Crypto 2026: A Pivotal Year Opens the Central Role in the Financial System

After a year of intense volatility and constantly changing expectations, industry leaders in crypto believe that 2026 will not be shaped by a single “breakout moment.” Instead, the focus is on a slower but more fundamental shift: digital assets gradually integrating into core financial infrastructure, rather than existing only on the fringes of the market.

Through interviews and research reports from Coinbase, Matter Labs, CoinShares, Gate.io, Bitfinex, and Hashdex, executives describe a market that is “getting into gear.” The next phase of crypto is less about speculation and more about long-term structure, shaped by macroeconomic conditions, regulatory clarity, and operational systems at an organizational scale.

Synthesizing these perspectives, many leaders believe that 2026 could be the year crypto sheds its speculative image to assume a more sustainable role within the global financial system.

Infrastructure is the Focus

This shift is clearly reflected in the direction of developers and financial organizations.

Keith Grose, CEO of Coinbase UK, states that “the next generation of the internet is being built on onchain,” with programmable markets and increasingly blockchain-based financial transactions. He emphasizes the growing importance of onchain identity, payments, and verification layers.

CoinShares describes this trend as the rise of “hybrid finance”—where crypto-native infrastructure converges with traditional financial systems. According to the company’s outlook for 2026, digital assets are no longer operating outside the financial system but increasingly within it, from tokenized funds to blockchain-based payment rails.

Matter Labs shares this view. CEO and co-founder Alex Gluchowski predicts banks will adopt a “front-end business, back-end protocol” model: internal systems remain private and licensed, but net settlement or compliance verification will be based on public blockchain and zero-knowledge proofs.

According to leaders, crypto is not replacing traditional finance but being absorbed into it.

Regulation Keeps Pace with Technology

This integration process is heavily influenced by the legal framework.

CoinShares highlights disparities across major regions. In Europe, MiCA has provided legal certainty for issuance, custody, and trading. In the US, legislative momentum is increasing toward “opening the door,” despite regulatory agencies remaining fragmented. In Asia, centers like Hong Kong and Japan are moving toward cautious Basel-style standards aimed at institutional investors.

Hoolie Tejwani, Director of Coinbase Ventures, believes clear regulation is changing how the industry operates: when founders understand the law, they build more responsibly, and investors can commit capital with greater confidence. He suggests that a clear market structure could be a key catalyst for expanding applications in 2026.

Stablecoins are a crucial piece of this puzzle. Hashdex forecasts stablecoin market capitalization could double by 2026, from the current approximately $300 billion. The firm states that clearer legal frameworks—such as the GENIUS Act in the US—will position stablecoins as core financial infrastructure rather than niche payment tools.

Hashdex describes this as the emergence of “cryptodollars”: payment rails linked to USD deeply embedded in global commerce, even as some countries seek to diversify reserves outside of USD.

Matter Labs also predicts regulations will become more “programmable.” Gluchowski expects the emergence of jurisdiction-aware rollups that automatically apply different compliance requirements based on geography but remain anchored to a shared public blockchain. He notes that regulations around data residency, sanctions, and local licensing are fragmenting the “internet of money,” and this will be directly reflected in blockchain design from 2026 onward.

Tokenization and Stablecoin Rails

As legal frameworks mature, the focus in 2026 is expected to shift from experimentation to real-world deployment.

Paolo Ardoino, CEO of Tether, states that tokenization is approaching a common capital-raising tool role. Higher operational efficiency and broader accessibility will lead organizations to integrate blockchain into core products rather than treat it as a trial.

Hashdex forecasts that tokenized real assets could grow tenfold in the next year. CoinShares cites early examples like BlackRock’s BUIDL fund, JPMorgan’s tokenized deposits, and PayPal’s PYUSD—indicating that major institutions are beginning to build on public blockchain.

Omar Azhar of Matter Labs predicts a clear division of roles: stablecoins will dominate cross-border retail payments, while tokenized commercial bank deposits will handle institutional and treasury flows, enabling real-time payments and automated liquidity management.

For many leaders, the key question for 2026 is no longer about scale but whether tokenization will become a sustainable infrastructure.

AI Moves Onchain

Beyond finance, the industry also sees an increasingly clear—though still early—intersection between AI and crypto.

As AI systems become more autonomous, they are expected to rely on blockchain for identity, verification, and payments. Hashdex estimates the AI-crypto sector could reach a size of $10 billion in 2026, driven by decentralized computing, data provenance, and coordination markets.

While acknowledging that adoption is still limited, most believe that AI-driven demand will significantly influence infrastructure development and usage in the coming year.

Bitcoin as a Macro Benchmark

In this context, Bitcoin enters 2026 increasingly acting as a macro-linked asset rather than merely a speculative indicator.

BTC’s outlook heavily depends on whether US economic data confirms the Federal Reserve’s easing trend. With 2025 interest rate decisions behind us, markets are now focusing on inflation, employment, and consumption to assess liquidity improvement prospects for the upcoming year.

Bitcoin struggled to regain upward momentum at the end of the year and is trading around $87,600, about 6% below the opening level of 2025 at $93,300. This has led many banks and analysts to lower short-term forecasts. Standard Chartered has reduced its year-end 2025 target to $100,000, citing waning demand from corporate “digital asset treasuries,” leaving ETFs as the main source of increased demand.

Although revising its 2029 roadmap, Standard Chartered remains optimistic long-term, projecting $150,000 in 2026 and $500,000 by 2030.