Crypto evolving into next-generation financial infrastructure in 2026

Article by imToken

To be honest, the majority of narratives in the crypto industry over the past few years can be reduced to an almost obsessive question:

What will be the next asset to rise?

Since the DeFi Summer, NFTs, public chains/L2s, restaking, memecoins, and even AI tokens have taken turns in the spotlight. While each narrative has its own technical logic and market context, all ultimately come down to price performance. Even stablecoins, wallets, and cross-chain bridges, which have clear utility functions, are often viewed by the market solely through the lens of how much trading and speculation they can support.

But after entering 2026, a series of changes across different sectors began to emerge densely within the same time window:

• The total market capitalization of stablecoins has reached approximately $300 billion, entering a mature phase of penetration into the global payment network;
• DTCC has completed the first asset tokenization conversions in a production environment and plans to officially launch related services in October;
• Prediction markets are transitioning from crypto-native products to brokerage firms and regulated exchanges;
• The AI agent begins autonomously purchasing data, model calls, and digital services using stablecoins;

These changes may appear unrelated on the surface, but when viewed together, they reveal a more comprehensive trend: the capabilities developed over the past decade in issuance, custody, trading, payments, and settlement within the crypto industry are gradually expanding beyond serving crypto assets themselves to support a broader range of financial activities and the machine economy.

In other words, crypto has not yet escaped speculation, but beneath the speculative market, a more complete infrastructure is steadily emerging.

Objectively, RWA, stablecoins, prediction markets, and AI agents are not being simultaneously noticed due to a single trending narrative.

The real reason is that the various components of a new financial infrastructure, after years of independent development, are finally beginning to connect with each other.

1. Stablecoins turn currency into an accessible interface.

First, stablecoins — they are no longer new, but the role they play is evolving.

It is well known that early stablecoins primarily served roles such as exchange pricing, on-chain risk hedging, and settlement of crypto asset transactions, with the vast majority of funds still circulating within the crypto ecosystem. Today, an increasing number of issuers, banks, payment institutions, and fintech companies are beginning to use stablecoins for merchant payments, global payroll, corporate payments, fund aggregation, and cross-border settlement.

According to data disclosed by Circle in the first quarter of 2026, the network's annualized transaction volume, calculated based on transactions over the preceding 30 days, reached approximately $8.3 billion, while Nium's payment network spans over 190 countries and regions, indicating that stablecoins here are no longer merely "on-chain dollars," but a form of currency directly accessible via software.

It can be transferred 24/7, embedded into programs, automatically released based on conditions, and directly become settlement assets after a transaction is completed. For internet applications, sending a stablecoin is becoming increasingly like calling a payment API—no need to understand correspondent banks, clearing times, or cross-border account systems; just confirm the amount, address, and execution conditions.

This is also a key shift in stablecoins evolving from a crypto trading tool into a payment infrastructure.

2. RWA turns assets into programmable objects

If stablecoins address the question of "what money to settle with," RWA addresses the question of "what assets can be traded and settled."

Past RWA products were primarily concentrated in areas such as U.S. Treasuries, money market funds, and private credit, with their core value being to enable crypto users to earn yields from off-chain assets. However, since last year, TradFi infrastructure has visibly begun actively moving securities registration, custody, trading, and settlement onto the chain.

On July 15, DTCC completed a tokenized asset trading test in a live production environment, with over 30 traditional financial institutions and digital asset companies participating, and plans to officially launch the related services in October. Unlike standard asset mapping, DTCC intends for tokenized securities to retain all ownership rights, investor protections, and entitlement arrangements associated with their traditional securities counterparts.

Previously, the U.S. SEC approved Nasdaq in March to allow eligible listed securities to trade in tokenized form. Tokenized stocks use the same CUSIP as traditional stocks, carry identical substantive rights, and continue to trade within the existing market infrastructure and securities regulations.

This is fundamentally different from simply issuing a "stock-mapped token"; it means on-chain assets are beginning to connect with real ownership, custody relationships, corporate actions, and legal rights, and are starting to carry part of the lifecycle of traditional assets.

Thus, as this layer of connectivity gradually builds, blockchains begin not only to create new assets but also to support parts of the operational processes of traditional assets.

3. Prediction markets turn future information into prices

The prediction market fills the information and price discovery layer.

Stocks trade on a company’s future cash flows, bonds trade on credit and interest rates, and prediction markets trade on the probability of an event occurring—whether it’s election outcomes, interest rate decisions, sports events, corporate announcements, or product launch dates—all compressed into a continuously changing market price. (Further reading: “World Cup Frenzy: How Prediction Markets Like Polymarket Are Breaking Into the Mainstream”)

Robinhood disclosed that its prediction market business attracted over 1 million users in its first year, with approximately 9 billion contracts traded cumulatively. It has acquired a CFTC-regulated exchange and clearing infrastructure. From an infrastructure perspective, prediction markets provide a capability that traditional financial markets struggle to scale, and they are soon transforming dispersed information into a real-time readable probability.

4. AI agents are beginning to emerge as new economic actors

Stablecoins and RWA address asset and funding issues, while the new variable introduced by AI agents is who initiates economic activity.

Traditional software can only execute operations according to pre-set workflows, while Agents can understand goals, locate services, compare prices, and make decisions within defined permissions. When an Agent can autonomously purchase APIs, it is no longer merely an information tool—it also becomes a new economic actor.

The issue is that many Agent payment amounts may be only a few cents or even less, making traditional bank card fixed fees difficult to cover; their fixed fees, settlement cycles, and identity verification processes are not inherently suited for high-frequency, low-value, automated machine payments.

This is precisely the scenario where stablecoins and low-cost blockchains can make a difference.

Coinbase has integrated x402 and stablecoin wallets with AWS Bedrock AgentCore, enabling enterprises to set budgets and governance rules for agents; Google’s Agent Payments Protocol uses cryptographically signed authorization credentials to record what users permit agents to purchase, spending limits, and who initiated each action (further reading: Comprehensive Overview of Crypto AI Protocols: How to Build a New Operating System for AI Agents Starting from Ethereum’s Core Battlefield?).

Overall, these lines occur simultaneously precisely because they are different components of the same system.

Stablecoins turn currency into an API, RWA turns assets into programmable objects, prediction markets turn future information into prices, and AI agents enable software to participate directly in asset exchange for the first time.

However, it is worth noting that determining whether crypto is becoming infrastructure does not mean assessing whether speculation still exists in the market. Just as stock, forex, and commodities markets also have significant speculative activity, the more important criterion is whether external businesses and users are beginning to rely on a set of technologies to accomplish tasks that were previously difficult, too costly, or inefficient.

According to this standard, Crypto and Web3 as the next-generation financial infrastructure have already established multi-layered capabilities.

The first layer is asset issuance and mapping.

Now, more than just native tokens can enter the chain. Stablecoins, government bonds, money market funds, private credit, gold, fund shares, and stocks have all emerged in various on-chain forms, and the significance of bringing various assets on-chain goes far beyond simply placing a certificate into a wallet.

When assets are recognizable by smart contracts, they can directly enter processes such as collateralization, lending, trading, asset management, and automated investing, allowing operations previously scattered across registries, custodians, brokers, and clearing systems to be consolidated into a more unified execution environment.

The second layer is 24/7 payments and settlements.

Traditional cross-border payments typically require multiple correspondent banks and are subject to business hours, account system restrictions, and regional network limitations, whereas stablecoins enable near-real-time, 24/7 value transfer under a unified asset standard.

J.P. Morgan stated that since its launch, Kinexys has processed over $4 trillion in cumulative volume, with daily average transaction volumes exceeding $7 billion, and has expanded blockchain deposit accounts to support multiple currencies including USD, EUR, GBP, JPY, HKD, SGD, and CNY.

In short, on-chain settlement does not necessarily require all funds to be converted into publicly issued stablecoins; in the future, bank deposit tokens, regulated stablecoins, central bank digital currencies, and on-chain commercial bank money may coexist, all sharing the common feature that funds can be read and orchestrated by programs and settled synchronously with asset delivery.

The third layer is continuous trading and price discovery.

Crypto has proven that markets can operate 24/7 and can automatically match and manage liquidity through smart contracts.

This capability is being extended to more asset classes. Tokenized securities can reduce the time between trading and settlement, while prediction markets can provide probabilities for events that traditional finance struggles to price directly.

In the future, a company will not only be able to hold on-chain money market funds but also automatically adjust its cash positions based on interest rate predictions; AI agents may also simultaneously analyze asset prices, event probabilities, and liquidity conditions to decide whether to execute trades.

At that time, the market will no longer offer just quotes for viewing, but a set of real-time signals that can be directly invoked by software.

The fourth layer is identity, permissions, and authorization.

Financial activities involve more than just transferring assets—they must also answer a series of questions: Who initiated the transaction? Who has authorization? How long does this authorization last? What is the upper limit on the amount? And who is responsible if something goes wrong?

In the early days of crypto, these questions were primarily answered through private keys—holding a private key meant full control. But as enterprises, institutions, and AI agents entered the chain, a single private key clearly cannot meet the demands of complex permission management.

Google AP2 uses verifiable authorization to record user intent; Visa is building an agent identity directory, credentials, and scoring system; Mastercard’s Agent Pay for Machines aims to provide machines with identity authentication, permission setting, transaction, and settlement capabilities.

Account abstraction, passkeys, multisig wallets, session keys, and spending policies allow users to grant limited permissions to an application or agent without handing over full control of their account.

This means the role of wallets may also evolve. Future wallets will not only store assets and private keys but also manage user identities, institutional credentials, agent permissions, spending budgets, and authorization records, becoming a control interface for users entering the on-chain economy. (Further reading: Decade of Web3 Wallets: As the AI Tipping Point Accelerates, Mapping the New Landscape of Crypto Users)

The fifth layer connects to real-world legal and regulatory systems.

Whether a financial system can become true infrastructure depends not only on whether the technology can operate, but also on whether real-world laws recognize the outcomes of transactions.

In January 2026, the U.S. SEC issued guidance on tokenized securities, clearly distinguishing between tokenized securities issued directly by issuers, tokenized interests formed by third parties holding underlying assets, and on-chain products that provide only synthetic price exposure. This distinction is critical because several of these products may appear similar to "on-chain stocks," yet the actual legal rights held by investors may differ significantly.

The CLARITY Act seeks to further delineate the regulatory boundaries between the SEC and the CFTC, establishing clearer rules around digital asset issuance, trading platforms, software developers, DeFi, and investor protection. The bill remains controversial and has not yet been enacted into law, but regulatory focus has gradually shifted from “whether crypto should be allowed to exist” to “who can issue, who is responsible for custody, and which rules apply to which assets.”

This shift itself is a key signal of infrastructure development, as only when participants can reasonably assess their legal responsibilities will banks, broker-dealers, asset managers, and payment companies make long-term investments rather than isolated pilot projects.

Is crypto moving from a speculative market to infrastructure?

The answer is yes, and this process is irreversible, but it is not an either-or replacement.

Crypto won't suddenly lose its speculative nature due to stablecoin payments and RWA growth; rather, it is building beneath the existing trading market a system that can be used by real-world assets, traditional institutions, and intelligent software together.

This change is first evident in the expansion of industry funding sources. Previously, the majority of protocol revenue came from leveraged trading, asset issuance, liquidations, and on-chain fund circulation. Today, a second category of cash flow is emerging on-chain from external economic activities: businesses using stablecoins for cross-border settlements, funds distributing and managing assets via on-chain channels, software purchasing APIs on a pay-per-use basis, and agents automatically paying for data and model fees.

Second, the participants in on-chain economics are also expanding. In the past, typical users were human traders sitting in front of screens clicking “confirm” and “sign”; in the future, a large volume of on-chain interactions will likely be initiated by enterprise systems, payment programs, and AI agents, with humans setting goals, boundaries, and permissions, while software handles the specific execution.

Regulatory discussions are also evolving. Past debates focused primarily on whether crypto should be integrated into the existing financial system; the question is now shifting toward how to define regulatory boundaries, protect investors, constrain intermediaries, while preserving space for self-custody and open-source software.

However, there is still a long way to go from “can run” to “worthy of long-term reliance” in cryptocurrency infrastructure.

On-chain confirmation does not equate to legal finality. Questions such as who holds the assets underlying the tokens, whether investors can recover those assets if the issuing entity goes bankrupt, whether different jurisdictions recognize on-chain transfers of ownership, and whether token holders have rights to dividends, voting, or merely price exposure cannot be resolved by smart contracts alone.

Agentic payments also face unclear boundaries of responsibility. When an AI Agent executes an incorrect transaction due to inaccurate information, prompt injection, or model hallucinations, it remains unresolved whether responsibility lies with the user, the model provider, the wallet, or the merchant. In the future, wallets must address not only how to enable Agent payments, but also how to define which assets the Agent can use, to whom it can pay, what limits apply, and how to pause or revoke permissions in case of anomalies.

At the same time, the more assets and networks there are, the more pronounced the issue of liquidity fragmentation may become. The same stablecoin, fund, or security can be distributed across different public blockchains, bank ledgers, and permissioned networks, yet may not be freely interoperable. The next phase is more about establishing unified asset standards, cross-network communication, and secure settlement mechanisms than simply issuing more assets.

Privacy is also an essential part of institutional adoption. While public blockchains facilitate verification and auditing, enterprises are unwilling to disclose all customer, supplier, payroll, and fund flow information. How to balance compliance requirements with necessary privacy using zero-knowledge proofs, selective disclosure, and on-chain credentials will directly determine how far on-chain finance can go.

A more fundamental issue is that while blockchain can improve transaction and settlement efficiency, it cannot automatically create credit. Credit lending, insurance, accounts receivable, default resolution, and liquidity support in real financial systems all require complex risk control, legal, and accountability frameworks. Prediction markets also will not naturally resolve issues such as insider information, insufficient liquidity, or outcome adjudication simply because prices are public.

Thus, today’s crypto has established the foundational framework for assets, currency, trading, and settlement, but credit, privacy, accountability, and legal finality have yet to form a complete闭环.

It is becoming infrastructure, but it is still far from being a set of infrastructure that everyone can unconditionally trust.

Looking back, what will be most noteworthy in 2026 is not a single sector suddenly exploding, but several previously separate pieces of the puzzle beginning to connect at the same stage.

Assets have taken on on-chain forms, currencies have acquired programmable carriers, markets now offer round-the-clock pricing, software is gradually gaining payment and transaction permissions, and regulation is moving from ambiguous gray areas toward clearer boundary definitions.

These changes are not yet sufficient to prove that a "new financial system" has been established, but they are enough to show that Crypto's role is evolving—it has not left the speculative market, but is gradually building an execution system beneath it that can be used by real assets, traditional institutions, and intelligent software.

Regardless, the crypto industry, after 15 years of evolution, has taken its most critical step—from a sociological experiment of "digital gold"—to a "high-frequency speculative casino"—and now toward a "frictionless global financial infrastructure."

Let’s continue to witness the next 15 years.