“Bitcoin could approach USD 150,000 in 2026”: Vugar Usi Zade

The phrase with which this publication is titled does not come as an isolated forecast or as a market slogan launched in the heat of enthusiasm, but as part of a broad look at the present and future of the digital assets industry.

The person who made this statement is Vugar Usi Zade, chief operating officer (COO) of MEXC. Interviewed in writing by NoticiasVE, the executive reviewed his career, his entry into the ecosystem, his vision on the growth of exchanges and the role that, in his opinion, bitcoin (BTC) will continue to occupy as “the structural anchor of the entire digital asset market.”

His personal story, according to the story, is not too similar to that of many of the names that resonate in this ecosystem. “I came to the world of cryptocurrencies from a quite different path than many,” he says. His academic training passed through institutions such as Harvard and Oxford.

And his professional career developed within “large structured organizations,” with executive positions in Fortune 500 companies such as Sony, Carlsberg and Facebook. From that stage, he says, came a deep understanding of “global operations, brand building, and the mechanics of scaling products to hundreds of millions of users.”

This route also explains the way he approached bitcoin. It was not, he assures, from speculation or the search for a quick financial opportunity..

“Bitcoin offers something fundamentally different”

“Unlike many people who entered cryptocurrencies looking for quick profits, my entry point was more pragmatic,” he notes.

By then, he had already had “a successful startup” and had a certain level of financial security. Therefore, in your case, The interest was placed on “the preservation and mobility of capital.”

In that search, he found that “traditional financial rails were slow, expensive, and sometimes restrictive,” while “bitcoin offered something fundamentally different: the ability to move value globally, with speed, transparency, and full ownership.”

The experience, as he relates, did not remain at the conceptual level. “My first real use of Bitcoin was for international remittances,” he explains, adding that it was “transformative.” The reason, he says, exceeded the effectiveness of a transfer.

It wasn’t just about the transaction itself, but the underlying philosophy of self-custody and financial sovereignty.

Vugar Usi Zade, chief operating officer (COO) de MEXC.

At this point one of the most personal definitions of the entire interview appears: “For the first time, I felt that what I earned was truly mine, not subject to the limitations or control of traditional systems.”

That understanding, he adds, was what led him to become more deeply involved in the ecosystem until he became convinced that technology did not just represent a new asset class, but “a structural change in how people access, move and store value.”

Behind the scenes of the businessman

From his current role at MEXC, Usi Zade connects that conviction with an agenda of business expansion and with a look at the development of the sector. When remembering his time in large corporations, he summarizes one of the central lessons that he transferred to the world of Web 3: “Scale is never an accident.”

In your reading, Growing does not depend on strokes of luck or isolated campaignsbut of “disciplined systems, clear communication and alignment” within complex organizations. That idea, taken from the traditional business world, takes on special importance in an industry that he describes as “much younger and volatile.”

The comparison he makes between both universes is graphic. While traditional corporations operate under a model of “continuous and incremental improvement,” the digital asset sector, he maintains, “often feels like building and improving the plane while it is already in the air.”

Over there There is a permanent tension between speed and structure. Growth can be explosive and products must evolve in real time, but “without structure, speed quickly turns to chaos.” That is why he insists on three principles that he considers fundamental: “The three most important lessons that I took from traditional business to Web 3 are cooperation, coordination and communication.”

His previous time at Bitget also occupies an important place in the story. There, he remembers, he was part of an expansion that took the platform “from approximately 11 million users to more than 120 million,” until it became one of the largest exchanges in the world.

When asked about the formula behind that growth, he avoids attributing it to a single tactic. “That kind of growth doesn’t come from a single marketing tactic or campaign,” he says. Rather, he explains it by “clarity of direction, bold decisions at the right times, and a willingness to invest when others are pulling back.”

Still, he does identify a guiding idea: «If there is a ‘secret formula,’ it is the ability to identify a true north and build the entire organization around it.»

In that sense, it highlights investments made at adverse times in the market, such as the disbursement of $30 million for what would later become Bitget Wallet or support for ecosystem initiatives such as the TON Foundation.

The learning extracted from this process is summarized in another phrase with a programmatic tone:

By building around a long-term vision rather than market cycles, you create products and institutions that survive those cycles.

Vugar Usi Zade, chief operating officer (COO) de MEXC.

At MEXC, he states, this logic is maintained, although with an even more ambitious horizon. The goal is to “transform the exchange into a universal access point for digital and tokenized assets.” For this reason, when talking about the company’s roadmap, he insists that “2026 marks a defining evolution for MEXC.” As he explains, the company seeks to go “beyond being an exchange focused on listing first, to become a gateway to global tokenized opportunities.”

This transition includes, according to his words, an expansion of focus from cryptocurrencies to “tokenized stocks, commodities and any asset that can move on-chain”.

What would you change about the cryptocurrency industry?

At this point, Usi Zade introduces a critique of the cultural climate that, according to him, still dominates a good part of the sector. “If I could change one thing about the industry, it would be its fixation on short-term profits,” he says.

In his opinion, The public conversation about bitcoin and cryptocurrencies remains too conditioned by get-rich-quick narrativeswhen the true potential lies elsewhere. “The true promise of this industry lies in its ability to expand financial access, reduce friction in global trade and give individuals greater control over their assets.” For him, these are “structural improvements to the financial system, not just trading opportunities.”

A long-range outlook for bitcoin

From that perspective, his forecast on bitcoin for the rest of the current cycle fits into a broader vision. “Both from a personal perspective and from what we observe at MEXC, bitcoin continues to behave as the structural anchor of the entire digital asset market,” he says.

Bitcoin is, according to Usi Zade, “the asset that defines sentiment, liquidity cycles and institutional trust.” Therefore, any reading about the industry as a whole “ultimately begins with bitcoin.”

When reviewing the historical performance of the asset, it mentions “clearly defined” cycles, influenced by macroeconomic factors, liquidity and the supply dynamics linked to the halving.

Although he clarifies that anticipating the exact timing of the tops is uncertain, he maintains that the general trajectory has been “consistently upward” as adoption grows and bitcoin becomes more integrated into the global financial system.

In this framework, he formulates his base scenario: “Bitcoin could approach the $150,000 range towards the end of 2026”. And he goes further: “If institutional inflows, ETF adoption and global liquidity conditions remain favorable, a move towards the $200,000 level in early 2027 is a realistic scenario.”

However, he insists that his confidence does not depend on the short-term price. “What gives me confidence in the long term is not the short-term price action, but Bitcoin’s role as a new form of digital reserve asset.”

Despite the cycles and volatility, he highlights that the asset “has consistently recovered, reached new highs and attracted a broader base of users and institutions with each phase.”

Therefore, while clarifying that “no forecast should be treated as financial advice,” he concludes with a decidedly favorable view: “Bitcoin, in my opinion, will continue to be the central asset of this industry and one of the most important financial innovations of our time.”