Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies had a big year in 2025, becoming more institutionally accepted and facing lighter regulatory pressure before being hit with turbulence at the end of the year.
President Donald Trump campaigned on being the first president to back bitcoin. He nominated or put in place several people who were friendly to the crypto world. That friendlier touch is expected to continue into 2026.
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Bitcoin, the flagship cryptocurrency, saw major gains in 2025 and broke all-time highs on several occasions, pushing above $100,000. However, it later fell.
Acceptance
One of the trends that consumers and crypto advocates might see in 2026 is an ever-increasing acceptance of digital currencies such as bitcoin.
Nicholas Anthony, a policy analyst at the Cato Institute, said people will likely see bitcoin and crypto being used to purchase things more — and not just as a speculative investment like has largely been the case.
“Namely, because merchants are able to accept it more than ever before,” he told the Washington Examiner.
He mentioned how the payments company Square is integrating bitcoin payments, something he called “game-changing.”
“Making it so that people can make everyday payments and expect to have that option where they go, much like expecting that different credit cards will be accepted or that cash will be accepted, and that’s been a big barrier for cryptocurrency adoption,” Anthony added.
Further institutional and regulatory acceptance
The Trump administration has been far friendlier to crypto than the Biden administration was. One of the biggest changes for the crypto world was former Securities and Exchange Commissioner Gary Gensler’s departure from the agency.
Current SEC Chairman Paul Atkins is a major proponent. Prior to joining the SEC, Atkins was co-chairman of the Token Alliance, an initiative of the bitcoin and crypto advocacy group Chamber of Digital Commerce.
It is expected that the regulatory environment will continue to improve for crypto in 2026. Additionally, bitcoin investing has become more mainstream as major financial firms begin to gain exposure to crypto, a trend that is likely to continue into next year.
“I think we’re definitely going to see both institutional acceptance as well as on the regulatory side,” Utkarsh Ahuja, founder and managing partner of Moon Pursuit Capital, told the Washington Examiner.
Anthony also pointed out that, with the rise in adoption of bitcoin payments, he thinks there will be a “huge demand” in 2026 for changes to capital gains taxation on crypto. Taxing gains on crypto introduces major complications to its use in payments.
“So right now, when you spend bitcoin to buy a cup of coffee, a piece of art, or anything else, you have to pay not just the sales tax, but also capital gains on that,” he said.
Bitcoin price?
The price of bitcoin collapsed in recent months, causing some anxiety among investors. After Trump was elected in November of last year, bitcoin surged to a new record, vaulting from less than $70,000 to over $90,000 in a matter of days.
After falling in the first part of 2025, most of this past year was quite good for the flagship cryptocurrency, although it has fallen in the last couple of months of the year. Indeed, bitcoin is now in the red compared to its value at the start of the year, shredding months of gains.
Experts say the recent declines are a result of a combination of things.
Zack Shapiro, head of policy at the Bitcoin Policy Institute, said one of the reasons for the decline is a rotation out of the market by some of the earliest holders of the flagship cryptocurrency.
“So this is sort of whales, people that have a lot of bitcoin from the early days, are selling in large numbers,” Shapiro told the Washington Examiner.
Additionally, many investors believe in a four-year price cycle for bitcoin, driven by a process known as the “halving.”
To “mine” for bitcoin, high-powered computers are used to verify virtual coin transactions. Bitcoin operates on what is known as a blockchain, essentially a public ledger, that contains the history of every transaction. The miners’ computers solve complex mathematical problems to add new blocks to the chain, and in turn, are rewarded with the digital token, making the endeavor profitable.
However, about every four years, the block rewards for bitcoin miners are slashed in half, reducing the supply of new bitcoins by 50%. That makes the product a scarcer commodity and tends to raise its price in the following months.
The first year after the halving is historically a bull market, but the market can then start to pull back or decline. For context, the last halving took place in April 2024.
“I think, bitcoin — we’ve already had the bitcoin top … and I don’t see bitcoin going back to those same levels,” Ahuja said.
Other coins
Still, other cryptocurrencies, or so-called “alt-coins,” could see gains in the new year.
John Berlau, a senior fellow and director of finance policy at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, said that the more favorable regulatory environment will allow more bitcoin alternatives to come to the fore and thrive in 2026.
“Bitcoin is competing with other cryptocurrencies now because we have a rational regulatory state as far as crypto goes with the SEC and other agencies,” he told the Washington Examiner.
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Additionally, Berlau said, when it comes to these other cryptocurrencies, investors are not just holding on to the coins. Rather, they are looking to invest in ones that have applicable uses, such as for nonfungible tokens, or NFTs.
“I think often now, cryptocurrencies in the marketplace are going to have to, you know, prove their usefulness as far as having a blockchain that is used for things like stablecoins, NFTs, and others,” he said.
