Five VCs Predict 2026 Crypto Investment Trends: "Investors Will Focus on Long-Term Visions of 5 to 10 Years"

In 2025, the scale of venture capital funding flowing into crypto companies exceeded $25 billion, a year-on-year increase of 73%. Looking ahead to 2026, five top investors predict that the industry will enter a mature phase.

Tejwani, an executive at Coinbase Ventures, pointed out that perpetual contracts will transform from purely speculative tools into synthetic markets for trading real-world assets like oil and inflation data. With the clarification of regulations such as the Genius Act, "2026 will be more about maturity than speculation," and investors will focus on long-term visions of 5 to 10 years.

Giampapa, a partner at Galaxy Ventures, predicts that stablecoins and tokenized assets will continue to grow, with large banks and asset management companies launching blockchain products. Conti from CV Labs emphasized that clearer regulations have facilitated institutional participation, with blockchain investments in emerging markets like Africa accounting for 7% of total venture capital.

Ren, founder of OKX Ventures, believes that investments will focus on areas that interconnect with traditional finance, and stablecoins will become the default track for salary payments and cross-border transactions. Martynov from Morningstar Ventures predicts that consumer-grade DeFi applications will be as easy to use as Revolut, and blockchain will become the verification layer for artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics, with technology ultimately achieving "invisibility."