If there is one belief that the 2026 crypto market is actively dismantling, it is the assumption that the market will continue to behave primarily as a momentum-driven, retail-led cycle. Sabina Liu, Managing Director EU at KuCoin, identifies this as the single most outdated framework people are still using to interpret crypto market movements — and it leads to consistently wrong conclusions about where value is being created and why. The pattern of previous cycles — retail excitement drives prices, momentum attracts more retail capital, prices overshoot, everything collapses — is being replaced by something structurally different. Capital allocation decisions are becoming longer-term, more institutional, and increasingly supported by regulatory and infrastructure frameworks that did not exist in previous cycles.

That shift has real implications for how you should be thinking about the market right now. A momentum-led cycle rewards traders who time entries and exits with precision. An infrastructure-led cycle rewards those who identify which platforms, protocols, and asset categories are building durable utility and position early before institutional capital fully arrives. The growing participation of traditional finance players, the maturation of tokenized real-world assets, and the expansion of regulated stablecoin issuance are not momentum stories — they are structural developments that compound quietly over years rather than exploding in weeks. Liu's broader point is that long-term capital formation requires trust built through compliance, governance, and reliable infrastructure, and the platforms that meet those standards will define the market's next stage regardless of where short-term sentiment sits on any given week.