A former managing director at Morgan Stanley believes Bitcoin will soar to new record highs before 2026 expires, as BTC’s network effects take shape in the midst of AI disruption.
The News
In a new interview with veteran crypto trader Michaël van de Poppe, Jordi Visser says the AI cycle is driving the destruction of legacy software, while boosting demand for assets in the picks-and-shovels plays, such as chips and power generation.
According to Visser, Bitcoin is unique as it is not caught between those two forces.
“So I think this has been the most important year for Bitcoin. When we finally do break out, I believe, and I’m an Elliott Wave person, that this will be the beginning of all the things that you mentioned, meaning I have said that it is the purest AI trade.
And the reason is that this year we saw the disruption of AI. So Salesforce.com, Adobe, all of the software names got destroyed in the first quarter of the year. These were the winners of the prior 17 years, and AI destroyed them. At the same time, the picks and shovels are benefiting from AI, the scarce parts, the build-out.
So you have the two forces of AI. One is the amount of spending that needs to go to build it, which is running into bottlenecks right now. On the other side, you have what it destroys. Bitcoin, it’s not needed for the picks and shovels, and it’s not destroyed by it in this. And it is a scarce asset. It is the truest scarce asset.”
Visser highlights that the massive AI spend will ultimately lead to more chips and energy infrastructure, while Bitcoin’s supply will never change.
“We will eventually have more memory. We will eventually have enough transformers and gas turbines and energy. We’ll eventually have all of that because AI will get us there. AI will not change Bitcoin.
So I say to everyone who’s listening and everyone who’s watching: this is the year of the network effects. This is when the crypto financial guardrails are laid. It is happening. It is happening in real time and tokenization and the stablecoin acceptance throughout the world are part of the network effects. And it will lead to Bitcoin having a narrative when we get to the end of this year. And I do believe that before the end of this year, Bitcoin will break above the all-time highs.”
What It Means for Investors
Jordi Visser’s bullish Bitcoin thesis stands out as he appears to be the only big-name strategist making a clear connection between BTC and the AI cycle. Fundstrat’s Tom Lee has predicted that AI agents and the tokenization of assets would serve as catalysts for a massive Ethereum (ETH) bull run.
According to Lee, AI agents will need a financial guardrail to execute micropayments, and Ethereum will be the blockchain of choice to serve that purpose, driving ETH to a price target of $60,000 in just a few years.
AI agents using crypto guardrails for microtransactions translate into an exponential growth in stablecoin supply. Stablecoins such as Tether (USDT) and USD Coin (USDC) are crypto assets pegged 1:1 to the US dollar. Most investors miss the part that the growth and decline of stablecoin supply have been correlated to Bitcoin bull and bear markets.
Crypto data aggregator Coinglass shows that rising stablecoin supply has moved in tandem with Bitcoin rallies and vice versa, which makes sense because investors need stablecoins to buy BTC.
Marc Andreessen, the co-founder of venture capital titan Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), has previously called AI crypto’s “killer app” as AI agents use internet-native money in the form of stablecoins and crypto to power transactions.
As for the tokenization of assets, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink said it could open the floodgates for $4.1 trillion in capital sitting in digital wallets. Chainlink co-founder Sergey Nazarov previously predicted that asset tokenization could push the total market cap of crypto from $2.5 trillion to $10 trillion.
Visser highlights that the acceptance of stablecoins and asset tokenization will fuel BTC’s network effects, meaning Bitcoin will become more valuable as more entities adopt it. Take note that Bitcoin’s supply is capped at 21 million, and Visser’s network effects narrative appears to be colliding with Michael Saylor’s BTC accumulation spree.
Bitcoin may be down nearly 40% from its all-time high, but investors shouldn’t miss the forest for the trees. If Visser’s bullish thesis plays out, the forest looks a lot like $130,000 or way higher.
Disclaimer: Opinions expressed at CapitalAI Daily are not investment advice. Investors should do their own due diligence before making any decisions involving securities, cryptocurrencies, or digital assets. Your transfers and trades are at your own risk, and any losses you may incur are your responsibility. CapitalAI Daily does not recommend the buying or selling of any assets, nor is CapitalAI Daily an investment advisor. See our Editorial Standards and Terms of Use.