Source: a16zcrypto
Translation: Zhou, ChainCatcher
1. This year, we will see better, more sophisticated entry points for stablecoins
Last year, the trading volume of stablecoins was estimated to reach up to $46 trillion, continuously breaking records. To put this number into perspective: it is more than 20 times the transaction volume of PayPal; nearly three times that of Visa (one of the largest payment networks worldwide); and rapidly approaching the transaction volume of the US electronic financial transfer network ACH.
Today, you can send stablecoins in less than a second for less than a cent. However, the unresolved issue is how to connect these digital currencies with the financial systems people use daily—in other words, how to provide entry and exit channels for stablecoins.
A new generation of startups is filling this gap by connecting stablecoins with more familiar payment systems and local currencies. Some companies leverage cryptographic proofs to enable users to privately exchange local balances for digital dollars. Others integrate with regional networks, utilizing QR codes, real-time payment channels, and other features to facilitate interbank payments. Still, some are building truly interoperable global wallet layers and card issuance platforms, allowing users to spend stablecoins at everyday merchants.
These approaches collectively expand the scope of participants in the digital dollar economy and may accelerate the direct adoption of stablecoins as mainstream payment methods.
As these funding access channels mature, digital dollars will be able to directly integrate with local payment systems and merchant tools, leading to new transaction models. Workers can receive cross-border real-time payments. Merchants can accept global dollars without bank accounts. Apps can settle with users instantly anytime, anywhere. Stablecoins will shift from niche financial tools to the foundational settlement layer of the internet.
—— Jeremy Zhang, a16z Crypto Partner
2. This year, banks will introduce new payment scenarios
Today’s banks generally run software that modern developers find hard to recognize: in the 1960s and 70s, banks pioneered the adoption of large-scale software systems. The second generation of core banking software began in the 1980s and 1990s (e.g., Temenos GLOBUS and Infosys Finacle). But all these systems have become outdated, and upgrades are too slow. As a result, the banking industry—especially the critical core ledgers (the key databases used to track deposits, collateral, and other debts)—still often operate on mainframes, programmed in COBOL, interacting via batch file interfaces rather than APIs.
The vast majority of assets worldwide are stored in these decades-old core ledgers. While these systems are proven, trusted by regulators, and deeply integrated into complex banking operations, they also hinder innovation. Adding real-time payment features like (RTP) can take months or even years, requiring overcoming layers of technical debt and regulatory complexity.
This is where stablecoins come into play. Over the past few years, stablecoins have not only found product-market fit and entered mainstream markets but also, this year, traditional financial institutions are embracing them with a new attitude. Stablecoins, tokenized deposits, tokenized treasuries, and on-chain bonds enable banks, fintech companies, and financial institutions to develop new products and serve new customers. More importantly, they do so without forcing these institutions to rewrite their legacy systems—although aging, these systems have been reliable for decades. Therefore, stablecoins offer a new pathway for institutional innovation.
—— Sam Broner
3. We will see more original forms of stablecoins, not just tokenized ones
This year, we will see more “original, not just tokenized” stablecoins. Stablecoins have become mainstream last year; the number of unissued stablecoins continues to grow.
However, stablecoins lacking robust credit infrastructure resemble narrow banks, holding assets considered particularly safe and liquid. While narrow banks are effective products in themselves, I believe they will not be long-term pillars of the on-chain economy.
We see many new asset management firms, asset managers, and protocols beginning to offer on-chain lending services backed by off-chain collateral. These loans typically originate off-chain and are then tokenized. I believe that, aside from possibly distributing funds to users already on-chain, tokenization offers little benefit here. Therefore, debt assets should be generated on-chain, not tokenized after being created off-chain.
On-chain loan origination can reduce the costs of lending services and backend infrastructure, and improve accessibility. The challenges lie in compliance and standardization, but developers are already working to address these issues.
—— Guy Wuollet, a16z Crypto General Partner
4. We will see more real-world assets tokenized in a crypto-native way
Last year, we saw banks, fintechs, and asset managers show strong interest in bringing US stocks, commodities, indices, and other traditional assets onto the blockchain. However, as more traditional assets are tokenized, their tokenization often remains a form of physicalization—based on existing concepts of real-world assets, without fully leveraging the native capabilities of cryptography.
But synthetic products like perpetual futures (perps) can provide deeper liquidity and are often easier to implement. Perps also offer easily understandable leverage, making them, in my view, the most product-market fit among crypto-native derivatives. I also believe emerging market stocks are among the most promising assets for perpetual trading. (Some stocks’ zero-day expiry options markets often have higher liquidity than spot markets, making for an intriguing perpetualization experiment.)
All of this boils down to the issue of “privatization and tokenization”; but regardless, we should see more crypto-native RWA tokenization this year.
—— Guy Wuollet, a16z Crypto General Partner
5. More people (not just high-net-worth clients) will gain access to wealth management services
Traditionally, banks only offer personalized wealth management to high-net-worth clients: tailored advice across asset classes and personalized portfolios are expensive and complex. But as more asset classes are tokenized, crypto platforms enable strategies—combining AI-driven advice and assisted trading—to be executed and rebalanced instantly at very low cost.
This is not just smart robo-advisory; everyone can access active portfolio management, not just passive management. By 2025, traditional finance (TradFi) will increase its allocation to cryptocurrencies in portfolios (either directly or via exchange-traded products), but that’s just the beginning; by 2026, we will see platforms aimed at “wealth accumulation,” not just “wealth preservation”—fintech companies (like Revolut and Robinhood) and centralized exchanges (like Coinbase) will leverage their technological advantages to capture a larger share of this market.
Meanwhile, DeFi tools like Morpho Vaults will automatically allocate assets to the highest risk-adjusted return lending markets, providing core yield for portfolios. Holding remaining liquidity in stablecoins instead of fiat, and investing in tokenized money market funds rather than traditional ones, can further expand yield sources.
Finally, retail investors will find it easier to access less liquid private market assets, such as private credit, pre-IPO companies, and private equity, as tokenization helps unlock liquidity in these markets while meeting compliance and reporting requirements. As various components of balanced portfolios (ranging from bonds to stocks to private equity and alternative investments) are gradually tokenized, they can be automatically rebalanced without cumbersome wire transfers.
—— Maggie Hsu, a16z Crypto Marketing Partner
6. The internet will not only support finance but will become the bank itself
With a flood of agents entering the scene, more and more commercial activities are happening automatically in the background rather than through user clicks, requiring a change in how money (or value) flows.
In a world where systems no longer execute step-by-step instructions but operate based on intent—e.g., AI agents recognizing needs, fulfilling obligations, or triggering outcomes—funds will transfer automatically and instantly. Blockchain, smart contracts, and new protocols are emerging precisely in this context.
Smart contracts can currently settle global USD payments within seconds. By 2026, emerging primitives like x402 will make settlement more programmable and responsive: agents can pay data, GPU time, or API call fees instantly and permissionlessly—no invoicing, reconciliation, or batching needed. Software updates from developers will include built-in payment rules, limits, and audit trails—no fiat integration, merchant onboarding, or bank involvement required. Prediction markets will settle automatically in real-time as events occur—odds updates, agent trades, and global payments will clear within seconds, without custodians or exchanges.
Once value can flow in this manner, the “payment flow” will no longer be a separate operational layer but a network behavior: banks will become part of the internet infrastructure, and assets will become infrastructure. If money turns into routable data packets on the internet, then the internet will not only support the financial system but will itself become the financial system.
—— Christian Crowley and Pyrs Carvolth, a16z Crypto Marketing Partners
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