Thanks in part to new regulations and upgrades, crypto tokens are becoming increasingly efficient at capturing value, and prices could soar in 2026, according to Bitwise Chief Investment Officer Matt Hogan.
Hogan said in an X post on Saturday that big news, such as the upward trend in the level of value capture of digital assets, is getting lost in the chaos of the current market decline.
“Most of today’s tokens were created in a regulatory era where capturing value was risky. As a result, ambiguous governance style design choices became the default,” he said.
“Under the new regulatory environment, that impact is being mitigated. I think we will start to feel this impact in 2026.”
Uniswap rebounds after investor-friendly offer
Uniswap (UNI), the native token behind the crypto protocol of the same name, soared earlier this month after the Uniswap Foundation and Uniswap Labs announced proposals to make the token more attractive as an investment.
Some of the ideas that were floated included creating a protocol-level fee mechanism for burning tokens and a protocol fee discount auction system to increase profits for liquidity providers.
Hogan said this is one of the clearest examples of a token trying to capture value, predicting that if the proposal passes, UNI could become a top 10 company by market capitalization in the future.
“The big knock against UNI has always been that it is a governance token. Uniswap is great, but the activity on Uniswap has not benefited UNI token holders,” he said.
“Except now, UNI is considering a fee switch. If the vote passes, approximately 16% of transaction fees will be used to burn UNI. I suspect this will move UNI closer to the top 10 tokens by market capitalization over time.”
Fusaka upgrade could restore Ether’s lead
Hogan also pointed to Ethereum’s Fusako upgrade as a catalyst that will “significantly increase token value capture.”
The Fusako Upgrade mainnet launch is scheduled for December and will roll out upgrades to Ethereum’s execution layer, improved staking economics, and other upgrades.
“I think the market will soon start weighing the positive impact of Fusaka, especially if it delivers on December 3rd as expected. This is an underappreciated catalyst and one of the reasons why ETH could lead the crypto rebound,” Hogan said.
Related: Bitwise executive says there are ‘two ways to win’ when betting on Solana
XRP staking rewards also benefit
Hogan said the Ripples XRP (XRP) token is also on track to expand its value capture with the potential for additional staking.
“We are seeing an increased focus on value capture in XRP as well. The community is starting to consider ideas like staking, and this will change the economic landscape for token holders,” he said.
“A thread of connection: The level of value capture in digital assets will only increase from here. I think people see token value capture as static, but that is not the case.”
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