Bitcoin's recent weakness reflects heavy selling by some of its earliest large holders, but rising demand from retail and institutional buyers is fueling optimism for a rebound as markets head into 2026, Wave Digital Assets CEO David Siemer said on Newsmax Tuesday.
"It hasn't returned yet," but there is "a lot of optimism" over the longer term, Siemer told Newsmax's "National Report."
Crypto's transparency makes it easier to identify what is driving price moves, he said.
"The really novel thing about Bitcoin in particular, but crypto in general, is that everything's on-chain," he said. "So you actually can see who's selling and who's accumulating."
He said persistent selling over the past year has weighed on prices, driven largely by early adopters exiting positions.
"These original, very large holders that accumulated huge Bitcoin positions back in like 2010 to 2015, are selling a lot of assets, and that's keeping the price down," said Siemer.
At the same time, Siemer said that supply is increasingly being absorbed by new buyers.
"We're seeing a huge surge among retail investors, institutions, a lot of other kinds of new entrants that are accumulating a lot," he said, calling it a key reason for optimism heading into the new year.
He also pointed to year-end dynamics that can distort prices, saying "there's also a lot of tax harvesting going on right now at year end," and said he expects "a lot better price movement and a lot of increases" as the calendar turns.
With more investors entering, Siemer said, "there's a lot of confidence that we will see a pretty big increase in the price of Bitcoin even over the next three to six months."
Siemer said volatility may also persist across markets into 2026, particularly as commodities swing.
"I think gold and copper and other commodity prices are very high volatility right now," he said, tying the moves to inflation and uncertainty about trade policy and geopolitics.
"That's driven by inflation" and by "perceptions around what could happen with tariffs and some of the political instability in the world and I don't think that's going to change," Siemer added.
He said those pressures have pushed investors toward assets viewed as hedges.
"There has been this huge flight to inflation hedges," he said, adding, "crypto should be one of those."
Still, he said, Bitcoin has not always traded in sync with metals in the short term.
"It hasn't always behaved like that. Sometimes it does. Sometimes it doesn't," he said, noting that "Bitcoin hasn't rallied with gold and silver."
Over a longer window, though, Siemer expects the relationship to normalize.
"Usually over a long enough time horizon, we think those trends will align," he said.
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