Written by: thedefinvestor
Compiled by: Plain Language Blockchain
Price movements aside, 2025 is a pivotal year for mass cryptocurrency adoption . Many say the industry hasn't progressed since the last cycle, but I think that's completely inaccurate. Take 2021, for example; cross-chain transactions often took several steps. Now, you can complete fund transfers in seconds using cross-chain aggregators like Jumper . Admittedly, the on-chain user experience (UX) is still imperfect, but the key is that DeFi is on the right track . In this installment, I'll share several DeFi trends and products that I predict will gain rapid momentum in 2026.
1. Consumer dApps in the retail model
That might sound plausible. Our goal has always been to attract **norms**, not speculators. The problem, however, is that almost every dApp so far has been designed for encryption, with a UX that's overly complex for the average internet user . Fortunately, this is changing. We're finally seeing new consumer-grade applications that leverage the advantages of encryption while delivering a seamless Web 2 experience . I'm closely following several projects they're focusing on:
Aave App: A mobile reset application built on top of AAVE that allows users to consume interest in a fully encrypted manner.
EtherFi Cash : A new crypto bank (Neobank) where you can spend cryptocurrency, book travel, save on asset gains, and make bank transfers.
DeFi App: An on-chain "all-in-one application" that provides the experience of a centralized exchange (CEX) for buying and selling tokens, trading perpetual contracts and financial statements (while completely abstracting away cross-chain and gas fees).
UR: A new crypto bank built by Mantle, boasting an excellent UX and supporting spending, wealth management, and bank transfers. I believe 2026 is highly likely to see several crypto consumer products go mainstream.
2. Non-USD stablecoins
Dollar-denominated stablecoins currently hold absolute dominance. While I expect them to continue growing, non-dollar stablecoins feel like a huge untapped market , especially given the anticipated 11% depreciation of the dollar against the euro by 2025. With trillions of dollars traded daily in the foreign exchange (FX) market , it would be foolish to assume there's no demand for non-dollar stablecoins. Currently, they face two main challenges:
Insufficient liquidity (leading to excessive slippage in large transactions).
DeFi has very little practical use. Once these issues are resolved, I expect one of the stablecoins, such as the Euro (EUR) and the Swiss Franc (CHF), to gain significant attention. Polygon is a project worth watching; they are working on on-chain foreign exchange payments.
3. In-depth experiments with tokenomics
Many projects launched buyback programs in 2025. While this proved wise in some cases (like Hyperliquid), large projects like Jupiter have stopped buybacks , and the impact of buybacks on price is negligible. My view is that 2026 will see a large number of projects trying to generate more value for their tokens through new experimental token economics . Regarding buybacks, even a retirement fund like Apple only uses a portion of its income for dividends, reinvesting the majority in the business for future growth . I think retirement funds are good, but using all income for retirement is not a good strategy . Besides the efficiency issue, another pain point is the selling pressure from 99% of tokens being released by internal holders, gradually pushing them to zero. Paradex proposed an efficiency-based team unlocking solution to address this problem, which is interesting. We may see more experiments in this area in 2026.
In summary, in addition to the trends mentioned above, I expect perpetual DEXs (Perps DEX), Real-World Assets (RWA), and market forecasts to continue their exponential growth. However, I believe these are already market consensus, so today I'd like to share some trends that I personally favor but which have received less discussion.
