Brace For Longer Crypto Cycle, Says Bitwise Investment Chief

Bitwise investment chief Matt Hougan has said that the current crypto cycle is going to be longer than the typical four years. In a post to Twitter/X, he advised investors to brace themselves for this and prepare accordingly.

As many of us will know, cryptocurrency tends to follow a four-year cycle where there is a decline in market prices and a period of winter, which is then followed by a recovery period.

Consumers, naturally, make their decisions based on the cycle, with some accumulating or selling off tokens in response. The stats show that at certain periods in the cycle, there is more interest in creating crypto wallets to cash in on the industry. Last year, for example, saw a record increase in active crypto wallets as more people entered the market. Many are looking into creating a Ripple Wallet with BestWallet, for example, to store their tokens.

But Hougan cites in number of factors as to why this cycle will be longer.

What Bitwise investment chie said

“Applications and real world use cases were artificially suppressed by the hostile regulatory environment of 2020-2024.  But the infrastructure kept improving, and is now remarkably robust […] But as we remove the regulatory road blocks, the speed at which things like stablecoins, tokenization, DeFi and DePin will scale will surprise people. It’s a coiled spring,” he said.

A look at the current crypto landscape will show that there is a more welcoming regulatory attitude. Donald Trump’s reelection in the US has seen several cases against crypto companies dropped by the SEC, the first crypto convention in the white house, and overall, a more aggressive alignment with the industry from the government. All these create a market where institutional investors are happy to put their money into the asset class, and this means rather than running out of steam from individual investors, this crypto cycle can be extended.

It is also worth noting that Bitcoin is above $110,000 as an all-time high, which was virtually unthinkable at this point in the last cycle. By the time we do face a winter, a full recovery will be aiming for $150,000 and above. This might mean that another bull run will take longer to trigger but will have a bigger payoff.

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This is not the first time that Hougan has made such comments, as back in January, he said that a crypto winter was unlikely to happen in 2026. But even with this, the Bitcoin halving is still on track for 2028, and if the current bull market sustains for longer, it could disrupt the cycle as we know it.

Whether this prediction is true or not, it cannot be denied that crypto investors have to adjust to a changing landscape that includes major institutional players, the most powerful people in the government, and possibly changing timelines. Hopefully, the next crypto winter, whenever it happens, is one that tokens can recover from.