Veteran trader Peter Brandt has issued one of his most radical and pessimistic warnings about the future of altcoins. He sees them as collateral damage in what he sees as the first steps in a broader monetary reset.
Brandt argued that the erosion of trust in government-issued money is already underway. According to him, this process will not benefit all digital assets equally (if at all).
“…the destruction of fiat currency has begun. Gold will once again become the world’s most trusted store of wealth. USD-denominated assets will lose value to physical commodities – which, by the way, may or may not include Bitcoin. Altcoins will become more worthless than USD,” Brandt said.
The digital gold problem
At the same time, Brandt claims that Bitcoin has already surpassed gold as a store of value.
The popular chartist claims that digital gold can simply be replicated by the next improved digital gold.
Digital gold can simply be replicated by the next improved digital gold
– Peter Brandt (@PeterLBrandt) January 18, 2026
A unique phenomenon
Recently, Brandt reiterated that Bitcoin is an unprecedented market phenomenon.
Throughout the 15-year history of Bitcoin, as Brandt said, there has never been anything like it, and there may never be anything like it again.
Brandt expanded on this point by highlighting Bitcoin’s repeated cycle of explosive growth followed by sharp declines.
Over the past fifteen years, Bitcoin has experienced five major “parabolic advances” when plotted on a logarithmic scale, and each was followed by declines of at least 80% from the peak.
According to his interpretation, this trend is still in play and the current cycle has not yet completed its downward phase.