[Twitter threads] Year-End Review: 2026 Predictions from Crypto Builders and Traders

Chainfeeds Summary:

As the year draws to a close, the Castle Labs team has gathered a series of perspectives and predictions from several friends to reflect on the past and look to the future.

Article source:

https://x.com/castle_labs/status/2003497236211093874

Article Author:

Castle Capital

Opinion:

Francesco: There are only a few narratives I really strongly believe in. The first is robotics. Not looking at robotics in isolation, but because I think it has a potential regulatory tailwind. Trump has announced that he may launch a robotics strategy through executive order in 2026. Another judgment is that everyone needs to bring their investment framework closer to traditional finance (TradFi). I think 2026 will be the year when protocols that operate like businesses rebuild their moats and continue to deeply embed themselves in the global financial system. I also expect criminal activity in prediction markets to persist, and insider trading will only increase. The fact that Trump family companies are personally involved in prediction markets sends a very clear signal. In addition, AI will continue to grow: on the one hand, it will continue to replace existing processes, and on the other hand, it will highlight threats to privacy, identity, and other aspects. Therefore, AI itself will become an increasingly serious problem. In this context, solutions like Worldcoin's Proof of Identity will become increasingly important and may spawn new innovations, such as unsecured lending based on on-chain reputation and tied to real-world identities. Therefore, I expect 2026 to remain a year of maturation and reflection. However, it is important to emphasize that all of this cannot occur independently of the macroeconomic and geopolitical context.

Atomist: Zero-knowledge proofs (ZK) will become a core component of the global digital infrastructure, but not necessarily in the form of cryptocurrencies or blockchain. It will enter the Web2 world to address the massive data liability crisis, supporting privacy-preserving identities, secure logins, and verifiable AI. Any team that can develop a legitimate and widely accepted on-chain transaction privacy solution will achieve tremendous success. This is a prerequisite for the large-scale on-chain deployment of corporate and institutional funds. The market will also gradually realize that cryptocurrency is a crucial missing track in the robotics economy. The humanoid robot market is projected to reach $5 trillion by 2050, but it faces a massive data hurdle; robots cannot be trained as easily as LLMs. 2025 has proven that DePIN/DePAI is the only way to scale up and accelerate robot training. Through tokenized incentives, we can mobilize global participants to collect the motion and environmental data needed for physical AI. Cryptography will no longer be just a financial tool; it will become the coordinating layer of the machine economy.

Schizoxbt: I believe 80% of Altcoin and public chains will eventually go to zero. The reason is simple: a terrible token economics model + a product nobody really needs will ultimately become an uninvestable asset. Memecoins should also disappear like the dodo; they are probably one of the dumbest inventions in the industry. Meanwhile, I think DeFi will have a real resurgence in 2026. As institutions and TradeFi move onto the blockchain more extensively, DeFi protocols, which are the closest assets to stocks/investable companies in our industry, will be the biggest winners. If institutional funds really flow in on a large scale, we might see DeFi TVL take off, with token prices soaring. The privacy sector had a small boom before, but it quickly cooled down. I think it will make a strong comeback in 2026 and become a long-term main narrative. I also hope to see more discussion about token economics and token holder rights. The current token model is generally terrible and really needs innovation. [Original text in English]