4 Stocks to Buy for 2026 That Are Better Bets Than Crypto

Bitcoin has been highly volatile in 2025—starting the year at $93,615.04, falling to a low of $76,270.13 in April, spiking to a >$126,000 peak in early October and retracing to below $90,000—leaving the iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (IBIT) down 6.9% year-to-date and 26% over the past three months. Zacks highlights four Zacks Rank #1 picks deemed better bets for 2026: Robinhood (HOOD) benefiting from double- to triple-digit trading volume gains, 3.9M Robinhood Gold subscribers (up 75% YoY) and a 2026 EPS consensus of $2.40 (up 5.7% in 30 days); Micron (MU) positioned to capture AI-driven memory demand with fiscal 2026 EPS est. $31.36 (up ~$14 in 30 days; fiscal 2025 EPS $8.29); Ciena (CIEN) raising fiscal 2026 revenue guidance to $5.7–$6.1B and a fiscal 2026 EPS est. $5.15 (up 18.1% in 30 days); and Credo (CRDO) with fiscal 2026 EPS est. $2.66 (up 30.4% in 30 days; fiscal 2025 EPS $0.70).

Analysis

Market structure: Crypto’s 30% drawdown from the October peak and IBIT’s -26% over 3 months reallocates marginal risk budgets into equities tied to AI/infra and fintech. Direct beneficiaries are memory (MU) and optical/interconnect names (CIEN, CRDO) as hyperscaler capex shifts from discretionary crypto infrastructure to AI datacenter upgrades; losers include crypto ETFs, levered miners and consumer risk-on beta if volatility persists. Cross-asset: elevated realized and implied vols should raise option premia (+20–50% in short-dated crypto/tech skew), push some flows into Treasuries (near-term safe-haven bid, downward pressure on yields by ~10–25bp if another -10% equity move), and support gold as a crypto-flight hedge.

Risk assessment: Tail risks include a major regulatory crackdown on crypto (weeks–months) that could force liquidity drains into equities, or a sudden hyperscaler capex pause (single-quarter 20–40% cut) that collapses memory/optical demand; both flip correlated exposures. Hidden dependencies: MU’s thesis rests on sustained HBM adoption and DRAM tightness — a single supplier capacity ramp or yield improvement could erase upside quickly; CRDO depends on ODM/hyperscaler design wins that are lumpy. Key catalysts: hyperscaler earnings and capex guidance (next 60–120 days), Micron’s fiscal-quarter memory pricing updates, and IBIT flows/BlackRock positioning data.

Trade implications: Favor tactical overweight in MU and CIEN as durable demand proxies with 6–12 month horizons, and small, option-levered exposure to CRDO for asymmetric upside. Hedge macro/crypto tail risk via short-duration puts on IBIT or small short on bitcoin futures sized to offset crypto-correlated beta; use call spreads on MU and LEAPs on CRDO to control theta. Rotate out of pure crypto exposure into fintech revenue plays (HOOD) where retail flow monetization rises even if crypto stalls.

Contrarian angles: Consensus underestimates speed of capital reallocation from speculative crypto into AI infra — if DRAM/HBM pricing stays tight, MU upside could be front-loaded (50%+ in 12 months) and is underpriced versus consensus EPS revision. Conversely, market may be underpricing regulatory contagion from a major crypto incident — so pairing infra longs with option hedges is asymmetric and prudent. Historical parallel: 2018 crypto winter saw capital reallocate to cloud/AI capex over 12–24 months; outcome then favored semiconductor and networking survivors.

Key Decisions for Investors

• Establish a 2–3% portfolio long position in Micron (MU) as core AI-memory exposure; complement with a 9–12 month call spread (buy ATM call, sell a call ~40% above) to limit cash outlay. Set a stop-loss at -18% and a take-profit scale selling 50% if position gains +30% within 6 months or fully exit at +50% within 12 months; reassess if consensus FY26 EPS falls >10% in 30 days.
• Allocate 1.5–2% long to Ciena (CIEN) for bandwidth/optical demand; hold 6–12 months and sell one-third covered calls if the stock rallies >25% in a 3-month window. Exit or cut to zero if fiscal 2026 guidance misses midpoint by >5% or cloud/hyperscaler orders reverse QoQ.
• Take a speculative 0.5–1% position in Credo Technology (CRDO) using 12–18 month LEAP calls (delta ~0.30) to capture AEC adoption upside; trim at +80% and stop at -50% within 12 months. Reweight to equity if CRDO announces multiple hyperscaler design wins in next 90 days.
• Reduce direct crypto exposure: if holding bitcoin or IBIT, hedge 1–2% of portfolio by buying 1–3 month put spreads on IBIT sized to capture a further 15% downside (buy 15% OTM put, sell 30% OTM put). If BTC breaks decisively below $80,000 on 5-day close, increase hedges to cover 3–5% of portfolio and redeploy into MU/CIEN buys.
• Relative-value pair: establish long 1–2% HOOD vs short 1–2% IBIT (or short BTC futures sized equivalently) to play retail trading monetization while hedging crypto market shocks. Close pair if HOOD monthly active users decline >5% QoQ or if IBIT recovers >20% in 30 days without material retail volume improvement.