Crypto OG Erik Voorhees predicts bull market return by 2026

Crypto pioneer and CEO of ShapeShift, Erik Voorhees, predicted the bull market would return within six months to three years.

Having been put on the spot for a call, an amused Voorhees told Ryan Sean Adams and David Hoffman of the Bankless Podcast that he often discusses this question with his OG crypto friends at social events. But “we’re just always wrong.”

“It won’t be ten years. If it takes ten years for the bull market to happen, probably the whole thing failed. I’m happy bounding it that way. I would guess it’s sometime in the next six months to three years.”

Diving deeper, Voorhees added that the bull market is highly correlated with a favorable macro environment. Under the present circumstances of quantitative tightening, crypto will struggle to gain bullish footing.

However, the ShapeShift CEO said macro conditions would improve by “early to mid next year,” and he would not be surprised if Bitcoin hit $40,000 this summer.

Voorhees had no idea of FTX’s dodgy dealings behind the scenes

With $2.2 trillion leaving cryptocurrency markets since the November 2021 top, the current bear cycle has been a painful and humbling experience for digital asset investors.

On the question of where we went wrong, Voorhees pointed out that “crypto is a diverse tapestry of individual people,” and the term “we” should not be used to lump the collective together.

“many of those people are quite unsavory, many of them are absolute heroes and lots of people in between.”

On Oct. 28, 2022, Voorhees debated crypto regulation with SBF on the Bankless Podcast. Rumors of FTX’s insolvency were floating around social media days later. On Nov. 11, the exchange filed for bankruptcy.

Commenting on this, the ShapeShift CEO said, despite SBF’s poor interview performance and visible discomfort, he had no idea that something was amiss with FTX.

“In terms of the speed with which this unfolded, and the story of hubris, and that character arc of Sam and how that changed was really profound. I certainly had no suspicion that anything untoward was going on with that exchange.”

Crypto bear survival

Sharing advice on surviving bear markets, Voorhees mentioned that crypto investors should learn self-custody.

He conceded that it might be too much to expect newcomers to get into self-custody from the off. But anyone whose been around for a while should take the issue seriously.

“The lesson people keep needing to learn is the dangers of custodial exchanges, custodial wallets. This is not a new lesson. That’s the one that we need to keep teaching.”

With that, he praised MetaMask Wallet for its work in driving self-custody forward.

Summing up the issue, Voorhees said if few people opt for self-custody and intermediaries hold the majority of crypto wealth, “we will never escape the regulation” and “never escape the need to trust humans.”