rewrite this title From Greed To Fear: Expert Says 2026 Bitcoin Bubble Will Dwarf 2017

A prominent macro-crypto commentator argues that digital assets are transitioning from a greed-driven cycle to a “fear bubble,” with Bitcoin poised for a more powerful and more parabolic phase in 2026 than the euphoric surge of 2017. In a post on X from October 8, the analyst known as plur_daddy (@plur_daddy) contends that two narratives—monetary debasement and artificial intelligence—are now the dominant behavioral drivers, and that they operate less on promise than on anxiety.

2017 Vibes: Trump And AI Could Ignite Next Bitcoin Rally

“We are in a bubble, and the most parabolic leg is approaching. The true fireworks will be next year but this Q4 we shall get a taste,” he wrote, adding that the stories animating this cycle are “fueled by twin narratives: debasement and AI. What is especially potent about these stories is the way they operate on fear, not hope. You NEED to buy gold/BTC to avoid getting your net worth debased away, and you NEED to have AI exposure to offset your future loss of labor market value.”

While the themes are familiar to market professionals, he argues they have not yet been fully internalized by the broader public or by “bureaucratic real money funds such as pensions and endowments,” which he characterizes as slow to reposition for debasement risk. The result, he suggests, is under-owned exposure that can be forced higher once allocation committees catch up. “There is also a lot of investor capital that still hasn’t reflected these views yet,” he wrote, laying the groundwork for what he believes will be a structurally higher demand base for both Bitcoin and gold as the cycle matures.

Related Reading

A central pillar of his thesis is a policy pivot he expects under the current administration, which he describes as “shifting in a pro-cyclical manner, leaning hard into the bubble, and ready to step on the gas ahead of the midterms.” He outlines four channels. First, “Trump Fed Hijacking,” shorthand for rate cuts followed by yield curve control to cushion the bond market and stimulate housing—timed “most likely… not… until May of next year,” which he frames as the ignition point for the final, steep ascent.

Second, a Treasury issuance tilt to bills to pull down long-end yields and free up risk appetite. Third, enabling the GSE balance sheets to expand into mortgage bonds, compressing mortgage spreads and transmitting stimulus to housing via purchases and refinancing.

Fourth, stimulus checks delivered through budget reconciliation—politically contested, he concedes, but with “decent odds” of prevailing given “ironclad” party control. Each mechanism, as he describes it, reduces financial frictions at the same time that fear-based narratives pull new capital into hard assets and AI-adjacent equities.

The macro mix, in his view, is complicated but ultimately supportive. “The economy is not robust, but it is chugging along, floated by AI capex… a two speed economy, with real world businesses and the average consumer not doing great, but the high end and asset owners are soaring.”

Moments later he sharpened the framing: “the two speed economy makes it goldilocks as the genuine weakness in parts of the economy creates a justification for continued fiscal/monetary stimulus while continuing to benefit asset owners. Be the asset owner, the beneficiary of it all.” This is the crux of the “fear bubble” argument: soft spots provide the political cover for policy support, while debasement concerns and job-market anxieties around AI keep households and institutions defensively overweight exposure to scarce assets and growth narratives.

Why Q1 2026 Could See A Bitcoin Rally Pause

For Bitcoin specifically, he lays out a path that interleaves seasonal strength, cycle reflexivity, and a final acceleration. “My base case is a strong Q4 for BTC, then a sharp downturn as the 4 year cycle debate must be played out in the markets, and finally a rebound that leaves doubters in the dust.” He later endorsed the possibility of “truly manic vertical days at the very end. Similar in vibes to early Dec 2017 in BTC,” invoking the last cycle’s most frenetic stage but recasting the psychology from greed to fear-driven defensiveness.

Related Reading

The thread triggered broader speculation about end-cycle dynamics. Responding to a scenario from another user—“some kind of point in 2026 or 2027 where everyone collectively decides that the USD is going to 0 very quickly and impulsively buys whatever they can to get rid of it… Everything pumps +30% for 3 days straight… And then that is the top”—plur_daddy didn’t endorse the currency-collapse framing but did agree on the “truly manic vertical days at the very end.”

Despite the bullish architecture, the analyst does not claim the underlying economy is healthy or that the path will be smooth. He argues instead that policy engineering—whether via issuance tactics, mortgage-market plumbing, or outright transfers—can keep liquidity channels open long enough to accelerate asset prices into a blow-off. “This is an environment where you want to stay long over the next 12 months, but you should be thoughtful in shifting portfolio composition between gold, BTC, and stocks,” he wrote, describing a rotation that acknowledges both macro dispersion and the possibility of sharp drawdowns en route to a higher peak.

The bottom line of his thesis is unambiguous: the next stage of this cycle is fear-led, policy-fueled, and likely to exceed 2017’s magnitude. The difference, he argues, is psychological and structural. Where 2017 fed on retail euphoria, 2025–26 is animated by the defensive compulsion to preserve purchasing power and job relevance—“fear… is a much more potent driver of behavior than hope or even greed.” If his timeline holds, a taste in Q4, a shakeout on cycle debates, and a policy-catalyzed vertical in 2026 could define Bitcoin’s next act.

At press time, BTC traded at $122,512.

Featured image created with DALL.E, chart from TradingView.com