Galaxy Research s 2026 Outlook: Bitcoin s Evolution and Institutional Adoption

Galaxy Research has released its comprehensive outlook for 2026, emphasizing Bitcoin s evolution beyond price cycles and its increasing alignment with gold s adoption curve. The report highlights the growing institutional access to Bitcoin and the strengthening demand for long-term monetary hedges, projecting a trajectory towards 250,000.
The research indicates that digital asset markets are entering a new phase characterized by institutional participation, regulatory clarity, and technological convergence. It stresses the importance of long-term adoption over short-term price movements. The team noted,
While 2025 may end with prices in the red, the year still pulled in real institutional adoption and set the groundwork for 2026 s next phase of real activation.
Looking ahead, Galaxy anticipates that stablecoins will surpass traditional payment rails, tokenized assets will enter mainstream markets, and corporate layer-1 blockchains will transition from pilot programs to actual settlements. The report also predicts that public chains will reevaluate their value capture strategies, decentralized finance DeFi and prediction markets will continue to grow, and AI-driven payments will finally be implemented on-chain.
Alex Thorn, Head of Firmwide Research, provided a long-term perspective on Bitcoin, suggesting that 2026 might be a relatively quiet year for the asset. He stated that regardless of whether Bitcoin ends the year at 70,000 or 150,000,
our bullish outlook over longer time periods is only growing stronger.
Thorn emphasized the increasing institutional access and the search for non-dollar hedge assets, stating,
It s very possible that Bitcoin follows gold to become widely adopted as a monetary debasement hedge within the next two years BTC will hit 250k by year-end 2027.
The report also projected continued growth for Solana s blockchain infrastructure, predicting a surge in the total market cap of Internet Capital Markets on Solana to 2 billion. Regulatory expectations were also addressed, with Galaxy forecasting that the SEC will provide some form of exemptive relief for the use of tokenized securities in DeFi under its innovation exemption program.
In terms of capital markets and corporate balance sheets, Galaxy Research predicted that over 15 crypto companies will IPO or uplist in the U.S. However, it also cautioned that not all balance-sheet strategies will be sustainable, warning that
five or more digital asset treasury companies DATs will be forced to sell assets, be acquired, or shut down completely.