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The Crypto Blueprint for 2026
Why walking away now is the biggest mistake investors make
Teeka Tiwari & Houston Molnar
December 31, 2025
Teeka’s Note: Friends, I know firsthand how bruising 2025 has been for crypto investors.
Bitcoin and altcoins have taken their lumps. And I wouldn’t blame you for asking yourself whether stepping back in 2026 might be the safer choice.
I get it. Truly.
But being down right now doesn’t mean we’re at the end of the road.
After nearly a decade covering crypto, one lesson has been seared into my mind: Walking away during periods like this is almost always the worst financial decision you can make.
Remember, volatility is the admission price to life-changing gains in crypto. It’s what gives you the chance to compress decades of wealth-building into a much shorter window – without putting your current lifestyle at risk.
That doesn’t make it easy. Especially after a year like 2025. So rather than ask for blind faith, I want to give you every reason to stay in the game in 2026.
On this New Year’s Eve, I’m sharing a special essay from my chief analyst, Houston Molnar. In it, Houston shares the lessons he’s learned about managing risk – and staying in the crypto game long enough to capture truly life-changing gains.
It’s a must-read for anyone wondering whether it’s time to throw in the towel.
Our offices will be closed for the remainder of the holiday weekend, and on behalf of me and my team, I want to wish you a Happy New Year!
Let the Game Come to You!
Big T
The Crypto Blueprint for 2026
I knew something was wrong when I saw my mom’s name on the caller ID. It was unlike her to call in the middle of the night. When I picked up, she was crying.
“I don’t think he’s going to make it,” she said. A few days later, we lost him – our close family friend.
He was a big part of my childhood. My brother and I used to spend every summer weekend in northern Wisconsin on his boat. He loved pulling us on the tube, trying to knock us into the lake.
If you’ve ever lived somewhere with brutal winters, you know how precious those 12 weeks of summer can be. You try to squeeze out every ray of sunlight you can. And that’s exactly what he taught us to do.
When he passed, I didn’t just lose a friend. I lost one of the last reminders of what life felt like before I let money consume me.
At the time, I was completely wrapped up in crypto. My emotions were chained to the price of bitcoin.
If it went up, I would be euphoric. If it went down, I felt like my world was collapsing. I’d wake up in the middle of the night just to check prices.
I couldn’t enjoy dinner with family, a date with my fiancé, or a single quiet moment without refreshing CoinMarketCap.
When my friend passed… it broke something in me. And it forced me to see how unhealthy my obsession had become.
Because the truth is, I wasn’t just emotionally wrecked from loss… I was financially wrecked, too.
I had loaded up on bitcoin and Ethereum during the 2018 bear market – when bitcoin had collapsed 84% and Ethereum 94%.
Every paycheck I got, I’d check the fridge, decide if I had enough food to last the week, and then drain my account down to my last $10 to buy more crypto.
I’m embarrassed to admit this. But at one point, I even had to call my mom and borrow money to cover my electric bill. My bank account balance had gone negative.
I was convinced crypto was the biggest moneymaking opportunity of my lifetime.
And you know what? I was right about the opportunity – but wrong about the execution. I’d turned something revolutionary into something destructive.
When my portfolio rocketed to $1 million, I thought I had made it. Then the 2022 crypto crash came.
I lost the majority of my net worth. And when my friend passed, it compounded everything. I couldn’t sleep. I couldn’t eat. The emotional toll was unbearable.
That’s when I realized… I didn’t own crypto. Crypto owned me.