Bloomberg Intelligence senior macro strategist Mike McGlone has issued a bold forecast predicting a major reshuffling of the cryptocurrency market hierarchy, with stablecoin Tether (USDT) positioned to overtake both Ethereum and Bitcoin. McGlone's analysis, detailed in a recent note, suggests capital is gravitating toward stability and utility in uncertain macroeconomic conditions, propelling Tether's ascent.
Tether's market capitalization, currently around $184 billion, is steadily closing in on Ethereum's approximate $272 billion cap. Over the past year, USDT's market cap has grown by 27.6%, from $144.2 billion. McGlone explicitly stated, "I expect the 'flippening' to continue, with Tether’s AUM topping Ethereum in 2026 and eventually Bitcoin." Tether currently commands about 58% of the global stablecoin market, and combined with USDC, the two account for roughly 82% of the total stablecoin capitalization.
McGlone pairs this stablecoin outlook with a starkly bearish prediction for Bitcoin, warning of a potential crash to as low as $10,000. He argues that Bitcoin's 2025 all-time high of $126,200 coincided with a peak in the US stock market's total value relative to GDP, a ratio not seen since 1928. According to McGlone, this overlap signals a "peak beta" phase where speculative assets surge before a hard fall, driven by a mix of ETF inflows and political tailwinds.
The analyst highlights that Bitcoin is about four times more volatile than the S&P 500, making it a difficult sell for risk-averse institutions. He notes that since their 2024 launch, US spot Bitcoin ETFs helped push Bitcoin's price up roughly 50%, while gold climbed about 135% over the same period. McGlone interprets this performance gap as capital rotating away from high-risk assets. For Bitcoin to invalidate the crash scenario, it must hold above $75,000; failure to do so could open a path to a "deeper reversion" toward the $10,000 range, which McGlone identifies as a long-term equilibrium zone.
