The crypto market will bleed by 2026 at the same time as other major assets rise; However, in response to market research platform Santiment, there’s a likelihood for crypto to catch up in the brand new 12 months.
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Since the beginning of November, gold is up 9%, the S&P 500 is up 1% and Bitcoin is down 20%, trading at around $88,000 on Wednesday.
Bitcoin is lagging gold and the S&P 500, but that might change in 2026. Source: Santiment
“The correlation between Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies remains to be lagging in comparison with other major sectors,” said Santiment analysts, adding: “There will proceed to be a chance for cryptocurrencies to catch up through 2026.”
Whales wait on the sidelines
According to Santiment, the resurgence of huge cryptocurrency holders may very well be the primary sign of a reversal as whale holdings slowed within the second half of 2025.
“The second half of 2025 saw aggressive accumulation amongst small wallets, while major wallets remained essentially flat, rising to the ATH in October after which selling.”
In general, large investors and whales are considered market movers, and their trades can influence market behavior, liquidity, and investor psychology.
“Historically, the perfect recipe for a bearish pattern to show right into a bullish pattern is when large wallets accumulate and retail crashes,” analysts at Santiment added.
Long-term Bitcoin holders have also stopped selling, putting the brakes on dumping cryptocurrencies for the primary time, six months after reducing their positions from 14.8 million coins in mid-July to 14.3 million in December.
The return to cryptocurrency may already be underway
Garrett Jin, former CEO of now-defunct crypto exchange BitForex, speculated that traders had already begun to shift back into crypto from other sectors.
Data from on-chain analytics platform Nansen shows that the variety of energetic Bitcoin addresses increased by 5.51% within the last 24 hours, while transactions fell by almost 30%.
The variety of energetic Bitcoin addresses has increased, but transaction volumes have decreased. Source: Nansen
“The metals short squeeze is over, as expected. Capital is beginning to flow into cryptocurrencies,” Jin said on Tuesday, adding in response to a user's query about whether traders who put money into precious metals also buy cryptocurrencies: “Capital is identical. Always sell at a high price and buy at a low price.”
At the identical time, investor and market analyst X Account CyrilXBT said the market is in “classic late-cycle positioning before change.”
“When liquidity turns and BTC breaks the structure: Gold cools down, BTC leads, ETH follows, alts finally get up. The market all the time moves before the narrative does. Stay patient. This phase is designed to check conviction.”
