Ryan Rasmussen, Head of Research at Bitwise, used a Yahoo Finance appearance to restate Bitwise’s view that Bitcoin is headed to $200,000 in 2026, while simultaneously characterizing the current sell-off as a maturing-market shakeout rather than a trend break. Is The Bottom In For Bitcoin? He opened with a near-term assessment that “we’re closer to the bottom here today than we have been for the past few weeks,” linking the drawdown to sharply risk-off conditions and to ETF-era flow dynamics. In his framing, Bitcoin “really was a leader of this risk-off move starting in mid-October,” and he expects it to “be a leader to the upside once things start to turn around,” adding that the market feels nearer to that inflection than it did “a week or two weeks ago.” When asked whether spot Bitcoin ETFs have become a double-edged sword, Rasmussen agreed, describing a market that now has deeper liquidity but more cross-currents. “Bitcoin, in our view, is one of the biggest technological developments of the past 15 years,” he said, before explaining that institutionalization brings “new investors and adds more liquidity to the market,” yet also means “we’re seeing a lot more choppiness in times where risk-off moves happen.” He pointed to hedge funds rotating in and out via basis trades and emphasized that “you just have more market participants.” Over time, he expects that shift to damp volatility, but not in a straight line: “throughout that journey, we’re going to see some choppiness, and certainly over the past month, we’ve seen that.” Related Reading: Will Bitcoin Bottom At $56,000? CryptoQuant CEO Presents The Data Pressed on why volatility still looks elevated, Rasmussen separated short-horizon spikes from long-run trend. “If you look at the trend over the past 10 years, volatility has certainly been falling,” he said, but conceded that “over this short-term period, you do see spikes in volatility.” The composition of buyers is, in his view, changing in a stabilizing direction. “The buyers for Bitcoin that we’re seeing come into the market today are more long-term buyers than we’ve seen in the past,” he said, naming wealth managers and financial advisors who “are adding Bitcoin to model portfolios” and “rebalancing on a standard basis.” That institutional style of demand “should all reduce volatility, add more long-term demand,” though he also noted a counterweight: corporate treasury buying that was strong earlier in the year has faded. “The corporate treasuries that are purchasing Bitcoin were coming in in size earlier this year, and that’s really dried up,” he said, arguing that this demand pause is “in part due to this sell-off that we’ve seen in October.” Bitcoin Still Set for $200,000 By 2026 Rasmussen acknowledged the pain of lower prices for recent buyers, but insisted the medium-term path remains higher. “Lower prices are a gift and a curse, of course,” he said. “A lot of investors are feeling pain right now who bought Bitcoin above $100,000 or closer to the $125,000 mark, but we believe that Bitcoin’s going to end the year higher than it is today.” He reiterated that the short-term bottoming process is likely advanced, and then pivoted to his structural thesis: “Institutions are finally here.” He stressed that adoption is gradual rather than instantaneous: “That doesn’t mean that right away they deploy all of their capital.” Even so, he cited early signals such as endowment participation: “even Harvard, we saw with their recent filing, is buying Bitcoin in their endowment.” Related Reading: Bitcoin Capitulation Deepens Around $90K Level: Classic Late-Stage Fear Structure Emerging On macro, Rasmussen conceded an irony that an asset marketed as sovereign and untethered now reacts to central-bank expectations. Post-COVID, he said, Bitcoin has traded in a “fiscally-dominated environment where rate cuts and other macro elements do play more of a role,” and correlations to equities have “spike[d] or raise[d].” Still, he argued correlations are drifting back toward historical lows, and he emphasized Bitcoin’s tendency to do well in “low rate environments and risk on environments.” Regarding the December Fed meeting, he said “no cut in December is largely priced into the market,” and suggested investors have “already started to turn to 2026.” The price target itself was stated unambiguously. “So this year, we had a price target of $200,000. And I think it’s safe to say that come December, that’s not going to happen. But we do believe that in 2026, Bitcoin will hit $200,000,” Rasmussen said. He attributed that forecast to institutional inflows arriving “in waves,” spanning “wealth managers or endowments or pensions or corporations or governments,” which he believes are creating “a systemic imbalance of demand versus supply.” At press time, BTC traded at $91,205. Featured image created with DALL.E, chart from TradingView.comRyan Rasmussen, Head of Research at Bitwise, used a Yahoo Finance appearance to restate Bitwise’s view that Bitcoin is headed to $200,000 in 2026, while simultaneously characterizing the current sell-off as a maturing-market shakeout rather than a trend break. Is The Bottom In For Bitcoin? He opened with a near-term assessment that “we’re closer to the bottom here today than we have been for the past few weeks,” linking the drawdown to sharply risk-off conditions and to ETF-era flow dynamics. In his framing, Bitcoin “really was a leader of this risk-off move starting in mid-October,” and he expects it to “be a leader to the upside once things start to turn around,” adding that the market feels nearer to that inflection than it did “a week or two weeks ago.” When asked whether spot Bitcoin ETFs have become a double-edged sword, Rasmussen agreed, describing a market that now has deeper liquidity but more cross-currents. “Bitcoin, in our view, is one of the biggest technological developments of the past 15 years,” he said, before explaining that institutionalization brings “new investors and adds more liquidity to the market,” yet also means “we’re seeing a lot more choppiness in times where risk-off moves happen.” He pointed to hedge funds rotating in and out via basis trades and emphasized that “you just have more market participants.” Over time, he expects that shift to damp volatility, but not in a straight line: “throughout that journey, we’re going to see some choppiness, and certainly over the past month, we’ve seen that.” Related Reading: Will Bitcoin Bottom At $56,000? CryptoQuant CEO Presents The Data Pressed on why volatility still looks elevated, Rasmussen separated short-horizon spikes from long-run trend. “If you look at the trend over the past 10 years, volatility has certainly been falling,” he said, but conceded that “over this short-term period, you do see spikes in volatility.” The composition of buyers is, in his view, changing in a stabilizing direction. “The buyers for Bitcoin that we’re seeing come into the market today are more long-term buyers than we’ve seen in the past,” he said, naming wealth managers and financial advisors who “are adding Bitcoin to model portfolios” and “rebalancing on a standard basis.” That institutional style of demand “should all reduce volatility, add more long-term demand,” though he also noted a counterweight: corporate treasury buying that was strong earlier in the year has faded. “The corporate treasuries that are purchasing Bitcoin were coming in in size earlier this year, and that’s really dried up,” he said, arguing that this demand pause is “in part due to this sell-off that we’ve seen in October.” Bitcoin Still Set for $200,000 By 2026 Rasmussen acknowledged the pain of lower prices for recent buyers, but insisted the medium-term path remains higher. “Lower prices are a gift and a curse, of course,” he said. “A lot of investors are feeling pain right now who bought Bitcoin above $100,000 or closer to the $125,000 mark, but we believe that Bitcoin’s going to end the year higher than it is today.” He reiterated that the short-term bottoming process is likely advanced, and then pivoted to his structural thesis: “Institutions are finally here.” He stressed that adoption is gradual rather than instantaneous: “That doesn’t mean that right away they deploy all of their capital.” Even so, he cited early signals such as endowment participation: “even Harvard, we saw with their recent filing, is buying Bitcoin in their endowment.” Related Reading: Bitcoin Capitulation Deepens Around $90K Level: Classic Late-Stage Fear Structure Emerging On macro, Rasmussen conceded an irony that an asset marketed as sovereign and untethered now reacts to central-bank expectations. Post-COVID, he said, Bitcoin has traded in a “fiscally-dominated environment where rate cuts and other macro elements do play more of a role,” and correlations to equities have “spike[d] or raise[d].” Still, he argued correlations are drifting back toward historical lows, and he emphasized Bitcoin’s tendency to do well in “low rate environments and risk on environments.” Regarding the December Fed meeting, he said “no cut in December is largely priced into the market,” and suggested investors have “already started to turn to 2026.” The price target itself was stated unambiguously. “So this year, we had a price target of $200,000. And I think it’s safe to say that come December, that’s not going to happen. But we do believe that in 2026, Bitcoin will hit $200,000,” Rasmussen said. He attributed that forecast to institutional inflows arriving “in waves,” spanning “wealth managers or endowments or pensions or corporations or governments,” which he believes are creating “a systemic imbalance of demand versus supply.” At press time, BTC traded at $91,205. Featured image created with DALL.E, chart from TradingView.com

        Highlights:  Flora Growth announces $401M PIPE financing round aimed at establishing an AI Zero Gravity (0G) coin treasury. DeFi Development Corp. led the fundraising exercise with strong support from other companies. Flora Growth will rebrand to ZeroStack following the successful completion of the PIPE financing round.  One of the world’s leading decentralised artificial intelligence (AI) treasury companies, Flora Growth, has announced the pricing of a $401 million private investment in public equity (PIPE) round. According to a September 19 press release, the move aims to fund the firm’s treasury strategy centred on AI Zero Gravity (0G) tokens. Upon completion of the PIPE round, Flora Growth will rebrand to ZeroStack, while still maintaining its current market ticker symbol, FLGC. Notably, the financing round is expected to close on or before September 26, 2025, pending customary approvals.  Flora Growth Corp. (NASDAQ: FLGC) announced a $401 million PIPE financing led by Defi Development Corp., Hexstone Capital, and CSAPL. 0G Co-Founder Michael Heinrich will become Executive Chairman. The deal is expected to close on September 26. The company will adopt $0G as its… — Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) September 19, 2025  Flora Growth Announces $401M PIPE with Strong Backing from Leading Crypto Firms DeFi Development Corp. (DFDV), the first treasury firm focused on Solana (SOL), led the financing round with a $22.88 million investment. Other partners included Hexstone Capital, Dispersion Capital, Blockchain Builders Fund, Carlsberg SE Asia PTE Ltd (CSAPL), Abstract Ventures, Salt, and Dao5. The fundraising exercise has already generated $35 million in cash commitments and $366 million worth of in-kind digital assets. Flora Growth sold its common shares and pre-funded warrants to investors at $25.19 per share. The company also pegged 0G tokens contribution at $3 per coin, adding that investors paying either cash or 0G tokens will also receive pre-funded warrants, exercisable once shareholder approval is granted.  A big NASDAQ company (Flora Growth) just announced they’re raising $401 million. ︎ They plan to buy and hold $0G tokens as part of their company’s savings/treasury. Flora’s deal values $0G at around $3 per token for their planned purchase. Right now $0G is trading below… pic.twitter.com/qhOa3uT5ii — Jimmywontgiveup(Ø,G) (@jimmywontgiveup) September 20, 2025  Flora Growth Plans to Hold SOL in Its Treasury Flora Growth noted that it plans to hold part of its treasury in SOL. Joseph Onorati, the CEO of DeFi Development Corp., spoke on the partnership.“We’re thrilled to partner with FLGC on this fundraiser and look forward to driving a deep collaboration between 0G and Solana,” the CEO stated.  Daniel Reis-Faria, Flora Growth’s incoming Chief Executive Officer (CEO), also spoke on the company’s latest initiative. He explained that the move encompasses financial restructuring and support for adopting AI infrastructures. The CEO commented: “This treasury strategy offers institutional investors equity-based exposure, enabling transparent, verifiable, large-scale, cost-efficient, and privacy-first AI development.”  A Brief 0G Token Overview, Highlighting Reasons for Flora Growth’s Interest 0G is gaining significant traction, which has made experts describe the token as a breakthrough in decentralised AI. 0G’s model trained a 107 billion AI parameter model, representing a 357x improvement over Google’s DiLoCo research, challenging the idea that huge centralised data centres are needed for such projects. The 0G network proved that a decentralised network is highly effective for cost-effective computations, with transparent and privacy-first solutions. Unlike other AI blockchains, 0G integrated its computation, storage, and training marketplace into one platform, attracting Web2 and Web3 developers. In related news, Crypto2Community reported that Brera Holdings, an Ireland-based company, completed a $300 million PIPE financing round for a Solana-focused treasury on September 19. The fundraising program was led by Pulsar Group, a blockchain advisory firm based in the UAE. It received strong backing from the Solana Foundation, RockawayX, and ARK Invest. Like Flora Growth, Brera Holdings also rebranded to Solmate.    eToro Platform    Best Crypto Exchange   Over 90 top cryptos to trade Regulated by top-tier entities User-friendly trading app 30+ million users    9.9   Visit eToro eToro is a multi-asset investment platform. The value of your investments may go up or down. Your capital is at risk. Don’t invest unless you’re prepared to lose all the money you invest. This is a high-risk investment, and you should not expect to be protected if something goes wrong.