Ric Edelman, the veteran financial advisor and author, says Bitcoin could break $150,000 before 2026 is over. The call, shared in an interview this week, is built on what he calls a “flywheel effect” — institutional money pulling in more institutional money, particularly if Washington finally passes a regulatory framework for digital assets.
Why the flywheel matters
Edelman’s logic is straightforward. Big allocators like pension funds and endowments have largely stayed out of crypto because the rules aren’t clear. That changes if the Clarity Act — a bill that would define whether tokens are securities or commodities — becomes law. Once a few marquee names move in, he argues, others will follow for fear of missing out. That self-reinforcing cycle is what pushes prices past $150,000.
His longer-term target is even bigger: $500,000 per Bitcoin before the decade ends. That’s a roughly 10x from today’s price.
The Morgan Stanley factor
Edelman points to Morgan Stanley as a bellwether. The firm manages about $7 trillion in client assets. If its army of financial advisers shifts just 3% of that into Bitcoin, the sheer dollar volume would be enormous. Morgan Stanley has already told its reps they can add small crypto positions to client portfolios — a green light that Edelman says is a “first domino.”
He argues that regulatory uncertainty has been the main thing keeping Wall Street on the sidelines. The Clarity Act, if it passes, would remove that excuse.
A new retirement playbook
Edelman isn’t just talking about Bitcoin in isolation. He’s pushing a portfolio rethink: an 80/20 split between growth assets and bonds, with at least 10% of the growth piece in crypto. For younger investors, he says the crypto allocation could go as high as 40%.
His research with Stanford Center on Longevity and MIT AgeLab suggests people are living to 100, which blows up the old 60/40 stock-bond model. Longer retirements need higher returns, and Edelman sees crypto as the engine for that.
The broader crypto bet
Edelman also acknowledged roles for Ethereum and Solana, and for indirect exposure through stocks like Coinbase and Robinhood. He didn’t offer specific price targets for those names, but the implication is clear: the institutional wave lifts more than just Bitcoin.
The big unresolved question is timing. The Clarity Act is still moving through Congress. If it stalls, the flywheel could sputter. For now, Edelman is betting it won’t.
