Top 5 Must-Read Cryptocurrency Trends for 2026: From Stablecoins to Privacy Coins, Where Is the Market Heading?

2025 年即将谢幕，行业的热度也跟着降温了不少。许多人已经察觉到，从下半年开始，加密市场的故事越来越难讲，交易者社群也安静了下来。那么，即将到来的 2026 年会带来什么变化？哪些叙述能成为市场的宠儿？

BlockBeats 深入分析了超过 30 份预测报告，这些报告来自 Galaxy、Delphi Digital、a16z、Bitwise、Hashdex、Coinbase 等顶级研究机构，也来自长期深耕行业的 KOL 和投资者。从中提炼出了 2026 年的五大市场共识——这五点是每个从业者都必须知道的。

Stablecoins: Upgrading from a Crypto Tool to Financial Infrastructure

Speaking of the most anticipated development directions in 2026, stablecoins top the list and have been recognized by nearly all top research institutions.

a16z's data is the most intuitive. They point out that the trading volume of stablecoins in the past year has approached 46 trillion USD. How astonishing is this number? It is 20 times PayPal's annual transaction volume, three times Visa's, and is continuously approaching the scale of the US ACH (Automated Clearing House) network.

However, a16z also notes that the real bottleneck is not “demand for stablecoins,” but how to truly integrate these digital dollars into everyday financial systems—namely, the fundamental, critical processes of depositing, withdrawing, paying, settling, and spending.

Interestingly, a wave of new startups is tackling this challenge. Some use cryptographic proofs to enable users to exchange for digital dollars without exposing privacy; some directly connect to regional banking networks and real-time payment rails; others start from a more foundational level, building truly global interoperable wallets and card issuance platforms.

Galaxy Research and Route 2 FI focus more on “how to implement.” They believe traditional financial institutions will gradually deploy stablecoin technology and build related financial rails. Bitwise's forecast targets market size: they expect stablecoin market cap to double by 2026, with the key catalyst being the implementation of the GENIUS Act, which will open growth opportunities for existing issuers and attract new players.

The core consensus is: in 2026, stablecoins will move from fringe tools to mainstream financial core.

AI Agents: New Traders in On-Chain Economy

The second consensus is equally exciting: AI agents will become the main participants in on-chain economic activities.

Recent AI trading competitions have validated this path's potential. The logic is simple: when AI agents start autonomously executing tasks, making decisions, and interacting with each other at high frequency, they naturally need a fast, low-cost, permissionless way to transfer value. Traditional payment systems are designed for humans, full of accounts, identities, and settlement cycles—these are “frictions.” But cryptocurrencies—especially stablecoins equipped with payment protocols like x402—are almost tailor-made for such scenarios: instant settlement, micro-payments support, programmability, permissionless.

a16z researcher Sean Neville (co-founder of Circle and architect of USDC) pointed out the real bottleneck in the AI agent economy: the problem has shifted from “lack of intelligence” to “lack of identity.” The number of “non-human identities” in the financial system is 96 times that of human employees, but most of these identities are “ghosts without bank accounts.” The industry has yet to implement KYA (Know Your Agent, similar to KYC). Just as humans need credit scores to borrow, agents need cryptographic signatures as credentials to prove identity, control, and responsibility.

Galaxy Research analyst Lucas Tcheyan provided specific numerical forecasts: by 2026, payments following the x402 standard will account for 30% of Base's daily transaction volume and 5% of non-voting transactions on Solana. This indicates a significant increase in on-chain interactions involving agents. Base gains an advantage driven by Coinbase's x402, while Solana becomes another hub due to its extensive ecosystem. New chains focused on payments, like Tempo and Arc, will also grow rapidly.

On-Chain Real Assets: From Hype to Executability

Unlike the past hype of “everything on-chain,” the narrative around RWA (Real World Assets) in 2026 is much more subdued. Research institutions no longer emphasize market potential but repeatedly stress one word: executable.

a16z's Guy Wuollet bluntly criticizes current RWA tokenization: although we see enthusiasm from banks, fintech, and asset management firms for on-chain US stocks, commodities, and indices, most so-called “tokenizations” are just superficial changes. Assets are merely wrapped in a new tech shell; trading logic and risk structures remain deeply rooted in traditional finance, not fully leveraging the native features of crypto systems.

Where is the real breakthrough? Galaxy Research points to the core of traditional finance: collateral. They expect that at some point next year, a top bank or broker will start accepting tokenized stocks as official collateral. When this happens, its significance will far surpass any single product launch—RWA will connect from DeFi's niche experiments or private chain pilots to the mainstream financial system.

Hashdex offers the most aggressive prediction: RWA will grow tenfold. This forecast is based on three factors: clearer regulation, more proactive traditional financial institutions, and more mature technological infrastructure.

Prediction Markets: Beyond “Decentralized Gambling” to New Identities

Prediction markets are another widely favored track in 2026, but surprisingly, the optimism is no longer driven by the selling point of “decentralized gambling.”

a16z's Andy Hall (professor of political economy at Stanford) believes prediction markets have surpassed the question of “whether they will go mainstream.” Over the next year, they will deepen integration with crypto and AI, becoming larger, broader, and smarter. But this expansion also introduces new complexities: higher trading frequency, faster information feedback, and more automated participant structures.

Galaxy Research's Will Owens provides specific figures: he expects Polymarket's weekly trading volume to stabilize above $1.5 billion in 2026. This is not just speculation—prediction markets are among the fastest-growing sectors in crypto, with Polymarket's nominal weekly trading volume approaching $1 billion. The driving factors include: increased liquidity from capital efficiency layers, AI-driven order flow boosting trading frequency, and continuous optimization of Polymarket's distribution channels.

Ryan Rasmussen of Bitwise is even more aggressive: he predicts that Polymarket's open interest will surpass the historical high during the 2024 US election. The growth drivers are clear: open access for US users attracting new participants, approximately $2 billion in new capital inflows, and market categories expanding from politics to economics, sports, culture, and more.

Interestingly, even amid this wave of optimism, Galaxy issues a warning: federal investigations are likely to knock on the door. Although US regulators are gradually easing restrictions on on-chain prediction markets, trading volumes and open interest are soaring, bringing gray-area incidents—such as insider trading and fake sports league matches—already to light. Since prediction markets allow anonymous trading (unlike traditional gambling platforms with strict KYC), the temptation for insiders to abuse privileged information is greater. Future investigations may be triggered not by traditional gambling regulators but by anomalies in on-chain prices.

Privacy Coins: From Ideals to Institutional Needs

It is precisely from the discussion of prediction markets that the fifth consensus naturally emerges: privacy.

As more funds, data, and automated decisions go on-chain, the cost of exposure becomes unacceptable. This has become especially evident in 2025. Today, the privacy sector has become a dark horse, even outperforming mainstream coins like Bitcoin.

Galaxy Research's Christopher Rosa makes a strong prediction: by the end of 2026, the total market cap of privacy coins will exceed $100 billion. He notes that privacy coins gained massive attention in the last quarter of 2025, and as more investors allocate funds on-chain, privacy has become a top concern. Zcash surged 800% in that quarter, Railgun increased 204%, and Monero rose 53%.

An interesting historical note is that early Bitcoin developers, including Satoshi Nakamoto, had already explored privacy technologies. In early Bitcoin design discussions, some proposed making transactions more private or fully confidential, but at the time zero-knowledge proofs were not mature. Today, the situation is entirely different. Zero-knowledge proof technology is available, and on-chain asset values are continuously rising. More users—especially institutions—are seriously considering: do they really want all crypto asset balances, transaction paths, and fund structures to be permanently public? Privacy has shifted from an “idealist demand” to an “institutional-level practical issue.”

Mysten Labs co-founder Adeniyi Abiodun adds from another perspective: data. Every model, agent, and automation system depends on one thing—data. But most current data pipelines (whether for model inputs or outputs) are opaque, variable, and non-auditable. This is manageable for consumer applications but nearly impossible for finance and healthcare. When agent systems start browsing, trading, and making decisions, the problems become more severe.

Adeniyi proposes the concept of “Secrets as a Service.” Future needs will not be patchwork privacy features at the application layer but a complete native, programmable data access infrastructure: executable data access rules, client-side encryption, decentralized key management systems, to enforce who can decrypt what data, when, and for how long. These rules should be executed on-chain, not relying on internal processes or manual controls. Coupled with verifiable data systems, privacy can become part of the internet's public infrastructure, not just an add-on for individual applications.

Additional Observation: From Protocol Value to Application Value

Beyond these five major consensuses, almost all institutions mention another trend worth paying attention to, though it is not yet a universal consensus but very thought-provoking.

The rise of application-layer value is replacing the “fat protocol” theory. Increasingly, predictions believe that value is no longer accumulating on base chains and general protocol layers but is gradually flowing to the application layer. This does not mean the base layer is unimportant, but because the entities that truly interact directly with users, data, and cash flows are the applications themselves.

This has sparked a major debate: under the “fat application” trend, how will Ethereum, once celebrated as the “world computer” and “fat protocol,” evolve? Some say it will continue to serve as an important layer for tokenization and financial infrastructure; others believe it will gradually become a “boring but necessary” foundational network, with most value rising to the applications running on top.

For Bitcoin, most analyses expect it to perform well in 2026, with continued strength driven by institutional demand via ETFs and DATs, solidifying its role as a strategic macro asset and “digital gold,” though the threat of quantum computing still exists.