The Next Bull Market | Roundup
Speakers
Summary
The Bell Curve hosts debate whether the next crypto bull market has started, leaning toward a later recovery with a narrow, dispersion-heavy cycle. They discuss drivers including ETF and institutional flows, retail and agent participation, DeFi 2.0, prediction markets, social and creator coins, and regulation. The group also covers Bitcoin's maturation, quantum risk, privacy and Zcash, infrastructure, stablecoins, and RWA risks.
- Hosts see the next crypto bull market as likely later, narrow, and thesis-driven.
- ETF and institutional flows are expected to favor Bitcoin and Solana, while retail may return selectively.
- DeFi 2.0, prediction markets, infrastructure, social, and AI agents are highlighted as potential winning sectors.
- Bitcoin is viewed as maturing into an institutional commodity with muted old-cycle dynamics.
- Privacy, Zcash, stablecoins, RWA, and regulation are discussed as emerging themes and risks.
- Regulation is seen as a short-term fade but a long-term catalyst for DeFi and compliant assets.
- Crypto culture is evolving toward institutional maturity while speculative pockets remain.
Ideas
Next crypto cycle will be narrow.
The next crypto bull market is unlikely to be a broad beta rally. The game gets harder each cycle, the last cycle was already narrow, and the next should be more dispersionary and thesis-driven, with fundamentally driven winners outperforming while speculative weird stuff is more contained within PVP communities.
Crypto recovers by 2027.
The next cycle could look more like 2021 than 2025. It is so bearish now that people cannot dream, but it pays to dream; retail should come back in size, especially for high yield in DeFi if rates are cut, and for new things like agents. For a big cycle to work, it must be retail-driven and/or agent-driven.
AI agents drive next crypto cycle.
AI agents are the only genuinely exciting new crypto narrative now and could become the next capital formation mechanism, similar to the ICO boom. Agents on crypto rails will invest, source deals, and allow people to speculate on agents; the trust/security bottleneck is the key issue, but if solved in the next 6-12 months it could unleash a new era.
Privacy money narrative favors Zcash.
Privacy is becoming more important in the age of AI and money itself is a key crypto use case. Zcash is already pumping in the bear market, and quantum risk to Bitcoin could be a further bullish catalyst for Zcash.
AI too early to lead cycle.
AI is still too far ahead of its skis and will not be the narrative that pulls crypto into the next bull market. The market is currently focused on what works in the present, and AI's real crypto applications are not ready enough to drive the cycle.
Blue-chip crypto will dwarf speculation.
Crypto is splitting into a blue-chip, exchange-traded stock world that competes on compounding and a penny-stock speculative world driven by narrative and cabals. The penny-stock game will continue but will be dwarfed by the blue-chip game, favoring established, fundamentally sound crypto assets.
Blue-chip crypto will dwarf speculation.
Crypto is splitting into a blue-chip, exchange-traded stock world that competes on compounding and a penny-stock speculative world driven by narrative and cabals. The penny-stock game will continue but will be dwarfed by the blue-chip game, favoring established, fundamentally sound crypto assets.
DeFi 2.0 leads next crypto cycle.
This cycle will be dominated by DeFi 2.0. Crypto is splitting into blue-chip, exchange-traded-like assets and penny-stock speculative assets; the blue-chip game will dwarf the penny-stock game. Boomer/RIA money via ETFs and traditional allocators will move into crypto and seek sensible DeFi compounders; names like Morpho, Sky, Maple, and Kamino are examples.
Solana catches bigger ETF bid.
Incremental demand from financial advisors and ETFs will flow through ETFs, primarily to Bitcoin, but Solana should catch a bigger bid from that ETF/advisor channel than it has in previous cycles.
Broad altcoin beta returns.
Unlike the last cycle, the next cycle should see a broad beta rally. Not every token will recover, but the top few hundred CoinGecko assets can come back, with many tokens down 80-90% running 2-3x before dispersion resumes.
Dino coins like Algorand rebound.
Old dino coins such as Algorand can come back alongside the broader crypto recovery. Everything tends to come back at once before dispersion kicks in a couple of months later.
Bitcoin cycle muted, ATH delayed.
Bitcoin is maturing into an institutional commodity. ETF flows create friction that mutes the old rotation mechanism, and Bitcoin may not break its all-time high for up to three years; the wealth-effect cycle where Bitcoin leads the rest of crypto is breaking.
Quantum risk could hurt Bitcoin.
Quantum risk is real for Bitcoin. If people outside crypto hear that quantum might break Bitcoin, it could damage Bitcoin price this cycle, even though Xavier personally thinks Bitcoin will come back.
Bitcoin now mature institutional asset.
Bitcoin is now a fully institutional asset class and will behave like other institutional assets. The original 20x value proposition is gone, which is good for large pools of money that cannot buy assets that can drop 90%, but it means Bitcoin is a different, more mature asset now.
Meme coins likely die.
Retail is unlikely to return to the meme coin game. NFTs died and never came back, and meme coins may follow a similar path as retail shifts toward things they know and brands they trust.
Hyperliquid leads next cycle.
Hyperliquid has a good chance to lead the next cycle. Trading protocols make much more money than lending protocols, and Hyperliquid deserves a higher multiple than lending protocols like Aave or Morpho; it is cyclical, but so are lending protocols.
Pre-PMF infra may rebound.
There is a question whether pre-product-market-fit infrastructure ever gets a bid again. In a world where net new activity returns to on-chain systems via new infra, these projects could get a speculative bid, similar to Celestia's first launch.
Hold majors basket for decent returns.
A basket of the major crypto assets, Bitcoin, ETH, SOL, and Hyperliquid, makes sense and should return decently well if held through the next cycle.
New infra winners this cycle.
Infrastructure is contrarian but attractive now. Last cycle was overdone and people did not know what infra was needed; now applications are growing, investors know what networks need, and it is easier to underwrite, so there will be new kinds of infrastructure winners this cycle.
New forms of money are underrated.
New forms of money are underrated. Bitcoin, Zcash, AI agents, and non-USD money are all part of the question of what money looks like for agents; new forms of money have worked in the past and could do well again.
Stablecoin business usage is bullish.
Businesses using stablecoins for payroll, treasury, and other operations is a strong emerging category. Startups can be built to help stablecoin-using businesses use their stablecoins more effectively than just using MetaMask.
RWA grows, but risks are high.
Real-world assets are surprisingly attractive and should be a real sector this cycle, especially as DeFi and institutions grow. However, RWA currently carries high risk and could blow up if risk policies and mitigations are not properly followed.
DeFi comeback via agent liquidity.
Clearer regulation is bullish for big buyers and institutions. It will fuel DeFi because allocators can buy assets that make sense and have recourse and standards; revenue-generating, good crypto businesses become more attractive, and institutions will deploy in size over the next couple of years.
DeFi comeback via agent liquidity.
DeFi will come back in some form. Agents will use on-chain pools of liquidity to come on-chain, and projects that provide these liquidity venues, such as Morpho, should do well.
Prediction markets have huge TAM.
Prediction markets are massively underappreciated. They performed better than almost any crypto sector in the bear market, the TAM was underestimated, and the sector should continue powering in the next bull market; if it grows to a trillion-dollar TAM, related leveraged projects could emerge.
Crypto social is a sleeper.
Social is a sleeper sector. Historically after infrastructure bubbles pop, social applications emerge, as happened after the dot-com bubble with Facebook. Crypto social should come back, though the exact form is unclear; the next 12 months should clarify it.
AI creator coins are compelling.
Creator coins have always made sense, and AI creator coins are even better because the chief objection to creator coins, the creator quitting, does not apply to an agent. If you enjoy the content, an AI creator can keep producing indefinitely.
Prediction market winners stay winning.
In prediction markets, the category winners stay winning. Polymarket and Kalshi became the clear category winners, and many copycats were funded; without a durable distribution or product advantage, the copycats are unlikely to succeed.
PAYY narrow wedge to infra.
The winning infra formula is to go after a narrow wedge with a first-party product first, then reveal a general-purpose infrastructure layer later. Pay (PAYY) is the best example: a payments app with privacy built in and also an L2.
Regulation favors DeFi and stablecoins.
Regulation is usually faded for short-term price impact, but its long-term effect is underappreciated. GENIUS and CLARITY can create regulatory moats for compliant tokens with ownership rights, and stablecoin yield rules may push yield into lending protocols like Aave or Morpho. If trillions of new stablecoins are created, DeFi benefits; by the end of the cycle the market could be 20-25% more fundamental-driven.
Up Next
This Bell Curve video, published April 17, 2026, features Myles O'Neil, Xavier, Mike Ippolito discussing Crypto Market, AI-SECTOR, ZEC, Blue-chip crypto assets, Speculative microcap crypto, SKY, DeFi 2.0, MPL, KMNO, SOL, ALTCOINS, ALGO, BTC, Meme coins, HYPE, Crypto Infrastructure, ETH, New forms of money, STABLECOINS, RWA, DEFI, Revenue-generating crypto assets, MORPHO, PREDICTION MARKETS, Crypto social, AI creator coins, Creator coins, PAYY, AAVE. 30 trade ideas extracted by AI with direction and confidence scoring.
Speakers: Myles O'Neil, Xavier, Mike Ippolito · Tickers: Crypto Market, AI-SECTOR, ZEC, Blue-chip crypto assets, Speculative microcap crypto, SKY, DeFi 2.0, MPL, KMNO, SOL, ALTCOINS, ALGO, BTC, Meme coins, HYPE, Crypto Infrastructure, ETH, New forms of money, STABLECOINS, RWA, DEFI, Revenue-generating crypto assets, MORPHO, PREDICTION MARKETS, Crypto social, AI creator coins, Creator coins, PAYY, AAVE