Crypto analytics platform Presto Analysis this week revealed its 2026 outlook, projecting Bitcoin (BTC) at $160,000, tokenized property nearing $490 billion, and confidential decentralized finance (DeFi) climbing previous $10 billion as crypto shifts deeper into institutional finance.
The report argued that after a messy however formative 2025, the market is shedding hype-driven progress in favor of money circulate, regulation-ready merchandise, and infrastructure constructed for giant allocators relatively than retail mania.
Institutional Maturation to Drive New Highs
Within the complete year-ahead report, Presto’s analysts projected that the whole worth of tokenized real-world property (RWAs) and stablecoins will method half a trillion {dollars} by the tip of 2026.
They see this progress propelled by continued demand for U.S. Treasury payments and credit score devices on blockchain networks, alongside the regular rise of stablecoins for world funds. This development highlights a shift from speculative buying and selling to sensible monetary utility.
Central to their value outlook is a $160,000 goal for Bitcoin. This projection depends on a framework evaluating the cryptocurrency’s on-chain adoption price in opposition to potential investor warning surrounding future quantum computing challenges.
The consultants utilized what they name a “30% quantum haircut” to account for investor uncertainty across the want for future-proof encryption upgrades.
“When a threat that was as soon as a obscure, distant ‘sometime’ instantly will get pulled ahead within the collective dialog, investor psychology can shift,” the report cautioned, pointing to quantum readiness as a brand new variable in valuation.
Individually, the market watchers forecasted a significant advance for personal monetary exercise on blockchain, forecasting confidential DeFi instruments to develop to carry $10 billion in property as regulatory and institutional demand for discretion will increase.
Underlying the Predictions: A Market Rising Up
Presto’s overview of 2025 highlighted a 12 months of contradictions: landmark coverage wins just like the passing of the GENIUS Act and main public listings have been offset by tight financial coverage that restricted broad value features.
The agency famous that whereas fundamentals like protocol income grew to become a central speaking level, market efficiency typically ignored them, as an alternative favoring narrative and liquidity dynamics.
This atmosphere, Presto’s analysts argued, is about to evolve. Their expectation for 2026 is that financialization will deepen, with conventional finance giants increasing crypto custody and buying and selling companies. Moreover, they estimated that the rise of AI brokers able to executing microtransactions, facilitated by protocols like Coinbase’s x402, might probably generate nicely over 300 million transactions month-to-month, turning experimental demos into purposeful companies.
A closing, telling projection is that “median altcoin funding price ≤ 0% turns into a norm.” This shift from perpetual optimism to a default price for holding most speculative tokens can be a profound change. “Funding is lastly pricing in actuality,” the report concluded, suggesting a harsh however vital reckoning for property with out sustainable demand.
In line with Presto, these mixed forces level to a market slowly outgrowing its unstable previous, the place measurable worth creation and threat administration will begin to outweigh pure hypothesis within the new 12 months.
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