After a year packed with political tension, policy shocks, and constant macro noise, Cathie Wood is looking beyond the turbulence and pointing to 2026 as a pivotal moment for crypto and risk assets more broadly.
Her outlook is not built around hype or short-term price spikes. Instead, Wood frames 2026 as the year when markets finally slow down enough to recalibrate after absorbing a rare concentration of disruptions.
Key Takeaways
Cathie Wood sees 2026 as a turning point after a turbulent 2025.
She expects fewer macro shocks and a calmer market backdrop.
Inflation could fall sharply, potentially near zero.
A softer macro environment may favor crypto and innovation assets.
Wood argues that 2025 forced investors to process several major stress events almost simultaneously. Trade tensions linked to Trump-era tariff policies, renewed concerns over US government shutdowns, and persistent hawkish messaging from the Federal Reserve all landed within a compressed timeframe.
What surprised her was not the volatility, but the durability. Despite these pressures, markets avoided a deeper breakdown. In her view, that resilience signals that much of the damage has already been priced in, leaving less room for downside shocks going forward.
A calmer macro backdrop emerges
Looking ahead, Wood expects the macro environment to lose much of its edge. She believes 2026 will bring fewer policy surprises and a slower pace of disruption, giving investors room to focus on fundamentals rather than headlines.
Central to that shift is inflation. Wood sees mounting evidence that price pressures are easing faster than consensus expects, particularly as energy markets cool and housing-related costs begin to soften.
Inflation could fade dramatically
One of her more provocative expectations is that inflation may fall far closer to zero than markets currently anticipate. If oil prices remain under pressure and rental inflation continues to unwind, she believes inflation could briefly touch zero or even dip below it.
Such a scenario would create a rare setup where economic growth improves while costs fall – a combination that historically benefits innovation-driven sectors.
Why crypto stands to benefit
In that environment, Wood sees crypto entering a different phase of its cycle. Rather than reacting to macro fear or regulatory headlines, digital assets could begin trading more on adoption, infrastructure growth, and long-term utility.
She continues to view Ethereum as a foundational layer in this process, not as a speculative trade but as core infrastructure for tokenization, decentralized finance, and onchain economic activity.
Markets may be late to the shift
Wood’s core message is not that 2026 will be explosive overnight, but that it may look structurally different from recent years. Investors, she argues, are still positioned defensively, assuming ongoing instability rather than a gradual normalization.
If inflation cools faster than expected and growth steadies, Wood believes 2026 could mark the point where crypto and innovation assets stop fighting macro headwinds and start moving with them instead.
