Written by: Foresight News Editorial Team
Looking back from the intersection of 2025 and 2026, every change in legislation, every rise and fall of tokens, and every cycle of narratives in the crypto space has settled into a silent epic deep within the memories of practitioners. Over the past year, the industry has navigated through extremes: digital asset custody institutions have emerged continuously, and key legislation has been enacted one after another; meanwhile, project failures and shattered narratives have also played out repeatedly. Some see the seeds of life sprouting from the ruins, while others exhaust their last faith in the tide of speculation. The approaching year of 2026 may be a time of silent accumulation. The industry needs to regain its scattered original intentions, gather strength in calmness, and wait for the next true breakthrough.
At the end of 2025, we asked all editors and reporters at Foresight News four questions: 1. Looking back at 2025, what have you gained, and what regrets do you have? How do these compare to your predictions for 2025? 2. As 2025 comes to a close, what do you see as the biggest change in the crypto world this year? 3. In the coming year, which crypto sectors and assets do you have the most confidence in? 4. Predict whether Ethereum will outperform Bitcoin in 2026. What will be the highest prices for Bitcoin and Ethereum in 2026?
Additionally, Foresight News editors and reporters disclosed their cryptocurrency holdings (for informational purposes only, not constituting any investment advice).
Gains and Regrets
Looking back at 2025, what have you gained, and what regrets do you have? How do these compare to your predictions for 2025?
Joe Zhou: Cryptocurrency is a very abstract concept; who really needs it? The biggest gain this year was visiting over ten countries and gradually seeing which individuals, groups, and countries truly need cryptocurrency.
The biggest regret is that there was no groundbreaking innovation that caught people's attention and broke through the cryptocurrency circle this year. However, the decentralized contract derivatives sector represented by Hyperliquid, the RWA sector such as Ondo (especially in stock tokenization), and the x402 sector still left seeds of hope for the future of the entire industry. Narratives like Polymarket, which had long been abandoned by the industry, have once again become popular sectors in the past two years. This perhaps also means that sectors like NFTs and decentralized stablecoins, which were temporarily discredited, may have the opportunity to rise again at some point in the future.
I predicted that Bitcoin could peak at $160,000 this year, but ultimately BTC did not break through $130,000. The AI Agent sector also seems to have not undergone qualitative changes this year, and the entire altcoin market remains lifeless.
Nicky: The most obvious point in 2025 is "speed"; the rise of most tokens lasts no more than a couple of months, or even just a day or two. You must get in early, or you will miss out. On October 6, at midnight, CZ commented "Binance life" in the comments section, and the token's market cap rose to $6 million. I thought this might be another wave, so I just glanced at it and didn't think much more. However, by October 8, it had risen to a market cap of $500 million, nearly a 100-fold increase. But if you chase the price due to FOMO, you will likely suffer significant losses. Contrary to the "long-term value" narrative predicted for 2025, the narrative may be long-term, but the "price" likely will not be.
KarenZ: Even for projects with strong fundamentals, they cannot withstand unexpected market movements. If you do not allocate profits and secure gains in a timely manner, you will ultimately give back to the market. In most cases, taking profits in batches is the way to survive. A pleasant surprise was a meme coin I invested in on the BNB Chain, which I bought at a market cap of a few tens of thousands, and then built positions when it reached $5 million and $10 million market caps. Although this meme eventually went to zero, it made me more convinced that taking profits is the greatest respect for trading. Additionally, in the face of uncertainty, reducing trading frequency is a prerequisite for survival; preserving profits is harder than finding opportunities.
Sanqing: Stepping on narratives and losing to emotions. The RWA blockchain Plume airdrop at the beginning of the year was the biggest alpha of the year, and my long-term participation in RealtyX's real estate tokenization also yielded several high-yield mining pools. I made profits from the Polymarket League of Legends World Championship series predictions, while the rest were scattered meme, ICO, and farcaster ecosystem small projects. The regret is that I didn't learn to take profits during the rise; I didn't sell much at Plume's peak, kept buying as it fell, and ended up deeply trapped. I also missed the opportunity to actively buy ETH around $2,000 in the first half of the year. Of course, I missed many opportunities, but one cannot profit in every aspect; saying too much would make me seem greedy.
Yobo: I executed three-quarters of my plan to "sell all positions when BNB reaches $1200," but still left some "dream" positions. It has been proven that I should strictly follow my trading plan. The good news is that executing most of it has allowed me to gain some profits in this round, while the bad news is that I don't know how many times I've validated the human tendency to "drag" and missed out on more.
Eric: The biggest gain in 2025 was letting go of the obsession with "making money," while the regret was not awakening sooner. The saying "wealth does not enter through urgent doors" is indeed very reasonable. Perhaps having been in this industry for too long and seeing too many stories of overnight wealth has disturbed my youthful mindset. After turning 30, I began to believe that everyone has their own fate, and I no longer chase money for the sake of making money. I dedicate more time and energy to family and friends, treating content creation as a lifelong career. If it succeeds, I am grateful to the heavens; if it does not, I accept it. If I were to say what is different about my predictions for 2025 compared to before, it might be that I predicted a downward trend would begin, but I did not expect the market's resilience to be so strong.
Chandler: The biggest change this year is the reduction of the frenzy of fantasizing about getting rich overnight. Making money has a ceiling, but being content does not; life is actually far more interesting than investing.
angelilu: I saw opportunities but did not execute firmly. I discovered some quality meme projects early on, but due to hesitation, doubt, or poor position management, I did not enter heavily. Even for a few early investments, I ended up giving back the profits to the market because I did not take profits in time. Another regret is that it seems I did not create more actual value for this industry and community.
Anderson Sima: From a personal perspective, 2025 was about accumulating considerable trading and interaction experience. I finally participated in many hot topics as a player rather than an observer, such as Trump and other memes; however, I missed out on more hot topics like Plasma and Aster. A slight regret is those hot topics I hesitated over but did not participate in, or my understanding and perspective were insufficient when I did participate. Overall, it met my personal expectations, and I look forward to continued growth. Last year, I predicted AI + Web3, but it did not become a hot topic this year, with only the year-end large model trading competition being eye-catching.
Luffy: I did not have any particularly significant gains; my regret is that I bought many altcoins in the Ethereum ecosystem, all of which ended up at a loss.
1912212.eth: I gained heavy lessons and have many regrets. I predicted that 2025 would see more wealth effects, but instead, I found endless PvP. The biggest regret was missing giggle; although it was not the official meme coin at first, the educational concept by Zhao Changpeng was very good. I wanted to buy but hesitated, and as a result, it surged significantly after being listed on Binance alpha. During this time, I thought the increase was too high and that it wouldn't rise much more, but it was listed on the spot again, leading to another significant surge… Regret missing out.
The Biggest Changes in the Crypto Industry
As 2025 comes to a close, what do you see as the biggest change in the crypto world this year?
Sanqing: This year saw traditional finance and regulatory forces flooding into crypto, but the returns this year were not as good as traditional assets. More categories of RWA and compliant ETFs were launched, more crypto companies went public, and the MiCA legislation came into full effect… However, as the crypto market further integrates with traditional finance, the price fluctuations of crypto assets are increasingly influenced by the Federal Reserve's interest rates, inflation, and global liquidity. In the context of high interest rates and economic slowdown, crypto assets did not experience independent explosions like in previous cycles.
This was also the year when the airdrop initiation methods gradually failed; the "haircut" model became ineffective due to large-scale witch attacks and the proliferation of "mouth hair" and other false social tasks. Some distributions were intercepted by centralized exchanges through various mechanisms, shifting the distribution logic from community contributions to capital and traffic. Therefore, project parties began to revert to ICO or conditional pre-sale models to realize capital recovery and establish a base price in the early stages to avoid the massive selling pressure from cost-free chips.
Joe Zhou: On-chain and compliance are rapidly advancing. 1) On-chain is quickly becoming widespread across the industry. With the push from Hyperliquid and Solana, core companies in the industry like Binance and OKX are fully committed to promoting their own organizations' on-chain processes. The elephant is turning quickly. 2) The compliance of cryptocurrencies has become a consensus among major countries worldwide. Among the top ten major economies globally, nine have already implemented compliance regulations for stablecoins. The global proliferation of stablecoins is one aspect; more importantly, the U.S. is actively promoting the comprehensive on-chain transformation of its financial system. The U.S. hopes to lead the world into the cryptocurrency era in the financial industry, although this has not been reflected at all in the altcoin market.
Anderson Sima: The crypto space in 2025 presents a duality of extremes. Externally, the global adoption of cryptocurrencies continues to rise, with regulation and innovation advancing under the influence of the U.S., attracting continuous inflows of capital from Wall Street and the Middle East. Internally, however, after four years, there have been no new technological innovations at the level of DeFi or NFTs; the currently promoted RWA, prediction markets, stablecoins, and payments do not solve the underlying issues of regulation and large-scale application. Thus, the voice that cryptocurrencies are merely a huge casino is beginning to emerge. This statement exposes the underlying reason why cryptocurrencies have not been accepted by sovereign nations: they fulfill the wealth fantasies of certain groups. However, I do not believe this is the whole truth; the current state of the industry is controlled by leading financial institutions, but the future of the industry lies in the hands of Satoshi Nakamoto and Vitalik. I will continue to wait for the moment that belongs to cryptocurrencies, akin to a ChatGPT moment.
1912212.eth: There are more and more wrongdoers who, regardless of their appearance, harvest market liquidity without facing any punishment. The massive crash on October 11 had an extremely negative impact on the industry. BTC is still the same Bitcoin, but the vast majority of other altcoins may never regain market favor.
KarenZ: Exchanges are evolving into "super application" ecosystems, including spot trading, derivatives, wallets, DeFi, IPOs, and stock tokenization. Stripe, Mastercard, and Ripple are seizing the infrastructure for stablecoins. The regulatory framework for crypto is gradually becoming clearer in some countries/regions. The survival space for small and medium-sized projects is being compressed. Hot topics come quickly and leave just as fast.
Nicky: In 2025, Bitcoin reached a historic high, DAT companies emerged one after another, and even the president got involved in memes! The passing of the GENIUS Act and related compliance standards will prompt off-balance-sheet assets to move on-balance-sheet, aiding in the repair of balance sheets. None of this has happened in history; we are witnessing history.
Luffy: The biggest change is that even though Bitcoin reached a new high this year, it still underperformed compared to gold, U.S. stocks, and even A-shares. Our previous perception that cryptocurrencies are alpha assets may need to change.
Eric: The biggest change may be that retail investors are starting to wake up and will no longer blindly believe in some ethereal narratives. From an industry development perspective, this is a good thing, but it also means the industry will go through a period of growing pains, stemming from the end of the wild era, while the new system has yet to be built. However, this also means that rational value investment opportunities may be getting closer.
Chandler: Chaotic, fragmented, fast-moving, emotional, and foolish.
angelilu: Institutional purchases of Bitcoin ETFs have indeed driven up prices, but they have also made the market more like the stock market. Polymarket and Web3-related AI agents seem to have some real-world utility. The retail FOMO model has been reshaped, and project teams are thinking about how to go alpha; the myth of making 10x or 100x on-chain is becoming increasingly rare.
Yobo: No change. The early stages of a strongly financialized industry are just a constant reenactment of stories that have happened before in seemingly new forms, ultimately returning to the core elements of finance.
The Most Promising Sectors or Assets in 2026
In the coming year, which crypto sectors and assets do you have the most confidence in?
1912212.eth: Crypto + AI robots and prediction markets.
KarenZ: RWA, payments, Crypto & AI robots (Yushu Technology IPO?), mining companies focused on AI and high-performance computing.
Nicky: Creator economy, prediction markets.
Luffy: Stablecoins and prediction markets. The fact that stablecoins are the largest use case for cryptocurrencies will not change, and their adoption in the traditional world will further expand; meanwhile, the hype around prediction markets before Polymarket's token launch will continue.
Eric: The most promising sector will definitely be one that has not yet been seen, but I don't know which one it is.
Chandler: The real-world applications of stablecoins and some emerging combinations with AI.
angelilu: Prediction markets and AI agents, crypto payments.
Joe Zhou: Stablecoins, RWA, prediction markets, DEX, Depin, and other sectors.
Yobo: Leading DeFi (Aave, Pendle), Bitcoin, leading exchange platform tokens, long-term choices that span cycles, and planned bottom-fishing choices.
Anderson Sima: Bitcoin, Ethereum, BNB.
Sanqing: The core of prediction markets lies in information aggregation and risk hedging, which is the future financial infrastructure. The IPO and token launch of Polymarket are worth paying attention to; the RWA sector will see business growth under compliance promotion, but price performance may lag; Ethereum is strengthening its position as financial infrastructure through continuous upgrades, and the current market environment is different from the past. Perpetual DEX faces competitive pressure from centralized exchanges in terms of security efficiency, rapid iteration, and user migration costs, while also being more susceptible to front-end compliance and anti-money laundering regulatory impacts, putting pressure on its development prospects.
Expectations for Bitcoin and Ethereum in 2026
Predict whether Ethereum will outperform Bitcoin in 2026. What will be the highest prices for Bitcoin and Ethereum in 2026?
1912212.eth: No. Ethereum will not outperform Bitcoin; Bitcoin may reach a maximum of $103,000 in 2026, while ETH may peak at $4,000.
KarenZ: Yes. Ethereum has a chance to outperform Bitcoin in 2026.
Nicky: Yes. Ethereum will outperform Bitcoin in 2026, with Bitcoin at $175,000 and Ethereum at $10,000.
Sanqing: Yes. Ethereum, with its productivity and applicability, will surpass Bitcoin's scarcity. Ethereum at $7,000, Bitcoin at $150,000.
Luffy: No. The market expectations for 2026 are not good; Ethereum will likely underperform Bitcoin in a bear market. Optimistically guessing, the highest prices for Bitcoin and Ethereum in 2026 will be $120,000 and $4,000, respectively.
Eric: No. I predict a decline, but I can't guess the specific price points. I predict that Ethereum will outperform Bitcoin in the next cycle, but not next year.
Chandler: No. I am not optimistic about the market in 2026; Bitcoin at $100,000, Ethereum at $4,100.
angelilu: Yes. If the application layer takes off, Ethereum has a chance, with Bitcoin at $120,000 to $150,000 and Ethereum at $5,000.
Joe Zhou: Yes. I bet on Ethereum on Polymarket to reach $5,000 before gold, as a hopeful wish.
Yobo: No. I am bearish on Ethereum's price in the long term; ETH prices will remain relatively stable, which may be a good thing for the application layer. Bitcoin is likely to test the bottom again in the spring of next year, and the time following 2026 will focus on bottoming and repairing sentiment, with the annual range being a rough guess of ($75,000 - $105,000, with the peak at the beginning of the year and the low in March and April, followed by relative stability), while I can't guess Ethereum's price.
Anderson Sima: No. Both will be on par; Bitcoin at $150,000, Ethereum at $5,000.
Disclosure of Holdings
1912212.eth: USDT
KarenZ: USDT, ETH, ENA, Aster
Nicky: USDT
Sanqing: Plume, MON, OKB, MNT, ETH options
Luffy: BTC, BNB
Chandler: USDT, BTC
angelilu: BTC, ETH, USDT
Yobo: BTC, BNB, PENDLE, CRV, SUI, APT
Joe Zhou: BTC, ETH, HSK, JESSE
Anderson Sima: BTC, ETH
Eric: None
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