Two prominent cryptocurrency executives have declared the multi-month market slump officially over, pointing to exhausted sellers and expanding institutional access through exchange-traded products, though they disagree on precisely when the winter ended, finanzen.net reported.
Bitwise and Consensys Executives Call an End to the Crypto Winter
The debate over the market cycle surfaced during the TOKEN2049 conference in Singapore. Hunter Horsley, CEO of crypto asset manager Bitwise, told CNBC that the crypto winter has ended, driven by a prolonged bear market that began in late 2025 and effectively flushed out remaining retail sellers.
Joseph Lubin, co-founder of Ethereum and head of MetaMask developer Consensys, went further in a separate interview with CNBC. He asserted that, depending on the vantage point, the downturn has actually been over for quite some time.
Horsley anchored his assessment on structural changes within the sector. Institutional players have expanded their footprint, certain crypto platforms are registering higher utilization and revenue metrics, and market access via exchange-traded funds and exchange-traded products has reached unprecedented breadth.
“I believe the crypto winter is over. I believe that the substance in this area has developed enormously over the course of 2026. And yes, I believe many investors are looking to the future with optimism,” Horsley stated.
Looking ahead, Horsley noted that Bitcoin could potentially scale a new all-time high in 2027, arriving sooner than anticipated. He clarified that this projection does not represent Bitwise’s official institutional house view, which is steered by Chief Investment Officer Matt Hougan. Hougan previously argued on September 21 that the winter had ended, setting the stage for what could become the strongest and longest bull run in crypto history.
The market still has significant ground to cover to reach those historic levels. The oldest cryptocurrency marked its previous peak in October 2025 at over 126,000 US dollars. Trading near 81,000 US dollars, Bitcoin currently sits roughly 35.6 percent below that high-water mark.
Ethereum’s Role as a Neutral Settlement Layer
Lubin’s optimism is rooted in the institutional validation of foundational blockchain infrastructure. He highlighted that traditional finance increasingly recognizes Ethereum as a credibly neutral, censorship-resistant settlement layer.
As a smart contract platform supporting the next generation of economic activity, the network has successfully captured its underlying market category. Ongoing developments in stablecoins and tokenized real-world assets indicate that digital tokens are progressively penetrating decentralized finance.
Regulatory Stalls and Federal Reserve Rate Hikes
Despite the optimism from executive leadership, macro headwinds persist in Washington and at the central bank. The CLARITY Act, a proposed market structure bill for digital assets, failed to clear a procedural vote in the US Senate in mid-September by a margin of 49 to 50, falling short of the required 60 votes.
Both executives downplayed the legislative setback. Horsley indicated that none of his clients or partners were actively conditioning their operations on the bill’s passage. Lubin suggested that the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission could establish regulatory clarity through independent rulemaking and no-action letters.
Monetary policy presents a second major constraint. The US Federal Reserve raised its benchmark interest rate by 25 basis points on September 16, establishing a target range of 3.75 to 4.00 percent. This adjustment marked the central bank’s first rate increase since July 2023.
Elevated interest rates drive up opportunity costs for non-yielding assets like Bitcoin. This macroeconomic shift threatens to suppress the very institutional capital inflows that Horsley’s market recovery thesis relies upon.
