BTC at $174k by 2026?

PLUS: Crypto Payments Are Quietly Going Mainstream

Hi Investor 👋

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In today's newsletter:

• 💡 BTC at $174k by 2026?

• 📣 Spot bitcoin ETFs report $697 million in net inflows, largest daily total since October

• 📈 Crypto Payments Are Quietly Going Mainstream

Let’s dive in!

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💡 Insight

BTC at $174k by 2026?

After last year’s missed calls, no one wants to make bold predictions.
But look closer and a quiet consensus emerges:

Most institutions cluster around $150k–$180k BTC by 2026.

Source

The $174k case is surprisingly simple:

• Bitcoin continues to behave like digital gold

• Rate cuts push gold toward ~$5k

• BTC only needs to reach 10% of gold’s market cap to hit ~$174k

No supercycle. No hype. Just relative value catching up.

Even more important:
OG whales and 4-year cycle traders already sold. The seller overhang is fading.

If supply dries up, BTC doesn’t grind higher — it reprices fast.

The real risk isn’t being wrong on the number.
It’s being underexposed if the catch-up trade happens.

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📣 Update

Spot bitcoin ETFs report $697 million in net inflows, largest daily total since October

U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs saw $697 million in net inflows on Monday, which marks a three-month high in daily total inflows.

Analysts said inflows signal “cautious optimism” among crypto traders, with the medium-term outlook still contingent on macroeconomic conditions and regulatory stability.

Read more →

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📈 Signal

Crypto Payments Are Quietly Going Mainstream

Source

Crypto payments are scaling faster than most people realize.

In 2025 alone, Visa crypto card spending grew +525%, from $14.6M to $91.3M in net spend (Dune data).

But consumer cards are just the entry point.

The bigger shift is happening on the business side:

• Companies managing payments onchain

• Seamless crypto ↔ fiat movement

• Onchain treasuries

• Yield on idle balances

• Programmable money flows

What the data already confirms:

• Crypto is being used for real payments

• Cards remove friction and hide complexity

• Onchain balances increasingly behave like money, not assets

Crypto isn’t replacing the financial system overnight. It’s quietly becoming the infrastructure underneath it.

That’s the signal most people are still missing.

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