Bitcoin Could Hit $180K by December 2026, Says Ripple CEO

Binance hosted a panel discussion during Blockchain Week in Dubai on December 3 – 4, featuring industry leaders such as Richard Teng, CEO of Binance, Brad Garlinghouse, CEO of Ripple, and Lily Liu, President of the Solana Foundation.  Binance Blockchain Week is the flagship conference of Binance, bringing experts, Web3 founders, investors, and developers together. The primary agenda of the conference is to organize panel discussions, presentations, workshops, technical sessions, etc, on blockchain infrastructure and the crypto sector.  

The panel discussion featuring Richard Teng, Brad Garlinghouse, and Lily Liu, titled “The Path Ahead Moving Forward”, ignited some intense conversation on the future of the crypto sector and its macro cycle. During the panel discussion, Brad Garlinghouse, CEO of Ripple, forecasted that Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency by market cap, could hit $180,000 by the end of 2026. During the discussion, Garlinghouse asserted that he would go out on a limb and say Bitcoin would reach $180,000 by December 31, 2026. 

According to him, the United States finally has regulatory clarity, and he argues that this factor is highly undervalued. He also mentioned that the United States is 22% of global GDP, and it has not been favourable to crypto, but now, the scenario is changing and will be transformative in the future. He commented on changing institutional behavior, stating that institutions that had sat on the sidelines due to regulatory uncertainty were now engaging. He noted that they were starting small but were entering and would run next.

He also pointed out the long-term optimism despite the current short-term bearish momentum. Garlinghouse believes 2026 could be a positive year for crypto; he commented that crypto has cycles, with risk-on and risk-off phases. He argued that the macro tailwinds into 2026 were the strongest he had seen in years and that the ETF moment was absolutely not overhyped. He added that when zooming out, crypto ETFs constituted just 1–2% of the total ETF market and that there was no way that would remain the case. 

BTC Could Exceed $100,000, Says Lily Liu, The Solana Foundation President

The Solana Foundation President Lily Liu has also forecasted the Bitcoin price and shared her views on the future of crypto. According to her, the recent price correction was predictable, and it was necessary at the moment. She argued that she had been in the industry for a decade and that one must learn to stomach volatility. She stated that with ambitions this large, outcomes were exponential, and so were corrections. She noted that there had been irrational liquidity across the market from April through September and that a correction was not just expected; it was necessary.

Richard Teng didn’t make any predictions on Bitcoin; he commented that he expects prices of digital assets to be higher, and focuses on long-term growth rather than short-term volatility. He also pointed out that traders moved into stablecoins during the recent market crash, which shows it wasnt capital leaving the industry, just repositioning to different assets. Binance’s CEO commented that it showed money was staying within the ecosystem rather than exiting it and that this was a sign of maturity. According to him, people are not cashing out their crypto into fiat currency; instead, they are moving crypto to different forms of digital assets, including NFTs, DeFi, etc. his comments reflect that investors have trust in the market and want to stay rather than leaving after taking short-term profits.   

Bitcoin, the most precious cryptocurrency in the world, is showing mixed momentum in the cryptocurrency market (at the time of writing). According to the latest market data, BTC is trading at $93,244.67, with a 0.3% increase over the past 24 hours. A substantial drop in the 24-hour trading volume has also occurred. At the moment, BTC’s daily trading volume is $70.63B, which is 18.91% lower than the past 24 hours.