Source: Delphi Digital
Original title: 10 Predictions for 2026
Compiled and edited by: BitpushNews
Perpetual contract exchanges ( Perp DEXs ) will become the new Wall Street; AI agents will enable autonomous trading; exchanges will evolve into "Everything Apps".
Here are 10 key predictions from our 2026 annual report:
1. AI agents begin to achieve autonomous trading.
The x402 protocol allows any API to manage access via cryptographic payments. When an AI agent needs a service, it can instantly pay with stablecoins, without a shopping cart or subscription. The ERC-8004 standard adds trust by creating a reputation registry for the agent (containing historical performance data and pledged collateral).
Combining the two, you get the autonomous agent economy. Users can delegate a travel planning agent, which automatically subcontracts the data to a flight search agent (paying data fees via x402), and then complete the booking on-chain—the entire process requires no human intervention.
2. Perpetual contract exchanges (Perp DEXs) are devouring traditional finance.
Traditional finance (TradFi) is expensive because of its fragmented structure: transactions take place on exchanges, settlements are handled by clearinghouses, and custody is provided by banks. Blockchain, on the other hand, compresses all of this into a single smart contract.
Currently, Hyperliquid is building native lending functionality. Perpetual contract exchanges may simultaneously act as brokers, exchanges, custodians, banks, and clearinghouses. Competitors such as @Aster_DEX, @Lighter_xyz, and @paradex are also rapidly catching up.
3. Predicting the market's rise to traditional financial infrastructure
Thomas Peterffy, chairman of Interactive Brokers, defines the forecasting market as a real-time information layer for portfolios. Interactive Brokers' early demand focused on weather contracts related to energy, logistics, and insurance risks.
2026 will usher in new categories: stock event markets targeting earnings surprises and guidance ranges; macroeconomic indicator markets such as CPI and Fed decisions; and cross-asset relative value markets. Traders holding tokenized Apple stock (AAPL) can hedge earnings risk through simple binary contracts without having to study complex options. Prediction markets will become a "first-class citizen" level of derivatives.
4. The ecosystem reclaims stablecoin rewards from the issuer.
Last year, Coinbase captured over $900 million in USDC reserve revenue simply by controlling the issuance channels. Public chains like Solana, BSC, Arbitrum, Aptos, and Avalanche generate approximately $800 million in total annual transaction fee revenue, but their networks carry over $30 billion in USDC and USDT. This means that the revenue that platforms driving stablecoin adoption are giving to issuers is actually more than the transaction fees they earn.
Now, this is changing. Hyperliquid ran a competitive bidding process for USDH and now captures half of the reserve yields for its bailout fund. Ethena's "stablecoin-as-a-service" model is being adopted by Sui, MegaETH, and Jupiter. The yields that were previously passively enjoyed by established issuers are now being reclaimed by platforms that create demand.
5. DeFi Conquers Unsecured Loans
While DeFi lending protocols boast billions of dollars in total value locked (TVL), almost all require over-collateralization. zkTLS (Zero-Knowledge Transport Layer Security) will open a new door. Users can prove their bank balance exceeds a certain amount without revealing their account number, transaction history, or real identity.
@3janexyz provides instant, unsecured USDC lines of credit using verified Web2 financial data. The algorithm monitors borrowers in real time and dynamically adjusts interest rates. The same framework can also be used to credit AI agents based on their historical performance as a "credit score." @maplefinance, @centrifuge, and @USDai_Official are also working on similar initiatives.
2026 will be the year that unsecured loans move from experimentation to infrastructure.
6. Finding a suitable fit for on-chain FX
While USD stablecoins account for 99.7% of the total supply, this may have already peaked. Traditional foreign exchange (FX) is a multi-trillion dollar market, yet it is riddled with intermediaries, fragmented settlement paths, and exorbitant fees. On-chain FX compresses the entire architecture by eliminating multiple intermediaries by converting all currencies into tokenized assets on a shared execution layer.
The Product-Market Fit (PMF) may emerge in emerging market currency pairs where the traditional FX pathway is most expensive and inefficient. These overlooked corridors are precisely where the value proposition of cryptocurrencies is most clearly defined.
7. Gold and Bitcoin lead the way in "fiat currency devaluation hedging" trades.
Gold surged 60% after we pointed out it was one of the most noteworthy charts. Despite record prices, global central banks have still purchased over 600 tons, with China being the most aggressive buyer.
The macroeconomic environment supports its continued strength: global central banks are cutting interest rates; fiscal deficits will continue until 2027; global M2 supply is hitting new highs; and the Federal Reserve is ending its quantitative easing (QT) program. Gold typically leads Bitcoin by three to four months. With currency devaluation becoming a major topic in the 2026 midterm elections, both assets will attract flight-to-quality capital flows.
8. Exchanges have evolved into "Everything Apps".
Coinbase, Robinhood, Binance, and Kraken are no longer just building exchanges; they are building all-in-one applications.
Coinbase has Base as its operating system, the Base App as its interface, USDC revenue as its underlying profit, and Deribit as its derivatives platform. Robinhood's Gold membership grew by 77% year-over-year, becoming a retention engine. Binance already operates at super-app scale, boasting over 270 million users and $250 billion in payment transactions. As distribution costs become cheaper, value will converge on platforms with users. By 2026, the winners will begin to emerge.
9. Privacy infrastructure catches up with demand.
Privacy rights are under pressure. The EU has passed the Chat Control Act; cash transactions are capped at €10,000; and the European Central Bank's planned digital euro will have a €3,000 holding limit.
Privacy infrastructure is catching up. @payy_link is launching privacy-encrypting cards; @SeismicSys provides protocol-level encryption for fintech companies; @KeetaNetwork has implemented on-chain KYC without disclosing personal data; and @CantonNetwork provides privacy infrastructure support for large financial institutions. Without a privacy path, stablecoin adoption will hit a ceiling.
10. Altcoin returns remain diversified.
The kind of "broad-based" recovery seen in past cycles will no longer exist.
Over $3 billion worth of tokens are about to be unlocked. Competition from the AI, robotics, and biotechnology industries is also intensifying. ETF inflows are highly concentrated in Bitcoin and a few large-cap assets.
Capital will converge on structural needs: tokens with ETF funding flows, protocols with real revenue and buyback agreements, and applications with genuine product-market fit. Winners will be concentrated in teams that can build defensive moats in categories that generate real economic activity.
Summarize
The crypto industry is entering its next phase. Institutionalization has arrived. Prediction markets, on-chain credit, agent economics, and stablecoins as infrastructure represent a true paradigm shift.
Cryptocurrencies are becoming the infrastructure layer of global finance. Those teams that understand this will define the next decade.
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