Pantera warns that in 2026, a brutal size will hit the entire crypto
2026 will see a brutal size of the digital asset market, with capital concentrating around a small number of dominant players, while weaker tokens, protocols, and treasury strategies will be bought or abandoned, according to Pantera Capital.
This warning follows a year where most crypto-assets suffered significant declines despite the relative resilience of Bitcoin (BTC), exposing the structural weaknesses of the broader token market.
Pantera's analysis describes 2025 as a year dominated by macroeconomic factors, positioning, and flows rather than fundamentals, setting the stage for aggressive consolidation in 2026.
The collapse of the market structure laid bare in 2025
Pantera indicates that the massive sell-off on October 10, 2025, marked a turning point for the crypto market structure.
The cascade of liquidations wiped out more than 20 billion dollars in notional positions, surpassing the scale of forced liquidations observed during the collapse of Terra/Luna (LUNC) and the bankruptcy of FTX.
Bitcoin finished 2025 down about 6%, while Ethereum (ETH) fell by 11%. Losses were greater outside of large caps: Solana dropped by 34%, and the broader universe of tokens, excluding Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana (SOL), fell by nearly 60%.
The median token fell by 79%, illustrating what Pantera describes as one of the most uneven return distributions in crypto history.
The total crypto market capitalization, excluding Bitcoin, Ethereum, and stablecoins, peaked at the end of 2024 and then fell by about 44% until the end of 2025, confirming that most altcoins have been in a bear market for over a year.
Bitcoin's dominance reinforces capital concentration
