Crypto predictions for 2026: Validation of a revolutionary technology

In recent years, leaders from across the crypto sector have established the technical and regulatory foundations needed for long-term adoption. By 2026, this investment tends to pay off as a reliable infrastructure for digital assets and the expansion of use cases drives institutional demand, leading more banks, companies and providers to advance from pilot projects to full-scale operations.

This transition should manifest itself in four key areas: Stablecoins, OnChain assets, crypto custody and automation through artificial intelligence (AI). Each of them will contribute to a deeper integration of blockchain technology and digital assets into the global financial system.

Next, I present the main points of inflection that, in my assessment, will boost institutional adoption in 2026, with long-term implications for the Internet of value – a global network in which money moves as quickly and easily as information on the current internet.

Stablecoins: the standard for global settlement

Over the next five years, stablecoins should fully integrate with global payment systems — not as an alternative infrastructure, but as a key foundation. This change is already taking place in practice, with giants such as Visa and Stripe incorporating these trails directly into traditional flows.

In the United States, the approval of the Genius Act officially opened the digital dollar era. Stablecoins highly compatible with regulation and issued in the US — including the Ripple USD (RLUSD) — should become the gold standard for programmable global payments, 24/7, and serve as a critical source of collateral in modern financial markets. With the recent conditional approval of the Office of the Comproller of the Currency (OCC) for the creation of the Ripple National Trust Bank, we are not just following the rules, but setting a precedent for institutional compliance.

By 2027, it is reasonable to expect financial institutions to explore the potential of stablecoins regulated for full-time collateral mobility in use cases in capital markets. Although there are retail applications, the real growth engine is in B2B. Studies show that last year B2B payments became the biggest case of real use of the stablecoins, reaching an annualized volume of US$ 76 billion. This represents a significant leap from the beginning of 2023, when monthly B2B transfers with stablecoins did not exceed US$ 100 million.

The opportunity goes far beyond a faster settlement. Companies maintain unprecedented volumes of fixed working capital fixed capital — more than US$ 700 billion stopped on the balance sheets of S&P 1500 companies, in addition to more than €1.3 trillion in Europe. Stablecoins open the way to real-time liquidity, lowering loading costs and relevant cash flow efficiency gains. This set of factors explains why companies should lead the next wave of crypto adoption.

The institutional exposure to crypto becomes mainstream

Crypto assets have evolved from speculative instruments to an operational layer of modern finance. By the end of 2026, corporate balance sheets are expected to concentrate more than US$ 1 trillion in digital assets, and about half of Fortune 500 companies will have formalized strategies on digital assets — not just exposure to crypto, but active participation in tokenized assets, digital treasuries, stablecoins, onchain treasury bonds and programmable financial instruments.

The data already points in that direction. A Coinbase survey conducted in 2025 showed that 60% of Fortune 500 companies are actively working on blockchain initiatives. More than 200 public companies already retain Bitcoin as part of their treasury strategy. And companies focused on digital assets treasury grew from just four in 2020 to more than 200 today, with almost 100 created in 2025 alone.

At the same time, the ETF market is expanding rapidly. More than 40 crypto ETFs were launched in 2025, but together they still represent only 1% at 2% of the US total ETF market. This difference highlights the wide space for the growth of institutional participation.

As crypto exposure normalizes, capital markets tend to follow. In 2026, guarantee mobility should be consolidated as one of the main institutional use cases, with custodian banks and clearing chambers adopting the tokenization to modernize the settlement. The expectation is that between 5% and 10% of the settlement in capital markets, they migrate to the Onchain environment, driven by the regulatory advancement and the adoption of stablecoins by systemically relevant institutions.

The great consolidation of custody
The activity of mergers and acquisitions in the crypto segment signals maturity, not just growth. In 2025, the volume reached US$ 8.6 billion, driven mainly by institutional participation. The custody of digital assets should lead the next phase of this consolidation, as banks, service providers and crypto companies see custody as a catalyst for their blockchain strategies.

A clear pattern already begins to outline. Custody is becoming increasingly commoditized, which pressures independent providers to diversify their offerings or integrate into larger platforms, stimulating greater vertical integration. At the same time, regulatory requirements are leading banks to adopt multiple custodian strategies for risk mitigation. As a result, more than half of the world's 50 largest banks are likely to formalize at least a new custody relationship in 2026.

In addition, the merger and acquisitions activity in the sector goes beyond operations between native crypto companies. Last year, the sector has advanced significantly on traditional finances and fintechs, such as the purchase of NinjaTrader by Kraken and the acquisitions of Gtreasury and Hidden Road made by Ripple.

Attracting the next billion users — especially institutional — requires making the use of crypto radically simpler, more secure and deeply integrated with existing financial flows.

The convergence between blockchain and artificial intelligence

The deepest changes in finance rarely occur in isolation. By 2026, blockchain and artificial intelligence should converge increasingly, automating financial operations in ways that were impossible.

Stablecoins and smart contracts will allow treasuries to manage liquidity, perform margin calls and optimize returns on onchain repo- mercial agreements, all in real time and without manual intervention. Asset managers will use AI models combined with blockchain infrastructure to dynamically rebalance exposures to tokenized assets and stablecoin yield protocols, fully leveraging the uninterrupted nature of the OnChain markets.

Privacy will be a central element of this expansion. Zero knowledge evidence will allow AI systems to assess credit risk or risk profiles without exposing sensitive data, reducing frictions in credit operations and increasing the adoption of digital assets in regulated markets.

The intersection of these two revolutionary technologies will bring significant efficiency gains and put tools that operate at the speed of the internet in the hands of teams.

A decisive year for the institutional crypto

The sector has matured. And this time, the impulse comes from financial leaders focused on building for the long term.

Stablecoins will sustain the global settlement. Tokenized assets will become part of institutional balance sheets. Custody will be the pillar of trust. And blockchain — increasingly combined with artificial intelligence — will automate operations that today still limit markets.

Ultimately, 2026 should be remembered as the year in which crypto-assets have become a key part of the global financial infrastructure.