Dragonfly basic companion 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.
Talking on CNBC’s Squawk Field on Dec. 24, Hadick pushed again on the concept crypto has entered a brand new “winter,” framing the yr’s disappointment as a operate of recency bias relatively than a clear break in market construction.
“It hasn’t had an awesome yr. However I believe it’s necessary to zoom out,” Hadick mentioned. “Should you have 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 robust and constructive 2026.
2026 predictions are… one other constructive yr for the business (zoom out), particularly for continued innovation in prediction markets, stablecoins and tokenized belongings, and scalability and infrastructure for monetary marketshttps://t.co/SIm1rCkiv9
— Rob Hadick ＞|＜ (@HadickM) December 24, 2025
2026 Crypto Predictions
Pressed on what “a great 2026” means in observe 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 more likely to be continued momentum,” he mentioned. “I believe from a macroeconomic perspective… we’ll have higher financial coverage. After which we’re going to have an increasing number of adoption of tokenized belongings.”
One knowledge level he mentioned: “McKinsey simply mentioned that they assume 3% of all cross-border funds is going on in stablecoins proper now. That’s up from mainly 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 guess on market-structure innovation. “We put money into all people that’s doing something that’s attention-grabbing in tokenized digital belongings,” he mentioned. “We’re not what I might 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 believe are right here to remain. I believe it’s going to develop tenfold,” he mentioned. “I believe prediction markets are right here to remain. I believe 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 instances. “Should you have a look at Polymarket quantity at this time, 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 Change CEO Jeff Sprecher’s long-running tokenization thesis to argue prediction markets could converge with broader monetary infrastructure relatively than stay a distinct segment wagering product. “Should you speak to Jeff Sprecher over at ICE… he’ll let you know 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 large as ICE itself. Most likely.”
He recommended the practical framing is much less “bets” and extra programmable threat switch. “I talked to an insurance coverage firm perhaps a month in the past that was occupied with how they’ll hedge out threat in climate associated actions,” Hadick mentioned. “That’s only one use case… each single factor and each single market and consequence that may be put [into] a market—or actually only a binary possibility, which is what it’s.”
Ethereum Vs. Solana
Requested to select sides within the Ethereum–Solana debate, Hadick refused the “MySpace vs. Fb” framing. “No, they’re each Fb,” 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 circulation.
“Most stablecoins at this time are on Ethereum,” Hadick mentioned. “Ethereum is the place a considerable amount of… financial exercise exists… however should you have a look at the buying and selling quantity, it’s occurring extra on Solana, which is extra optimized for that sort of transaction circulation and for low price transactions.”
Nonetheless, Hadick conceded the platform layer just isn’t frozen. He mentioned Dragonfly is invested in a more moderen 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 value round $0.002.
At press time, the whole crypto market cap stood at $2.92 trillion.
Featured picture created with DALL.E, chart from TradingView.com
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