Bitcoin in 2026: What Actually Happened, and What We Got Wrong
We published three incompatible price stories in eighteen days. All three were wrong. What the price did, and what we changed.
Crypto coverage that skips price prediction. What is left is more durable anyway: regulatory decisions, custody and exchange infrastructure, institutional participation and the mechanics of how these markets actually clear.
Regulation is the through-line, because it determines what is possible for everyone else. A licensing regime or a custody rule reshapes the industry far more than a rally does, and on a much longer timescale.
For businesses, the practical questions are narrow — whether to accept crypto payments, how holdings are taxed, and what the reporting obligations are.
If you want to look at long-run price history rather than read about it, the Bitcoin rainbow chart and XRP rainbow chart plot each asset against a regression fitted to its own past. They describe where price has been. Neither is a forecast, and neither is financial advice.
13 articles in Crypto
We published three incompatible price stories in eighteen days. All three were wrong. What the price did, and what we changed.
The fund holds Bitcoin. You hold a claim on a pooled asset. Custody, creation and redemption, and why you cannot withdraw coins.
The two words are used interchangeably and mean very different things. What an attestation tests, and what it does not.
Revenue per unit of hashrate, not the coin price, is what a miner lives on. Why difficulty adjustment sets the economics.
What halving changes mechanically, and the long-run question it raises about who pays for network security.
Where your coins sit legally when a platform fails, and why the terms of service answer a question most users never ask.
Irreversible settlement removes chargeback risk and removes chargeback protection. What that means for a small business.
Paying with crypto is not like paying with cash. What the disposal is, and why the record-keeping catches people out.
Consumer guarantees do not stop applying because settlement is final. How refunds work when the payment cannot be reversed.
Institutional adoption of DeFi lending protocols surges past $80 billion TVL in 2026.
X (formerly Twitter) launches Smart Cashtags enabling in-timeline crypto and stock trading.
US crypto regulation takes shape in 2026. SEC and CFTC jurisdiction defined, stablecoin rules finalized,
Stablecoins reach $310 billion market cap after 25 consecutive months of expansion. Major banks explore consortium stablecoin issuance pegged to G7 currencies.