Each year SAXO offers the outrageous predictions for the following year, and beyond. They have issued these ones for 2026 and a few of them may be accurate. Particularly the one that Crypto may be killed, not by regulators or politicians, but by quantum computing.
Culled by perplexity.
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Saxo Bank’s 2026 “Outrageous Predictions” are a set of low‑probability, high‑impact scenarios meant to challenge consensus rather than serve as a base case forecast.[home +1]
Overall idea
Saxo frames 2026 as a year where even relative calm could feel “outrageous,” and uses the list to explore what might happen if key assumptions about technology, geopolitics, finance, and culture suddenly break. The scenarios come with indicative “market impact” sketches, but Saxo stresses they are thought experiments, not official investment guidance.[fxnewsgroup +2]
Main 2026 themes
• Quantum computing (“Q‑Day”) abruptly breaks today’s cryptography, crashing crypto assets, boosting gold to very high levels, and forcing a rapid rebuild of digital security infrastructure worldwide.[finance.yahoo +1]
• A Taylor Swift–Travis Kelce wedding triggers a quirky “culture shock” thesis: less doomscrolling, more family formation, and a surprise boost to consumption and growth via a so‑called “Swiftie Put.”[goodmoneyguide +1]
• The 2026 U.S. mid‑term elections proceed unusually smoothly, with reduced turmoil and a modest revival of confidence in institutions, benefiting Treasuries and hurting “rage‑driven” social‑media names and safe‑haven trades.[home +1]
Other notable scenarios
• Obesity and weight‑loss drugs expand so far that even pet treatments become mainstream, reshaping parts of healthcare and consumer sectors.[goodmoneyguide +1]
• A SpaceX IPO helps create a more formal “extraterrestrial” or space‑related financial market, supercharging interest in space infrastructure and satellite‑related assets.[fxnewsgroup +1]
• A large listed company appoints an AI system as CEO, prompting both regulatory pushback and a wider debate on governance, accountability, and the value of human leadership.[goodmoneyguide +1]
• Beijing launches a gold‑linked offshore “golden yuan” to settle trade, eroding the dollar’s monopoly role without fully dethroning it, and driving structural demand for gold.[wealthbriefing +1]
• A wave of poorly supervised or “dumb” AI deployments causes costly errors and accidents, leading to a trillion‑dollar global clean‑up and a re‑rating toward firms emphasizing human oversight and robust controls.[home +1]
How Saxo positions these
Saxo highlights that some past “outrageous” calls ended up directionally right, but the 2026 list is still explicitly framed as scenario analysis, not a probability‑weighted macro outlook. The bank encourages investors to use the themes as prompts to stress‑test portfolios against tail risks in quantum tech, AI governance, geopolitics, and cultural shifts rather than as predictions to bet on directly.[wealthbriefing +2]
