After a Tough Quarter for Crypto and Bitcoin, Is a Market 'Bottom' Finally in Sight?

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Has crypto found its bottom after a bruising start to 2026?

That's the question on many investors' minds after a stretch during which "ngmi" energy—the acronym is used by crypto backers to describe something that's "not gonna make it"—sometimes seemed inescapable: The prices of bitcoin and crypto stocks had a challenging first quarter, and what looked like promising regulatory progress is now rumbling over speed bumps.

Crypto market charts look bad, and its status in Washington would appear dimmed. But coin enthusiasts aren't done—and they see some of the industry's recent building efforts as a reason for optimism.

The year opened with expectations that the Clarity Act, a bill that would create a broad framework for regulating digital assets, would pass in 2026, which according to experts would help reverse a crypto slide that started late last year. Now it appears that crypto may have overestimated its sway in Washington, with perceived odds of the bill passing recently just under coin-flip levels from above 80% in February, Polymarket data show.

If the price of bitcoin is a barometer for crypto at large, it's not doing so hot despite signs of strength during the Iran conflict. The coin has extended its decline after entering a bear market at the end of last year, and it has been cut almost in half since reaching all-time highs above $126,000 in October. Crypto-linked stocks like Coinbase (COIN), Strategy (MSTR), and Gemini (GEMI) were down at least 18% for the quarter. Industry players are testing other opportunities in the meantime: Coinbase now offers stock trading, bitcoin miners are pivoting to AI, and Strategy's Michael Saylor is evangelizing preferred issues alongside bitcoin.

Some analysts think upside will return soon, with companies starting to see the benefits of their building efforts. "Expect a bottom" into first-quarter earnings, Bernstein stock analysts led by Gautam Chhugani, who expect bitcoin to reach $150,000 by the end of the year, wrote Monday.

"In our view, these businesses offer exposure to trillion dollar markets with years of growth ahead —prediction markets, stablecoins, tokenized real world assets, crypto derivatives and further beta on crypto recovery from the bottom," they wrote.

Coinbase recently rolled out commission-free trading in stocks and exchange-traded funds to its U.S. users and got into prediction markets. Robinhood (HOOD), which has fallen almost 40% so far this year, should also benefit as its prediction markets business becomes a "material contributor," according to Bernstein. Strategy's pivot to selling preferred shares has been a hit with retail investors as well as institutional ones, though its recent marketing efforts around them—most recently, what appears to be an AI-generated ad featuring a woman saying she "not meant to live an uncomfortable life"—isn't landing with crypto enthusiasts like Saylor's bitcoin content.

Mining companies that use specialized hardware to verify transactions and earn bitcoin have strategically pivoted to AI. MARA Holdings (MARA), formerly Marathon Digital, last month announced a deal that involved converting some of its facilities, originally intended to mine bitcoin, into data centers meant to support AI customers.

The company said last week that it sold more than 15,000 bitcoin to buy back debt—perhaps not great for coin markets, but a positive for its financials. "Our decision to sell a portion of our bitcoin holdings reflects a strategic capital allocation move designed to strengthen our balance sheet and position the company for long-term growth," said CEO Fred Thiel.

Bitcoin ETF flows appear to be holding up better than than those of gold and silver funds. Gold ETFs saw almost $11 billion of outflows over the first three weeks of March, and cumulative silver flows have pretty much given back all of their inflows since last summer, according to JPMorgan's Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou. Bitcoin funds, he said, have seen net inflows over the same period.

Big financial services companies, meanwhile, continue to roll out bitcoin products. Morgan Stanley last week filed to launch what would be the cheapest U.S. spot bitcoin ETF, with a fee of 0.14%—just undercutting Grayscale's Bitcoin Mini Trust's That could spur even more buying given the firm's legions of financial advisors and the pullback in the price of bitcoin.

But some market watchers still see the need for caution; crypto got here, after all, after a long, at times dizzying, runup.

"The good news is fear is getting priced in," Sean Farrell, Fundstrat's head of digital asset strategy, wrote Friday. "The bad news is there's likely more to go."

UPDATE—Mar. 31, 2026: This article has been updated since it was first published to reflect more recent prices.

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