Paolo Ardoino, CEO of Tether, the world’s largest stablecoin issuer, expressed concern about how a possible AI bubble may have an effect on Bitcoin by 2026.
Ardoino shared his outlook on Bitcoin (BTC) and the broader crypto trade throughout Thursday’s assembly. bitcoin capital Podcast co-hosted by Bitfinex Securities and Blockstream.
The chief mentioned he believes Bitcoin “stays too extremely correlated” with capital markets and will probably be affected by an AI bubble, and even the theoretical inventory market bubble that’s rising amid the present AI growth.
“That is the so-called AI bubble. It is a concern about the truth that AI firms are spending some huge cash on AI infrastructure and knowledge facilities, constructing billions of gigawatts of energy and putting in GPUs,” Ardoino mentioned.
Ardoino predicts no extra sharp BTC corrections like we’ll see in 2022
In a possible state of affairs the place AI sentiment modifications in 2026, Tether’s CEO predicted that the ensuing turmoil within the U.S. inventory market may affect Bitcoin’s value.
Apart from dangers associated to the AI bubble, Ardoino does not see some other main dangers to Bitcoin’s efficiency in 2026 as a consequence of elevated adoption by pension funds and governments.
Bitcoin (BTC) value chart since 2018. supply: CoinGecko
“So I think about {that a} sharp 80% correction like we noticed in 2022 or early 2018 could not be the case,” Ardoino predicted.
Ardoino additionally expressed bullishness on the tokenization of actual world property (RWA), saying that tokenized securities and merchandise are “going to be enormous.”
“The one draw back I see is that this: Bitcoin is for Bitcoin, proper? You would not need 99% of Bitcoin to be institutionalized,” he mentioned.
Ardoino is bearish on Europe and ‘only a finance firm’
Whereas Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino stays bullish on Bitcoin and tokenization in 2026, he expressed much less optimism relating to crypto adoption in Europe and sure developments in digital asset vaults over the approaching yr.
“I am very bearish on Europe,” Ardoino mentioned in an interview, arguing that the area continues to lag behind in innovation.
sauce: bitfinex
“Europe will all the time be the again wheel after we speak about innovation. Europe is making an attempt to control what it does not but perceive. That is very unhappy,” he added.
Ardoino pointed to the affect of the European Union’s Cryptocurrency Market Regulation (MiCA), which has intensified the talk over central versus native oversight within the crypto sector.
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Tether is likely one of the most outstanding firms to publicly refuse to adjust to MiCA, a stance that has led many European crypto service suppliers to delist the Tether USDt (USDT) stablecoin.
Referring to DAT, Ardoino mentioned he’s “not very bullish” on crypto treasury firms, that are “simply treasury firms.”
“I believe you need a monetary firm to run an amazing enterprise,” Ardoino mentioned, including of Tether-backed Bitcoin firm TwentyOne:
“Twenty One’s objective is for Twenty One to be an amazing Bitcoin firm that gives Bitcoin providers and likewise has a really vital and enormous Bitcoin treasury.”
