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Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson predicts Bitcoin will reach $250,000 by 2026, driven by continued institutional demand and expanding access through traditional financial channels. In an extensive interview with Altcoin Daily, Hoskinson outlined his vision for crypto's fourth generation centered on privacy technology while revealing his bullish outlook despite describing 2025 as an "ultimate lap dance" year that failed to deliver expected results.
Key Points
- Bitcoin projected to hit $250,000 in 2026 due to institutional adoption and Morgan Stanley's 17,000 private wealth advisors now able to recommend crypto positions
- Midnight, Cardano's privacy-focused partner chain, launches as first "fourth generation" cryptocurrency with rational privacy and multi-chain compatibility
- Stablecoin market expected to grow from $250 billion to $1 trillion over next five years, creating independent demand beyond Bitcoin
- Retail investors largely sat out 2025 cycle, with only Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, and XRP seeing significant gains
- Privacy technology represents the next major narrative shift in crypto, similar to smart contracts and scalability in previous generations
Bitcoin's Path to $250,000
Hoskinson bases his aggressive Bitcoin price target on fundamental supply-demand dynamics that mirror the forces driving Bitcoin to current levels. Morgan Stanley's recent announcement allowing its 17,000 private wealth advisors to recommend crypto positions between 1-5% of portfolios represents a massive new demand source.
"When Morgan Stanley says they can advise between 1 to 5% for 17,000 private wealth advisors, the other guys are going to do the same thing. So you have a lot more buy demand coming from the 401k side, from the institutional side, and from the governmental side as treasury management relative to fixed supply."
The Cardano founder expects this institutional wave to continue through structured financial products designed for traditional retail investors who prefer familiar investment vehicles over direct cryptocurrency purchases. Nation-states and Fortune 500 companies adding Bitcoin to treasury reserves will further constrain supply while demand increases.
However, Hoskinson warned that MicroStrategy's potential collapse could create temporary market disruption, comparing it to "throwing a large rock in the pond" that creates ripples but doesn't kill the ecosystem.
The Fourth Generation: Privacy and Cooperation
Hoskinson positioned Midnight as the flagship of cryptocurrency's fourth generation, built around three core principles: rational privacy, identity with selective disclosure, and multi-chain cooperation. Unlike previous privacy coins that default to complete anonymity, Midnight allows users to control disclosure levels.
The platform operates as a "partner chain" rather than traditional sidechain, capable of being validated by multiple networks simultaneously. This design allows Bitcoin holders to interact with DeFi protocols non-custodially while maintaining institutional custody requirements.
"Midnight is for everyone everywhere. Midnight is bringing something to the entire space as a whole and it's the first of a fourth generation of cryptocurrency and as the first mover. If we move fast enough, we can get a huge market share and obviously creates a bullcase then for ADA."
The platform's dual-token model enables Web2-style free usage where application developers can subsidize user transaction costs, removing barriers that have prevented mainstream adoption. This approach allows traditional businesses to integrate privacy technology without forcing users to manage cryptocurrencies directly.
Market Analysis and Altcoin Outlook
Despite Bitcoin's strong performance, Hoskinson characterized 2025 as disappointing for the broader cryptocurrency market. The Trump administration's mixed signals on crypto policy and the launch of Trump-branded tokens politicized the industry, reducing bipartisan legislative support.
Retail investors remained largely absent from this cycle, with institutional money flowing primarily into Bitcoin and select altcoins. Hoskinson noted that normally Bitcoin gains flow into altcoins after 6-12 months, but this pattern broke down due to lack of retail participation.
For altcoins to benefit from Bitcoin's rise, Hoskinson believes non-custodial Bitcoin lending protocols must mature, allowing Bitcoin holders to generate yield in DeFi without losing custody. This infrastructure could channel trillions in Bitcoin value into the broader cryptocurrency ecosystem.
The stablecoin sector presents another independent growth vector, with usage expected to quadruple to $1 trillion. Argentina exemplifies this trend, with $100 billion in stablecoins circulating in a $700 billion economy as citizens abandon the peso for dollar-denominated digital assets.
Ethereum vs. Solana Competition
When forced to choose between Ethereum and Solana for 2026 performance, Hoskinson favored Solana's superior agility and growth potential. However, he believes Ethereum's long-term direction toward proof-based verification rather than transaction-based consensus represents the correct paradigm shift.
Hoskinson criticized both networks' approaches: Ethereum for betting on STARKs and ASIC-driven infrastructure, and Solana for representing "the apex of old thinking" focused purely on transaction throughput. He positioned Midnight's integration with cloud providers like Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure as a more scalable approach to zero-knowledge computation.
"Long-term I think Ethereum has a better direction, a better paradigm than Solana, but Solana's fast and they can pivot quickly and they can buy quickly and they have a lot of money."
Personal Reflections on Industry Rivalry
In a candid moment, Hoskinson revealed he last had dinner with Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin in 2014. While acknowledging their professional rivalry, he expressed respect for Buterin's contributions to the industry and suggested their conflict stemmed from meeting "in a different phase of life."
Hoskinson credited Ethereum's success partially to ConsenSys founder Joe Lubin's marketing prowess in creating "perception of victory and inevitability" around Ethereum. He argued that Cardano's decision to build everything from scratch in Haskell, while technically superior, created time-to-market disadvantages that better partnerships could have avoided.
Looking ahead, Hoskinson believes the cryptocurrency landscape will undergo significant reshuffling in the next five years as the fourth generation emerges. He pointed to historical examples of technology monopolies like BlackBerry and Internet Explorer to argue that current market leaders aren't guaranteed permanent dominance, especially as billions of new users enter the space with different standards and expectations.
