Dragonfly normal companion Rob Hadick struck an upbeat tone on crypto’s medium-term setup, arguing that current volatility has obscured a broader development of adoption, particularly in stablecoins and prediction markets, that he expects to speed up into 2026.
Talking on CNBC’s Squawk Field on Dec. 24, Hadick pushed again on the concept crypto has entered a brand new “winter,” framing the yr’s disappointment as a operate of recency bias slightly than a clear break in market construction.
“It hasn’t had a fantastic yr. However I feel it is vital to zoom out,” Hadick mentioned. “If you happen to take a look at the returns for bitcoin relative to the day earlier than the election in ’24, bitcoin is up about 26%, Nasdaq is up about 28%… even additional than that two years, bitcoin’s doubled, Nasdaq is up 50%.”
Hadick emphasised he is not buying and selling chart patterns. “I am not a technical investor. I am a long-term investor. We’re a VC fund,” he mentioned, including that he “proceed[s] to see a powerful and constructive 2026.
2026 predictions are… one other optimistic yr for the trade (zoom out), particularly for continued innovation in prediction markets, stablecoins and tokenized belongings, and scalability and infrastructure for monetary marketshttps://t.co/SIm1rCkiv9
— Rob Hadick ＞|＜ (@HadickM) December 24, 2025
2026 Crypto Predictions
Pressed on what “a great 2026” means in follow for the crypto market, Hadick tied his outlook to macro situations and what he sees as compounding real-world utilization. “For the token costs themselves—bitcoin, ethereum—there’s more likely to be continued momentum,” he mentioned. “I feel from a macroeconomic perspective… we’ll have higher financial coverage. After which we’ll have increasingly more adoption of tokenized belongings.”
One information level he mentioned: “McKinsey simply mentioned that they suppose 3% of all cross-border funds are taking place in stablecoins proper now. That is up from mainly 0% a yr in the past,” Hadick mentioned, including that he expects “one other tenfold enhance.”
Hadick described Dragonfly as intentionally non-ideological throughout chains and sectors, positioning the agency much less as a “bitcoin vs. ethereum” store and extra as a guess on market-structure innovation. “We spend money on everyone that is doing something that is fascinating in tokenized digital belongings,” he mentioned. “We’re not what I might say ideological about crypto. What we’re is investing in the way forward for innovation in monetary markets.”
When the dialog turned from majors to classes, Hadick leaned into two themes: stablecoins and prediction markets. “Stablecoins I feel are right here to remain. I feel it’ll develop tenfold,” he mentioned. “I feel prediction markets are right here to remain. I feel they are going to develop tenfold.”
On prediction markets particularly, Hadick argued that the addressable market extends nicely past sports activities betting, regardless of the present overlap. He pointed to Polymarket’s progress as proof of increasing use instances. “If you happen to take a look at Polymarket quantity immediately, they’ve gone from $50 million a month in early ’24… they’re now going to do most likely about $4 billion of quantity this month,” he mentioned, including that “solely about 35% of that’s sports activities,” placing Polymarket in distinction with Kalshi, which he characterised as “extra of a sports activities platform as a result of they’re infrastructure for Robinhood.”
Hadick additionally invoked Intercontinental Alternate CEO Jeff Sprecher’s long-running tokenization thesis to argue that prediction markets might converge with broader monetary infrastructure slightly than stay a distinct segment wagering product. “If you happen to discuss to Jeff Sprecher over at ICE… he’ll inform you he believes within the tokenization of all markets,” Hadick mentioned. “I talked to him earlier than he made the funding in Polymarket… his perspective is that that is going to be as huge as ICE itself. Most likely.”
He recommended the practical framing is much less “bets” and extra programmable danger switch. “I talked to an insurance coverage firm perhaps a month in the past that was fascinated with how they’ll hedge out danger in weather-related actions,” Hadick mentioned. “That is only one use case… each single factor and each single market and end result that may be put [into] a market—or actually only a binary possibility, which is what it’s.”
Ethereum Vs. Solana
Requested to choose sides within the Ethereum–Solana debate, Hadick refused the “MySpace vs. Fb” framing. “Nicely, they’re each Fb,” he mentioned, arguing that the market would require a number of settlement environments if tokenization turns into mainstream. In his view, Ethereum’s benefit is the place worth and stablecoin liquidity already sit, whereas Solana’s edge is high-throughput, low-cost stream.
“Most stablecoins immediately are on Ethereum,” Hadick mentioned. “Ethereum is the place a considerable amount of… financial exercise exists… however in case you take a look at the buying and selling quantity, it is taking place extra on Solana, which is extra optimized for that sort of transaction stream and for low price transactions.”
Nonetheless, Hadick conceded the platform layer isn’t frozen. He mentioned Dragonfly is invested in a more moderen chain, Monad, describing it as “making an attempt to be a Solana killer,” and cited figures he mentioned mirrored early-stage market positioning: a roughly $2 billion valuation and a token worth round $0.002.
At press time, the entire crypto market cap stood at $2.92 trillion.
Featured picture created with DALL.E, chart from TradingView.com
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