Ripple CEO’s $180K Bitcoin Prediction for 2026 Ignites Frenzy as Bitcoin Hyper’s $29M Presale Soars

Another day, another eye-watering crypto price target—this time from a corner that usually talks up anything but Bitcoin.

The Contrarian Bull

The CEO of Ripple, a company whose native XRP token has long been positioned as a Bitcoin alternative, just tossed a grenade into the market chatter. His prediction? Bitcoin doesn't just climb; it rockets to a staggering $180,000 by 2026. It's the kind of forecast that makes traditional finance veterans spill their overpriced coffee—and sends crypto traders scrambling to adjust their spreadsheets.

Capital Chases the Narrative

While pundits debate the plausibility of a near-tripling in Bitcoin's value, capital is already voting with its wallet. The 'Bitcoin Hyper' project, a name banking hard on the bullish sentiment, has seen its presale stage explode. A cool $29 million has flooded in from investors betting that the next cycle's hype hasn't even started yet. It seems every prediction of a new all-time high acts as a starter pistol for funding rounds.

The Engine of Speculation

What fuels this? It's the powerful, self-reinforcing loop of celebrity endorsement, media amplification, and fear of missing out. A high-profile prediction creates headlines. Headlines create buzz. Buzz attracts retail and institutional money looking for the next parabolic move. That inflow itself becomes a reason for further optimism. Rinse and repeat—it's the market's version of a perpetual motion machine, albeit one that occasionally grinds gears and throws a rod.

A Dose of Street-Smart Caution

For all the excitement, a sliver of street-smart cynicism is a portfolio's best friend. Remember, in crypto, predictions are often less about clairvoyance and more about marketing—a way to keep your project's name in the conversation while others fade into obscurity. The real money isn't always made by those who believe the loudest hype, but by those who understand the timing of it. After all, Wall Street has quarterly earnings; crypto has price predictions and presale rounds. Different circus, similar clowns.

So, will Bitcoin hit $180K? Maybe. Will the journey there be anything but a volatile, headline-driven rollercoaster? Almost certainly not. Strap in.

Ripple’s Brad Garlinghouse sees Bitcoin potentially reaching $180K by 2026, a scenario that historically favors high-beta infrastructure plays over spot $BTC alone.

Garlinghouse invokes the pro-crypto regulatory framework, led by the CLARITY Act, as the main driver behind Bitcoin’s coming performance.

Bitcoin Hyper ($HYPER) targets Bitcoin’s biggest limitations by using an SVM-powered Layer 2 to bring high-throughput smart contracts and DeFi directly into the $BTC ecosystem.

The $29M $HYPER presale targets a release date between Q4 2025 and Q1 2026 and a 2026 price point of $0.20, with an ROI of 1,395%.

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse has doubled down on his ultra-bullish view of Bitcoin, telling recent interviews he sees the leading cryptocurrency trading near $180K by the end of 2026.

The statement came during a Binance event, which also hosted names like solana Foundation’s president, Lily Liu, and Binance’s CEO, Richard Teng.

In Garlinghouse’s view, the main drivers behind Bitcoin’s resilience are the increased regulatory crutches, with the CLARITY Act having the biggest impact.

His thesis leans on improving US regulatory clarity and a steady wave of institutional allocations that still look early compared with traditional assets.

Historically, when Bitcoin sets a new trajectory, the highest beta plays are not spot $BTC itself, but the infrastructure projects sitting closest to its liquidity and narrative.

Within that race, bitcoin Hyper ($HYPER) is positioning itself as a pure bet on Bitcoin’s next chapter: a high-performance Layer 2 that lets $BTC holders tap Solana-style throughput and smart contracts without abandoning Bitcoin’s security model.

For traders hunting asymmetry into the next leg higher, the project’s surging presale is emerging as one of the more aggressive ways to express that thesis.

You can learn more about how to buy Bitcoin Hyper here.

Why Bitcoin’s Bullish Roadmap Pushes Capital Into Layer 2

If Bitcoin does grind toward six-figure territory on the back of ETF inflows, corporate treasuries, and regulatory détente, base-layer capacity will not suddenly expand with it.

Block space is capped, and higher prices historically mean higher fees, making it even less practical to run complex applications directly on Bitcoin.

That is why developers are experimenting across the stack: Lightning for payments, sidechains like Rootstock for EVM compatibility, and a new crop of high-throughput LAYER 2s aiming to bring serious DeFi and gaming volume on top of $BTC.

You are seeing a clear market narrative: keep Bitcoin as the settlement root, but MOVE everything else to modular execution layers.

In that emerging field, Bitcoin Hyper ($HYPER) sits alongside other Bitcoin scaling plays, but with a more aggressive performance target.

While some solutions focus on incremental improvements, Bitcoin Hyper is explicitly chasing Solana-class throughput on a Bitcoin-secured stack, giving $BTC holders another way to gain exposure if they believe Garlinghouse’s $180K scenario will demand real transactional capacity.

$HYPER is available for purchase on the presale page.

How Bitcoin Hyper Turns Bitcoin Into a High-Throughput DeFi Base

Where most Bitcoin scaling solutions still struggle with programmability, Bitcoin Hyper ($HYPER) goes straight at the bottleneck: smart contracts and execution speed.

The project runs a modular architecture where Bitcoin Layer 1 acts as the settlement and security anchor, while a real-time Layer 2 powered by the Solana VIRTUAL Machine (SVM) handles execution.

By integrating SVM, Bitcoin Hyper can, in principle, match or exceed Solana’s low-latency environment for Rust-based dApps while routing value back to Bitcoin.

Think higher speeds, lower on-chain costs, sub-second finality times, and vastly improved scalability.

The market is already rewarding that thesis.

The Bitcoin Hyper ($HYPER) presale has raised over $29.M so far, with the token currently at $0.013375, signaling strong demand from traders.

Based on Bitcoin Hyper’s express utility, we expect a sustained post-launch pump.

Our price prediction for $HYPER hints at a potential 2026 target of $0.20 for an ROI of 1,395%. Once the mainstream market buys into the project’s utility proposition, $HYPER could reach $1.50 by 2030, for a return rate of 11,115% or higher.

The project targets a release date between Q4 2025 and Q1 2026, meaning timing is of the essence. Read our guide on how to buy $HYPER today to stay ahead of the curve.

Buy your $HYPER on the official presale page.

This isn’t financial advice. DYOR before investing.