Van de Poppe says patient altcoin investors could be rewarded in 2026

In an exclusive interview with Beincrypto, Michaël van de Poppe said 2026 could reward patient altcoin investors after prolonged underperformance. He noted many investors accumulated altcoins during Q2 and the first half of Q3 2025 expecting outsized gains once Bitcoin regained strength, but Bitcoin rallied while most altcoins stagnated.

October 2025 briefly reignited optimism with sharp rallies that faded within weeks, and van de Poppe compared the current environment to Q3 2019 and mid-2015. "The coming year should be the change of this pattern, in which patient investors will be rewarded for their willingness to take bets within the Web3 ecosystem and therefore, selectively, crypto protocols should be yielding a positive return," he said.

He urged focusing on fundamentals — development activity, ecosystem growth and real usage — and highlighted Arbitrum (ARB), Chainlink (LINK) and Near Protocol (NEAR), noting Chainlink’s development outperformance helped support the launch of a LINK ETF. Van de Poppe expects macro tailwinds for AI, DeFi, infrastructure and DePIN as regulation and adoption improve, saying the CLARITY Act could bolster DeFi and that AI-blockchain links and DePIN (storage/robotics) may gain momentum.

Key Topics

Crypto, Arbitrum, Chainlink, Near Protocol, Defi, Depin