The 2026 Crypto Trends According to Six Executives at a16z: Stablecoins, Payments, RWA

Source: a16zcrypto

Compiled by: Zhou, ChainCatcher

1. This year we will see better and more clever entry points for stablecoins

Last year, the trading volume of stablecoins was estimated to reach $46 trillion, continuously setting new historical highs. To put this number into perspective: it is more than 20 times the trading volume of PayPal; nearly 3 times that of Visa (one of the largest payment networks in the world); and is rapidly approaching the trading volume of the U.S. electronic financial transaction 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 that 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 allow users to privately convert local balances into digital dollars. Others integrate with regional networks, using QR codes, real-time payment channels, and other features to facilitate interbank payments, while some are building truly interoperable global wallet layers and issuance platforms that enable users to spend stablecoins at everyday merchants.

These approaches collectively expand the range of participants in the digital dollar economy and may accelerate the direct application of stablecoins as a mainstream payment method.

As these funding access channels mature, digital dollars will be able to directly connect to local payment systems and merchant tools, leading to new transaction models. Workers can receive cross-border payments in real-time. Merchants can accept global dollars without needing a bank account. Applications can settle with users instantly, anytime and anywhere. Stablecoins will transform from a niche financial tool into the foundational settlement layer of the internet.

------ Jeremy Zhang, Partner at a16z Crypto

2. This year banks will launch new payment scenarios

Today's banks generally operate on software that modern developers find difficult to recognize: in the 1960s and 1970s, banks were among the first to adopt large software systems. The second generation of core banking software began in the 1980s and 1990s (e.g., Temenos's GLOBUS and Infosys's Finacle). However, all of this software has aged, and the pace of upgrades is too slow. Therefore, the banking industry—especially the critical core ledgers (key databases for tracking deposits, collateral, and other debts)—still often runs on mainframes, programmed in COBOL, and interacts through batch file interfaces rather than APIs.

The vast majority of global assets are stored on those core ledgers that have been in place for decades. While these systems are tried and tested, trusted by regulators, and deeply integrated into complex banking scenarios, they also hinder innovation. Adding key features like real-time payments (RTP) can take months or even years and requires overcoming layers of technical debt and regulatory complexity.

This is where stablecoins come into play. In recent years, stablecoins have not only found product-market fit and entered the mainstream, but this year, traditional financial institutions have embraced them in new ways. 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 not require these institutions to rewrite their legacy systems—systems that, while aging, have been reliably operating for decades. Thus, stablecoins provide a new avenue for institutional innovation.

------ Sam Broner

3. We will see more original forms of stablecoins, not just tokenized forms

This year, we will see more "original, not just tokenized" stablecoins, as stablecoins became mainstream last year; the number of unissued stablecoins continues to grow.

However, stablecoins lacking a strong credit infrastructure resemble narrow banks, holding liquid assets deemed particularly safe. While narrow banks themselves are an effective product, I believe they will not become a long-term pillar of the on-chain economy.

We see many new asset management companies, asset management institutions, and protocols beginning to offer on-chain asset-backed loans secured by off-chain collateral. These loans typically originate off-chain and are then tokenized. I believe that apart from possibly distributing funds to users already on-chain, tokenization here offers little other benefit. Therefore, debt assets should be generated on-chain rather than being tokenized after originating off-chain.

On-chain loan origination can reduce the cost of loan servicing and backend architecture, and improve the accessibility of loans. The challenges lie in compliance and standardization, but developers are already working to address these issues.

------ Guy Wuollet, General Partner at a16z Crypto

4. We will see more tokenization of real-world assets, but in a crypto-native way

Last year, we saw banks, fintech companies, and asset management firms show strong interest in bringing U.S. stocks, commodities, indices, and other traditional assets on-chain. However, as more traditional assets go on-chain, their tokenization often remains mimetic—still based on existing concepts of real-world assets without fully leveraging the native characteristics of crypto technology.

However, synthetic products like perpetual futures can provide deeper liquidity and are often easier to implement. Perpetual futures also offer easily understandable leverage, making them the most product-market fit in crypto-native derivatives. I also believe that emerging market stocks are one of the asset classes most worthy of perpetual trading. (The zero-day expiration options market for certain stocks is often more liquid than the spot market, making it an intriguing perpetualization experiment.)

It all boils down to the question of "privatization vs. tokenization"; nonetheless, we should see more crypto-native RWA tokenization this year.

------ Guy Wuollet, General Partner at a16z Crypto

5. More people (not just high-net-worth clients) will have access to wealth management services

Traditionally, banks only provided personalized wealth management services to high-net-worth clients: tailored advice and personalized portfolios across asset classes are both expensive and complex. However, as more asset classes are tokenized, cryptocurrency platforms enable strategies—combining AI recommendations and assisted driving features—to be executed and rebalanced instantly at very low costs.

This is not just smart advisory; everyone can access active portfolio management, not just passive management. By 2025, traditional finance (TradFi) will increase its allocation to cryptocurrencies in their portfolios (whether directly or through exchange-traded products), but this is just the beginning; by 2026, we will see platforms aimed at "wealth accumulation" rather than merely "wealth preservation" emerge—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 lending markets with the highest risk-adjusted returns, providing core yield allocation for portfolios. Holding excess liquidity in stablecoins rather than fiat currencies and holding funds in tokenized money market funds rather than traditional money market funds can further expand yield sources.

Finally, retail investors can now more easily access illiquid 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 the various components of a balanced portfolio (risk levels from bonds to stocks to private equity and alternative investments) are gradually tokenized, they can be automatically rebalanced without cumbersome operations like wire transfers.

------ Maggie Hsu, Partner of Marketing at a16z Crypto

6. The internet will not only support finance but will become the banks themselves

As agents flood in, more and more commercial activities are conducted automatically in the background rather than through user clicks, the way money (or value) flows needs to change.

In a world where systems no longer execute step-by-step instructions but operate based on intent— for example, when AI agents identify needs, fulfill obligations, or trigger outcomes, funds will automatically transfer— the flow of value must be as fast and free as today's information. Blockchain, smart contracts, and new protocols have emerged in this context.

Smart contracts can currently settle global dollar payments in seconds. However, by 2026, emerging primitives like x402 will make the settlement process more programmable and responsive: agents can pay for data, GPU time, or API call fees instantly and permissionlessly—without invoicing, reconciliation, or batch processing. Software updates released by developers will include built-in payment rules, limits, and audit trails—without the need for fiat integration, merchant onboarding, or bank intervention. Prediction markets will automatically settle in real-time as events occur—odds update, agent trades, and global payments will clear in seconds without custodians or exchanges.

Once value can flow in this way, "payment flows" will no longer be a separate operational layer but will become a network behavior: banks will become part of internet infrastructure, and assets will become infrastructure. If currency turns into data packets that the internet can route, then the internet is not just the backbone of the financial system; it itself becomes the financial system.

------ Christian Crowley and Pyrs Carvolth, Partners of Marketing at a16z Crypto

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