The Next Major Bitcoin Catalyst Could Be The New ‘Large Print’: Expertise
John Haar, managing director at Swan Private, says the policy response to COVID remains one of the clearest drivers of Bitcoin adoption in recent years and said another big round of money creation may be a matter of when, not if. In an interview with Milk Road, Haar said the next “big print” could emerge within the next three to 24 months, driven by anything from war and banking distress to pension failures or AI-related labor disruption.
The Next Big Print Favors Bitcoin
Haar framed the argument less as a prediction of an imminent event and more as a recurring feature of the financial system. He cited the COVID-19 stimulus and balance sheet expansion as the catalyst that changed how many investors thought about fiat risk and deficits.
“Like you said, the two big prints are like the lifespan of most people, and the most recent one is COVID,” Haar said. “And I can just say, I’ve seen firsthand how many people have contacted people that, yes, that, you know, since all those things that I mentioned, they can print money, renew checks, etc., and so forth.
Related Reading
That direct customer experience seemed to be the crux of his point. Haar said one of the first questions he asks new customers is about the “Bitcoin story,” and he explained a pattern that continues among those entering the asset after seeing the financial and financial response to the pandemic. In his telling, COVID didn’t just confirm the major thesis of existing Bitcoin owners; it has created a new set of consumers who have seen policy choices up close and come to their own conclusions.
He tied that experience to a broader historical rhythm. Referring to Lawrence Lappard’s book The Big Print, Haar suggested that the occasional bursts of money creation are not anomalies but episodes that the program revisits “regularly.” He paused and asked for a quick repeat, however, and clearly recoiled from the imminent warning.
“I’m not one of those people who say it’s going to happen next month,” Haar said. “That usually comes too early. Normally you have to turn off those calls. But I think it’s just a matter of time.”
A significant part of Haar’s argument was psychological rather than purely macroeconomic. As the shock of COVID moves forward in the rearview mirror, he said, investors risk a return to complacency. “As the years go by, this is just human nature,” he said, adding that people began to forget “how crazy that financial reaction was” and revert to a kind of normal partisan politics. In his view, that fading memory does not reduce the chances of another major intervention; it simply makes the markets psychologically unprepared.
Related Reading
He then laid out a list of possible causes. “Major national war or military mobilization” was one, although he said current tensions were not yet appropriate and would need to escalate significantly. He also pointed to AI-driven labor migration, the collapse of the federal budget, pension inflows, the resurgence of regional banking pressure, the sovereign debt crisis, the expansion of property rights through programs such as Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare or student loan forgiveness, and major weather or natural disasters.
The next big print is coming (bookmark this).
Timeline: 3 to 24 months.
Causes: Displacement of AI jobs, collapse of the state budget, impoverishment of pensions, regional banking problems, world war.
“I believe one of those things or many of those things will happen.” pic.twitter.com/1x1bgvl612
— Milk Road (@MilkRoad) March 22, 2026
“And lastly, this has been on the list throughout human history,” Haar said, “but if there’s some kind of major climate disaster or natural disaster, something like that could cause a big picture.
At press time, BTC traded at $70,861.
The featured image was created with DALL.E, a chart from TradingView.com
