Why Michael Saylor says now is the time to start preparing for the next crypto wave

The crypto market is quietly setting up for its next major phase. Institutional money is flowing back in, core infrastructure like Solana and Chainlink is upgrading fast, and the U.S. policy mood around digital assets is shifting from hostile to cautiously supportive. Billionaire Bitcoin advocate Michael Saylor thinks this combination makes the next 24 months critical—and that investors should start preparing now.

The new bullish backdrop: institutions are back

One of the clearest signs of renewed confidence is what’s happening with U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs. They just recorded their strongest week of inflows this year, with around $2.39 billion flowing in over the week and another $134.5 million on Friday alone.

That kind of steady demand from large investors tends to change how Bitcoin trades. Pullbacks still happen—especially when macro headlines hit, like rising geopolitical tensions or uncertainty around interest rates—but dips are increasingly seen as buying opportunities rather than signs that “Bitcoin is broken.”

Veteran financial advisors like Rick Edelman, who runs one of the largest RIA firms in the U.S., emphasize that Bitcoin’s story is long-term. From inception, Bitcoin has been the best-performing major asset class, and many professionals are looking out to 2030 and 2035, not just the next quarter or the next halving cycle.

Why the last Bitcoin bottom was different

Historically, Bitcoin bear markets have seen drawdowns of 80% or more from all-time highs. This time, the maximum drawdown was closer to 54%. One explanation is the growing role of institutions.

Instead of waiting for a complete collapse, many large buyers stepped in during the 50% drawdown zone, treating it as a “hell of a deal” rather than assuming prices would crash further. That kind of behavior can put a floor under the market and shorten bear cycles.

Even if another leg down were to happen, some analysts argue it would likely be driven by macro factors like surging yields—and that it would be “the mother of all buy-the-dip opportunities,” with investors shocked at how cheap Bitcoin looks rather than declaring it dead.

Solana’s Alpenlow upgrade: 150 ms finality

Bitcoin isn’t the only story. Under the surface, major smart contract networks are pushing big technical upgrades, and Solana is one of the most notable examples.

Solana’s new consensus upgrade, called Alpenlow, has gone live on Devnet and is moving toward mainnet. This is described as Solana’s biggest consensus change in its history—and it’s all about speed and finality.

Today, Solana’s transaction finality sits around 12.8 seconds. Alpenlow aims to cut that to roughly 150 milliseconds, an 85x improvement. In simple terms, that means users and applications can know with high confidence that a transaction is final almost instantly.

The core idea is straightforward: if around 80% of the validator votes approve a block, it’s considered immediately final. For institutions and mainstream users, the narrative is easy to understand—Solana keeps getting faster and cheaper. That’s the kind of story capital allocators can latch onto when they look for high-throughput chains for payments, trading, gaming, and DeFi.

Chainlink CCIP 2.0: bridging with more security

While Solana focuses on speed and finality, Chainlink is doubling down on security and interoperability. Chainlink has launched CCIP 2.0, a major upgrade to its cross-chain messaging and bridging technology.

CCIP (Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol) is designed as a standard for moving data and value across different blockchains. With version 2.0, institutions and developers can now add custom security checks to their cross-chain activity. The goal is to avoid the kinds of vulnerabilities that have plagued many other DeFi bridges, which have been frequent targets for hacks.

So far, Chainlink has largely avoided the catastrophic bridge exploits seen elsewhere, and CCIP 2.0 is meant to reinforce that reputation. Existing integrations continue to work without changes, while early adopters such as Maple are already starting to pick up parts of the upgrade.

The bigger picture is that capital markets and crypto are on a path to merge. CCIP aims to be the secure bridge between traditional finance and on-chain infrastructure—letting institutions transact in a fast, cost-efficient, and safer way. For more background on how Chainlink fits into the evolving crypto stack, it’s worth also understanding how regulatory shifts are influencing infrastructure providers, as explored in our guide to new U.S. stablecoin rules and Saylor’s recent moves.

Tokenized treasuries and the rise of real-world assets

Another growing theme is the tokenization of real-world assets (RWAs). One token in the spotlight is Ando, which focuses on bringing real-world assets like U.S. Treasury exposure on-chain.

Interestingly, Ando has been rallying even as U.S. Treasury yields hit levels not seen since 2007—conditions that usually hurt risk assets like crypto. There are two main reasons this can make sense:

First, the most popular real-world assets on-chain so far are U.S. dollars in the form of stablecoins. As more dollars and dollar-linked products move on-chain, protocols built around tokenized RWAs can see direct benefit.

Second, if investors can earn attractive yields on-chain via tokenized treasuries, that can pull more traditional capital into crypto rails without requiring them to speculate on volatile tokens. This is part of the broader trend of traditional finance and crypto infrastructure converging.

The four people who could shape the next 24 months

Michael Saylor argues that the next two years for digital assets will be defined by four key positions in the U.S.:

• The head of the CFTC (Commodity Futures Trading Commission)
• The head of the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission)
• The head of the U.S. Treasury
• The President of the United States

According to Saylor, these four have the power to determine the “freedom trajectory” and growth trajectory of the entire industry. If they choose more freedom and clear, workable rules, digital assets become more useful, move with higher velocity, and the industry grows faster. If they choose tighter restrictions, growth slows.

Right now, Saylor sees encouraging signs. Recent SEC guidance around an “innovation exemption,” more open comments from the CFTC, and supportive statements from Treasury officials have all contributed to a more bullish mood. In his view, the current administration appears more progressive and enlightened on digital assets than many expected from earlier legislative drafts.

He also notes that:

• The President wants digital assets to work and wants the U.S. to be the crypto capital of the world.
• Treasury officials recognize that trillions in dollar-backed stablecoins are ultimately good for the global role of the U.S. dollar.
• Regulators at the SEC and CFTC are looking for ways to improve the utility of securities and derivatives and keep U.S. capital markets competitive.

Put together, Saylor sees four powerful leaders who are broadly constructive toward digital assets—something that was far from guaranteed just a few years ago. For a deeper look at his evolving stance and how it has affected his company’s strategy, see our breakdown of Michael Saylor’s Bitcoin U-turn and related market moves.

This isn’t the finish line—it’s the starting line

Despite the growing optimism, Saylor doesn’t see the current environment as the end of the journey. He calls it the starting line for a more mature phase of Bitcoin and crypto.

In the near term, he expects Bitcoin to remain range-bound rather than going straight up in a clean “stair step” pattern. A possible scenario he outlines for the coming quarters is Bitcoin trading somewhere between the high $50,000s and under $100,000 as remaining sellers exit and new long-term buyers enter.

Many investors bought heavily around the 200-week moving average in the last bear market, treating it as a historically strong accumulation zone. Some of those buyers may choose to take partial profits—say, selling 50% of their holdings—if Bitcoin revisits the $90,000 area. That kind of behavior can create choppy, sideways price action even in a broader uptrend.

But for Saylor and many institutional allocators, the real focus is not Q4 of this year—it’s where Bitcoin and the wider crypto market will be by 2030 and 2035. The thesis is that as regulation clarifies, infrastructure hardens, and traditional finance plugs into crypto rails, digital assets can grow into a core part of the global financial system.

How to think about the next phase as an investor

If Saylor is right and we’re at the starting line of a new phase, the key takeaway for individual investors is mindset. Short-term volatility, pullbacks, and macro shocks are part of the game. But the long-term drivers—regulation, institutional adoption, network upgrades, and real-world use cases—are all moving in a more constructive direction.

That doesn’t mean prices will only go up, or that risks have disappeared. It does mean that:

• Dips in fundamentally strong assets may increasingly be treated as opportunities by large buyers.
• High-speed, low-cost chains like Solana are racing to support mainstream-scale applications.
• Infrastructure like Chainlink’s CCIP 2.0 is being built with institutional-grade security in mind.
• Tokenized real-world assets are giving investors new ways to access yields and traditional instruments on-chain.

For anyone serious about crypto, the next 24 months may be less about chasing quick gains and more about positioning for where the space could be by the early 2030s. In that sense, now is the time to start preparing.