
Stablecoins, for example, are now powering global payments, with transaction volumes reaching $33 trillion in 2025, up from $19.7 trillion in 2024.
“There is an entire world … growing up around traditional players trying to figure out how to incorporate the stablecoin rails into whatever they’re doing,” Tapiero, who runs leading growth equity firm 50T Funds, said.
Bitcoin also remains central to his thesis, both as an investment and as a macro hedge. He expects it to reach $180,000 in the current cycle, citing a combination of demand growth and global monetary shifts.
“This is just a correction … the bottom is in,” he said, referring to recent market pullbacks.
Tapiero sees strong tailwinds from falling interest rates and large-scale government spending on AI infrastructure. That global push is leading to currency debasement — not just of the U.S. dollar, but fiat currencies across the board. “That’s very bullish for bitcoin,” he said.
While Tapiero sees promising growth in tokenization, blockchain-AI convergence, and on-chain prediction markets, he’s more cautious on recent trends like crypto treasury companies, which he believes offer little real innovation.
“There’s no moat,” he said. “I don’t really see what the long-term value proposition is for 95% of them.”
His final takeaway: crypto in 2026 is still early, but it’s growing up fast — and increasingly being shaped by real use cases, not just speculation.
“The reason why the stablecoin and payments and financial aspect is taking off more quickly… is because those people care first and foremost about money,” Tapiero said.