Gold, silver and the need to take profits

Precious metals were front and center throughout VRIC.

The price of gold crossed the US$5,200 per ounce mark during the show, and silver’s incredible run peaked at US$116 per ounce, gaining more than 250 percent since January 2025.

Over the past couple of years, gold’s shine has been brought about by significant central bank buying. Considered the ultimate buy-and-hold participants, these entities have been acquiring large quantities of gold for several reasons, including runaway global debt and concerns over the weaponization of the US dollar.

Central bank purchases, along with geopolitical and financial uncertainty, have helped to revive a beleaguered retail segment, effectively pouring gasoline onto the fire.

For silver, structural shortages that have developed over the past several years came into focus and were exacerbated by a surge of investors seeking a cheaper physical asset alternative to gold.

Flashpoints in the Middle East, a simmering trade war driven by tariff threats, disrupted supply lines and currency devaluation have also helped bring the monetary aspects of gold and silver to the forefront.

In the 2026 ‘Gold Forecast’ panel at VRIC, Gold Royalty (NYSEAMERICAN:GROY) Chair and CEO David Garofalo explained why precious metals were one of the best-performing asset classes last year.

“Gold has been a one-way trade for 50 years … the purchasing power of our dollars has gone down 99 percent over that period of time. The negative correlation between the gold price and the purchasing power of our underlying currencies is undeniable,” he said, adding that “gold can only go in one direction.”

Garofalo added that the debt-to-GDP ratio rose to 350 percent in 2025 from 100 percent in the 1970s, creating a “ticking time bomb” that leaves central banks with no wiggle room to raise interest rates. “Gold can only go in one direction in that market because there is a limited supply of gold. Gold can’t be printed,” Garofalo said.

With those circumstances in mind, how high can gold and silver prices go? There were differing perspectives throughout the conference on whether precious metals are in a bull market or a bubble.

At the ‘This Isn’t Our First Bull Market’ panel, Ross Beaty, Equinox Gold (TSX:EQX,NYSEAMERICAN:EQX) chair and Canadian Mining Hall of Famer, was one of those who suggested the market is in a bubble.

He also compared the state of the market to the late 1970s and early 1980s, and spoke about how gold went above US$700 per ounce before crashing to US$250 an ounce in a matter of months. “You only know you’re at the top after the fact. From my standpoint today, it is. It’s a bubble, it’s a frothy market,” Beaty said.

Fellow panelist Rick Rule, proprietor at Rule Investment Media, didn’t go so far as to say the market is in a bubble, but did point out that even in a strong bull market, there are risks.

He pointed out that in 1975, as the gold bull market was running, the gold price fell by half.

Both speakers suggested there is still upside in the market, but acknowledged that now is a good time for investors to take some profits. For his part, Beaty was blunt in his advice.

“It is time to take some money off the table. I think probably not all, because I think we have more room to run, but we’re not in the early innings of this game, we’re in the late innings,” he said.

Rule’s approach was more one of preparation, especially for less experienced investors.

“If you aren’t financially and psychologically prepared to deal with 30 or 35 percent declines, or 50 percent declines, you really have to get some money in the bank now, because you’re going to experience that,” Rule said.

During VRIC, Rule also spoke about how he recently sold off 25 percent of his junior mining portfolio, noting, “I sold off 25 percent of my upside, and I eliminated 100 percent of my downside.”

Copper, uranium and the AI bubble

If industry stalwarts like Beaty, Rule and Garofalo are suggesting it’s time to take some money off the table, were there any suggestions where to look next?

On the gold panel, Incrementum AG Managing Partner and Fund Manager, Ronald-Peter Stöferle gave insight that his fund had cycled funds from precious metals into other areas of the resource sector.

“We reallocated some capital, took some profits, because the risk has been too dominant and reallocated into oil, into copper, into uranium,” he said.

What’s become more apparent over recent years is the growing need to add gigawatts to the electrical grid. To meet growing demand, electricity must be generated, and uranium is increasingly used as a fuel. However, delivering it requires infrastructure, and copper remains one of the best ways to do so.

However, both copper and uranium have demand exceeding supply.

While copper has been in balance over the last couple of years, incidents at Freeport-McMoRan’s (NYSE:FCX) Grasberg mine and Ivanhoe’s (TSX:IVN,OTCQX:IVPAF) Kamoa-Kakula mines tipped the market into supply deficits in 2025, and it’s likely to stay there for some time.

Both copper and uranium have been increasingly tied to the artificial intelligence (AI) revolution.

At the ‘Copper Forecast’ panel, Independent Speculator Editor Lobo Tiggre noted the connection but pointed out that underlying fundamentals beyond AI continue to make the case for investing in copper and uranium. He noted that the release of Chinese AI DeepSeek affected Western equities tied to the AI boom.

“If you think it (AI) is a bubble, remember what happened in the DeepSeek moment. Copper wobbled, uranium wobbled … The good news, in my view, is that means that whenever the next wobble comes, there’s potentially a buying opportunity, given the fundamentals we’re talking,” he said.

The fundamentals are that AI and data centres are just additional demand. Through several of his appearances, Rick Rule noted that there are a billion people on the planet who don’t have access to reliable electricity.

Additionally, global infrastructure needs to be upgraded as more people rely on electricity for a wider range of uses, including EVs. However, there are only a few new mines on the horizon, and not enough to meet baseline demand.

Ivan Bebek, CEO and chair of Coppernico Metals (TSX:COPR,OTCQB:CPPMF), said on the copper panel that all the easy copper deposits have been found.

“Copper mines are hidden behind geopolitical boundaries, social issues or undercover. They’re mined, and all the easy ones have been found. Look at the chart I presented earlier, and it shows the decline basically falls off a cliff in 2015. There hasn’t been any major copper discovery of consequence since then,” he said.

It’s not just a lack of discovery; copper mines require significant capital investment and can take decades to complete permitting.

Likewise, uranium is in a similar boat. Although it’s far from its US$140 per pound high in 2007, uranium has solid supply and demand fundamentals and has significant upside potential.

In his fireside chat, Uranium Energy (NYSEAMERICAN:UEC) CEO Amir Adnani said that he expects uranium prices to continue to increase.

“The uranium price has no business hanging around under US$100 per pound. The uranium price should be doing what silver and gold are doing. It will do that, in my opinion, because it is fundamentally in a structural deficit,” he said.

Adnani pointed to a cumulative shortage of 379 to 840 million pounds over the next 10 to 15 years, and stated it should be at least US$1,000 per pound. He noted that both China and the US have designated uranium a critical mineral, with the US even establishing a strategic reserve.

Investors are faced with choices

With consensus at the conference that AI is a bubble that’s ready to burst, the overall fundamentals for copper and uranium remain strong even without it.

As for precious metals, given the strain on global financial systems in recent years, and uncertainty when it comes to US debt loads and a weakening US dollar, they should still hold a place in an investor’s portfolio.

However, as many at the conference suggested, the time to take profits is before the peak, not after investors look back on it.

Though some suggest cycling that money into other equities to take advantage of copper and uranium, there was also the suggestion that holding cash can be a good thing, remaining liquid and ready to take advantage of pullbacks and corrections in the market.

Markets and commodities react

Canadian equity markets were in retreat to end the week.

The S&P/TSX Composite Index (INDEXTSI:OSPTX) lost 3.4 percent over the week to close Friday at 31,923.52, while the S&P/TSX Venture Composite Index (INDEXTSI:JX) fared worse, shedding 8.15 percent to 1,051.08. The CSE Composite Index (CSE:CSECOMP) dropped 9.54 percent to 169.92.

The gold price saw significant declines from mid-week highs, losing 9.76 percent during Friday’s trading day. However, it fell just 1.76 percent from the week’s start to close at US$4,840.76 per ounce on Friday at 4:00 p.m. EST.

The silver price fared even worse, plummeting 28.17 percent on Friday, and closing the week 13.62 percent lower overall at US$83.43 on Friday.

In base metals, the Comex copper price recorded a 1.32 percent drop this week to US$5.98.

On the other hand, the S&P Goldman Sachs Commodities Index (INDEXSP:SPGSCI) was up 4.24 percent to end Friday at 598.20.

Top Canadian mining stocks this week

How did mining stocks perform against this backdrop?

Take a look at this week’s five best-performing Canadian mining stocks below.

Stocks data for this article was retrieved at 2:00 p.m. EST on Friday using TradingView’s stock screener. Only companies trading on the TSX, TSXV and CSE with market caps greater than C$10 million are included. Mineral companies within the non-energy minerals, energy minerals, process industry and producer manufacturing sectors were considered.

1. Vanguard Mining (CSE:UUU)

Weekly gain: 141.18 percent
Market cap: C$29.82 million
Share price: C$0.41

Vanguard Mining is an exploration company working to advance a portfolio of uranium, copper and nickel assets in Canada and Paraguay. Its flagship project is the Yuty Prometeo uranium project in Paraguay.

Among its properties is the Redonda copper and molybdenum project near Campbell River, British Columbia. The site consists of nine mineral claims covering 2,746 hectares and hosts porphyry-style mineralization.

On Tuesday (January 27), Vanguard announced plans for its phase 2 drill program at Redonda, comprising up to 7 holes totaling 2,800 meters, targeting areas in the southeast portion of the property between historic drill holes.

The company also said it would conduct detailed mapping and prospecting in the northern and western portions of Redonda to identify additional priority drill targets and would use phase 1 results to refine targeting.

The program is being advanced quickly to build on drilling results that “confirmed a significantly expanded copper-molybdenum mineralized system at Redonda,” the company said.

2. San Lorenzo Gold (TSXV:SLG)

Weekly gain: 85.6 percent
Market cap: C$185.63 million
Share price: C$2.32

San Lorenzo Gold is an exploration company working to advance its Salvadora project in the Chañaral province of Chile.

The property consists of 25 exploration and nine exploitation concessions covering an area of 8,796 hectares. It hosts a large copper and gold porphyry system with several significant targets. According to the project page, the site geology resembles that of the nearby Codelco-owned Salvador copper mine, which has operated since the early 1950s and is expected to continue until the mid-2060s following an expansion.

On January 26, San Lorenzo provided assay results from the first hole of a drilling program at the Cerro Blanco target at Salvadora. The hole was drilled to a depth of 472 meters, of which it encountered 222.4 meters of mineralization across five sections. The widest interval graded 1.09 grams per metric ton (g/t) gold over 132.2 meters from a depth of 201.5 meters.

The company said it believes the mineralization represents the upper level of a porphyry system and that it suggests a continuation of the system encountered during drilling at the site in 2025.

3. Ameriwest Critical Metals (CSE:AWCM)

Weekly gain: 75.76 percent
Market cap: C$14.69 million
Share price: C$0.58

Ameriwest Critical Minerals is an exploration company with a portfolio of assets in British Columbia, Canada, as well as the US states of Nevada, Oregon and Arizona.

The company announced in August that it was changing its name from Ameriwest Lithium to better reflect a portfolio diversifying into copper and rare earth minerals.

In October 2025, Ameriwest entered into a definitive agreement for the option and potential purchase of the Xeno RAR rare earth mineral claims in British Columbia. Under the terms of the deal, Ameriwest will pay C$55,000 in cash considerations, C$125,000 in exploration expenses over 18 months, a 2 percent net smelter return royalty and 2 million shares.

Then, in November, the company completed the acquisition of 34 unpatented mineral claims in Oregon that form the Bornite copper project in exchange for US$100,000 and a 2 percent net smelter return royalty.

Previous exploration of the Bornite property by Plexus in the 1990s identified a historic resource of 138.5 million pounds of copper, 54,000 ounces of gold and 1.7 million ounces of silver from 3.2 million metric tons of ore. Ameriwest’s current CEO was part of the Plexus team who explored Bornite.

In addition to its recently acquired properties, Ameriwest also owns the Thompson Valley lithium project in Arizona and the Railroad Valley lithium project in Nevada.

The most recent news from the company came on January 20, when it upsized a non-brokered private placement from C$2 million to C$3 million. The company said proceeds would be used to accelerate exploration efforts at its Bornite project.

In the release, Ameriwest says its long-term goal at the project, if results, financing and permitting are successful, is “evaluating the development of an approximately 1,000-tonne-per-day underground copper mining operation.”

4. Tectonic Metals (TSXV:TECT)

Weekly gain: 61.78 percent
Market cap: C$217.87 million
Share price: C$2.54

Tectonic Metals is a gold exploration company working to advance the Flat project in Alaska, US.

The project covers 98,840 acres in Western Alaska and hosts a reduced intrusion-related gold system and six district-scale targets. According to Tectonic, the mineralization is analogous to Kinross Gold’s (TSX:K,NYSE:KGC) Fort Knox mine in Eastern Alaska.

Among the targets is the Chicken Mountain intrusion, where exploration has identified 3 kilometers of mineral strike that remains open in all directions. Each of the 87 holes drilled at Chicken Mountain have intercepted gold.

The most recent update from the Flat project came on Thursday, when Tectonic announced results from 20 drill holes across four target areas.

Most significantly, its first drilling at the Black Creek intrusion, located 6 kilometers north of Chicken Mountain, discovered a new gold zone. The discovery hole, which started from surface, returned grades of 4.5 g/t gold over 48.77 meters. This included a core interval of 7.79 g/t over 24.38 meters, inside of which was a 6.1 meter interval grading 15.19 g/t.

The company said drilling has now confirmed gold mineralization across five intrusion targets: Chicken Mountain, Alpha Bowl, Golden Apex, Black Creek and Jam. It also said that results from 14 other holes are still pending.

5. Golden Lake Exploration (CSE:GLM)

Weekly gain: 60 percent
Market cap: C$12.48 million
Share price: C$0.12

Golden Lake Exploration is a gold exploration company that owns the Jewel Ridge gold project in Nevada, United States.

The project sits along the prolific Battle Mountain–Eureka Gold trend, which has produced more than 40 million ounces to date and hosts operations from McEwen Mining (TSX:MUX,NYSE:MUX) and North Peak Resources.

More than 700 meters of strike have been identified on the property across three primary targets: Eureka Tunnel, Jewel Ridge and Hamburg.

On Wednesday, Golden Lake announced that it had entered into a definitive agreement to be wholly acquired by McEwen Mining and become its subsidiary. Among the highlights of the deal is the ability for Jewel Ridge to be integrated into McEwen’s neighboring Gold Bar mine complex, providing access to infrastructure and funding.

FAQs for Canadian mining stocks

How much does it cost to list on the TSXV?

There are a variety of different fees that companies must pay to list on the TSXV, and according to the exchange, they can vary based on the transaction’s nature and complexity. The listing fee alone will most likely cost between C$10,000 to C$70,000. Accounting and auditing fees could rack up between C$25,000 and C$100,000, while legal fees are expected to be over C$75,000 and an underwriters’ commission may hit up to 12 percent.

The exchange lists a handful of other fees and expenses companies can expect, including but not limited to security commission and transfer agency fees, investor relations costs and director and officer liability insurance.

These are all just for the initial listing, of course. There are ongoing expenses once companies are trading, such as sustaining fees and additional listing fees, plus the costs associated with filing regular reports.

How do you trade on the TSXV?

Investors can trade on the TSXV the way they would trade stocks on any exchange. This means they can use a stock broker or an individual investment account to buy and sell shares of TSXV-listed companies during the exchange’s trading hours.

Investor Insight

Homeland Nickel combines a consolidated portfolio of nine at-surface nickel laterite projects in Southern Oregon with a strategic portfolio of mining equities, offering investors leveraged exposure to domestic US nickel development alongside balance-sheet flexibility and reduced dilution risk.

Overview

Homeland Nickel (TSXV:SHL,OTC:SRCGF) is a Canadian mineral exploration company focused on critical metals, with a primary emphasis on nickel laterite projects in Southern Oregon, USA. Nickel has been designated a critical mineral by the US government, and Homeland Nickel is advancing assets in what it considers the only region in the United States with the geological scale and characteristics required to support a meaningful domestic nickel supply.

The company has assembled a portfolio of nine nickel laterite projects that were originally identified during exploration campaigns conducted from the 1950s through the 1970s. These deposits occur as at-surface laterite lenses formed by the weathering of ultramafic rocks, enabling the use of surface sampling and auger drilling to rapidly define mineral resources. This geological setting allows Homeland Nickel to advance multiple projects efficiently while managing exploration costs.

In parallel with asset consolidation and exploration, Homeland Nickel maintains a portfolio of mining equities in publicly traded companies. Management views this portfolio as a strategic asset that provides additional financial flexibility and potential non-dilutive funding options, supporting a disciplined capital allocation strategy as the company advances its nickel projects through resource definition and technical studies.

Company Highlights

• Controls nine nickel laterite projects in Southern Oregon — Cleopatra, Red Flat, Eight Dollar Mountain, Woodcock Mountain, Josephine Creek, Iron Mountain, Peavine Mountain, Rough & Ready and Free & Easy — representing the most comprehensive consolidation of historically identified US nickel laterite occurrences
• Historic resources at Cleopatra (39.5 Mt @ 0.93 percent nickel) and Red Flat (18.8 Mt @ 0.84 percent nickel) provide an advanced starting point with significant expansion potential
• At-surface nickel laterite mineralization supports rapid, low-cost exploration and resource definition compared to underground nickel sulfide projects
• Strategic partnerships with Patriot Nickel (property option) and Brazilian Nickel (ore processing) support advancement toward development while limiting shareholder dilution
• Maintains a portfolio of publicly traded mining equities, providing financial flexibility and optionality to support exploration and development programs

Key Projects

Cleopatra Project

The Cleopatra project is Homeland Nickel’s flagship asset and hosts a historical mineral resource of 39.5 Mt grading 0.93 percent nickel. Mineralization occurs at surface and has historically only been explored to shallow depths (about 12 feet), leaving the deposit open at depth and along strike.

Location map of the Cleopatra Nickel property

Cleopatra is one of two projects optioned to Patriot Nickel under a staged earn-in agreement that includes cash payments, exploration expenditures and advancement to pre-feasibility. Homeland Nickel remains the operator during the exploration phase, retains a 20 percent interest in the Cleopatra project and receives a 20 percent equity interest in Patriot.

Red Flat Project

The Red Flat project is located approximately 12 kilometres inland from Gold Beach, Oregon, and hosts a historical resource of 18.8 Mt grading 0.84 percent nickel. Historical trenching and drilling indicate thick laterite horizons with consistent nickel grades.

Red Flat is accessible via gravel road.

The project has received a Surface Use Determination from the US Forest Service approving a proposed sonic drilling program, subject to a National Environmental Policy Act review. Homeland Nickel plans to update the historical resource and evaluate potential expansion through additional drilling and sampling.

Eight Dollar Mountain Project

The Eight Dollar Mountain project lies within the same ultramafic geological belt as Cleopatra and Red Flat. Surface sampling has returned nickel values of up to 2.2 percent nickel, highlighting the project’s high-grade potential. The property consists of 115 mining claims covering an area of 2,376 acres.

Eight Dollar Mountain is included in the option agreement with Patriot Nickel, with work planned to support an initial mineral resource estimate.

Woodcock Mountain Project

The Woodcock Mountain project covers more than 900 acres and has been identified by the United States Geological Survey as hosting significant nickel laterite mineralization. Historical work has reported grades up to 1.5 percent nickel over 15 feet and values as high as 2.13 percent nickel along a three-kilometre trend.

The project is located outside withdrawn land areas, and Homeland Nickel plans to advance surface sampling and auger drilling to define an initial mineral resource.

Josephine Creek Project

The Josephine Creek project, adjacent to Woodcock Mountain, was staked based on historic nickel laterite exposures. Sampling completed in 2025 returned an average grade of 0.73 percent nickel, with 10 of 82 samples grading 1 percent nickel or higher. The property consists of 174 lode mining claims covering an area of 1,455 acres.

Josephine Creek was sampled by the company in 2025 with 74 samples over 22 individual mining claims returning an average of 0.75 percent nickel with 10 samples grading over 1 percent nickel. The property benefits from proximity to infrastructure and further work is planned in 2026 to support an initial resource estimate.

Rough and Ready

The most recently acquired property, Rough and Ready, has seen extensive surface sampling, auger hole drilling and pit excavations to expose good grade nickel laterite over a wide area. Homeland Nickel will review the extensive data acquired with this project and will sample all claims for nickel during a summer 2026 exploration program.

Iron Mountain, Peavine Mountain and Free & Easy Projects

Homeland Nickel has also staked nickel laterite claims at Iron Mountain, Peavine Mountain and Free & Easy, expanding its portfolio to a total of eight projects. These earlier-stage assets provide additional pipeline depth and optionality as the company advances its more mature projects.

Mining Equities Portfolio

In addition to its wholly owned exploration assets, Homeland Nickel holds a portfolio of publicly traded mining equities, including positions in Canada Nickel Company, Noble Mineral Exploration, Benton Resources, Vinland Lithium and Magna Terra Minerals. This portfolio provides financial flexibility and potential non-dilutive funding options, supporting the company’s exploration strategy while offering exposure to value creation beyond its own project pipeline.

Management Team

Stephen Balch — President, CEO and Director

Stephen Balch is an Ontario-registered geoscientist with over 40 years of experience in mineral exploration, including nearly three decades focused on nickel. His background spans nickel, copper and platinum-group element exploration across major mining jurisdictions, including experience with Inco Limited, FNX Mining, Noront and Voiseys Bay Nickel. He has more than 20 years of public company leadership experience as a CEO, president, technical consultant and director. In 2001, he joined Aeroquest Limited and helped develop the AeroTEM airborne geophysical system, and in 2019 co-founded Canada Nickel Company, where he currently serves as VP Exploration.

Ashley Nadon — Chief Financial Officer

Ashley Nadon is a chartered professional accountant with a BA in Economics and an MBA. She provides consulting and accounting services to private and public companies as the managing director of a chartered professional accounting firm. Nadon brings experience as a CFO of several reporting issuers and currently serves as CFO for Kermode Resources.

Errol Farr — Corporate Secretary

Errol Farr is a seasoned financial professional with more than 35 years of experience in financial management, reporting, business optimization and strategy development. He previously served as CFO of Anaconda Mining, and currently holds senior executive roles including CFO, COO and corporate secretary of Zonetail, CFO of Big Tree Carbon and CFO/corporate secretary of AFR NuVenture Resources, a mining exploration company with US projects.

Vance White — Director

Vance White has over five decades of experience in guiding mineral exploration companies. He has served as president, CEO and director of Noble Mineral Exploration since 2003 and has held director and officer positions with multiple public companies in the mining sector.

Michael Dehn — Director

Michael Dehn is a partner at Avanti Management and Consulting with more than 21 years in the mining industry. He has served as a director of publicly listed and private junior mining companies and is currently president and CEO of Temas Resources and United Lithium. He has been a director of the company’s predecessor since December 2020.

Birks Bovaird — Director

Birks Bovaird is chair of the board of Energy Fuels, a uranium and vanadium mining and development company, and serves as a director of Noble Mineral Exploration. His career has focused on corporate financial consulting and strategic planning, including serving as vice-president of corporate finance at a major Canadian accounting firm. He holds an ICD.D designation and is a graduate of the Canadian Director Education Program.

Asset allocations: Cash reigns, crypto cowers

This emotional undercurrent is manifesting starkly in portfolios, where safety trumps speculation.

The MarketWise survey shows that cash still dominates, with 86 percent of investors participating with an average US$626 monthly allocation. Fifty-five percent deem it the safest asset overall.

In stark contrast, crypto attracts just 35 percent participation at a meager US$92 monthly average.

“Crypto is no longer the ‘Wild West,’ but investor confidence hasn’t caught up to regulatory clarity. Fifty-four percent of investors say crypto is the asset class they’re most cautious about, and 56 percent see it as the most volatile despite reporting rules and oversight expanding,” said Royal.

Gold and commodities drew optimism from 44 percent overall, with that amount rising to 47 percent among Millennials. This sentiment aligns with the metal’s recent record surge past US$5,500 per ounce on safe-haven bids.

Stocks remain broad at 69 percent participation with an average monthly contribution of US$320; however, caution prevails for 46 percent of those surveyed, who said they feel “fearful” about stocks in 2026, mirroring 47 percent real estate wariness, despite a 23 percent holding.

Generational anxiety divide

Recession fears loom large, with three-quarters of respondents anticipating a 2026 downturn — yet 46 percent admit financial unreadiness. This number rises to 54 percent for those earning under US$75,000.

“Investor sentiment explains why panic-driven behavior persists, such as 18 percent of investors reporting that doomscrolling has already pushed them into a rushed investment decision,” Royal noted.

Forty-three percent of respondents predict emotional investing will harm their performance, while 45 percent have paused markets for mental health and 46 percent let economic and geopolitical headlines sway feelings.

“The mental tax of investing is becoming tough to ignore,” Royal added.

“Half of American investors check their portfolios at least once a day (with 9 percent doing so five or more times per day), and 51 percent feel investment stress at least monthly.”

This intensifies among youth. Sixty-one percent of Gen Z report acute investment stress, and 36 percent feel it daily or weekly, far above the average. Fear of missing out, or ‘FOMO,’ drives 17 percent of Gen Z decisions, with 42 percent overall somewhat or often impacted, highlighting impulsive trends among youth.

Meanwhile, 36 percent of Gen Z plan safety shifts versus 29 percent broadly. Millennials show parallel vulnerabilities: 21 percent admit doomscrolling panic, and 11 percent check portfolios frequently.

“Even solid fundamentals can get drowned out by headlines when investors are this emotionally fatigued. Of course, that’s when discipline matters most,” explained Royal.

Coping strategies lean toward rationality: 34 percent remind themselves markets move in cycles, and 20 percent research more to regain control. Older generations appear to show more restraint. Baby Boomers and Gen X report lower stress, with 49 percent overall “rarely” or “never” stressed versus Gen Z’s 61 percent. This generational divide — youth FOMO versus elder discipline — underscores the emotional paralysis among younger investors.

Market behavior mirrors this anxiety: 2025 Google searches for “stock market crash” hit 1.72 million, far outpacing “bull market” searches at 262,000. “Crypto crash” drew 392,000 hits, reinforcing the survey’s fear-driven sentiment.

Investor takeaway

As the gold price hits record highs and the cryptocurrency sector lags, MarketWise’s survey proves the real 2026 battle isn’t markets — it’s mastering the emotions driving them.

1. Payments expansion and invisible settlement

Stablecoins are evolving from a gray-zone asset into an invisible, programmable global settlement infrastructure, integrated into cross-border and local instant payment systems and card networks. Wallets function as multi-currency routing hubs, handling conversions and optimizing paths, increasingly using ‘PayFi’ models where held capital automatically earns on-chain yield during payment cycles.

2. The rise of agentic commerce

The artificial intelligence (AI) economy is moving toward machines as autonomous economic actors. Protocols like x402 enable AI agents to transact automatically for data and services by embedding stablecoin payments in HTTP requests.

As this shifts the security focus from know your customer to know your agent (KYA), wallets are becoming unified funding, risk control and KYA enforcement hubs for both people and their authorized agents.

3. Privacy as core infrastructure

Privacy is now essential for scalable on-chain finance. With the Ethereum Foundation prioritizing it, privacy must be built into the infrastructure. Wallets are emerging as the main privacy boundary, managing transactions and on-chain data access to balance trust, usability and compliance without revealing full balances or behaviors.

4. On-chain credit evolves from collateral to reputation

DeFi is shifting from overcollateralized lending to models based on behavioral trust. Continuous on-chain activity, including recurring payments and cash management, generates behavioral signals for dynamic risk assessment. Wallets can aggregate these cross-chain, time-based behaviors to create a behavioral credit layer, translating consistent activity into better permissions and reduced friction, thus building durable financial relationships.

5. Market rebalancing and RWA derivatives

Real-world assets (RWAs) are evolving past simple tokenization toward perpetual and synthetic exposure.

With regulatory clarity and a sizeable increase in tokenized RWA value, reaching US$37.7 billion in 2025, attention is shifting to trading. Synthetic RWA derivatives and perpetual decentralized exchanges (Perp DEXs) are emerging, facilitating price exposure to nearly any asset with a reliable feed, and turning wallets into cross-market portfolio allocation gateways.

6. Perp DEXs and wallet-native trading

Decentralized perpetual markets grew significantly in 2025, with monthly turnover surpassing US$1 trillion at times. This brought on-chain perpetuals close to 20 percent of centralized derivatives volume.

Wallets are increasingly becoming the main trading platform, integrating execution, context and portfolio management, replacing standalone trading venues.

7. Prediction markets as tradable information

Prediction markets have become key financial infrastructure, with annual volumes over US$40 billion.

They now convert real-world events, like sports or elections, into tradable probability signals containing asymmetric information. Wallets are transforming into event-driven financial interfaces, making it easier for users to express views and manage risk based on these outcomes.

8. Memecoins as an onboarding vector

Memecoins, despite driving new wallet downloads and trading, offer inconsistent liquidity.

As the market matures, wallets are adding advanced tools like address clustering and relationship analysis to help users better understand the emotion, momentum and capital flows of meme trading, aiming to convert speculative activity into sustainable financial behavior.

Investor takeaway

“Crypto is increasingly being used for everyday financial activity,” said Bitget Wallet CMO Jamie Elkaleh.

Elkaleh also noted that Bitget Wallet has embraced this shift, strategically aligning its product architecture around payments and cash management with its unified Pay hub that combines crypto cards, QR payments and bank transfers alongside yield and trading features.