📌 3 KEY POINTS IN MESSARI'S 2026 FORECAST 1⃣ The Big Picture 2026: Where is Smart Money Going? According to Messari, if L1 doesn't see real user and revenue growth, money will flow to Bitcoin. BTC remains a "safe haven," while ETH will continue to follow BTC primarily. While it has institutional backing and corporate users, ETH is not yet strong enough to lead the cycle on its own. Meanwhile, stablecoins are what's truly changing the game. Following the GENIUS Act (2025), stablecoins will no longer be crypto toys, but will become a monetary instrument of the United States. Tether continues to dominate emerging markets, while the US and EU markets are being Chia upon by banks, Big Tech companies, Visa, PayPal, Google, and others. The total supply of stablecoins in 2026 could exceed $600 billion. A new layer is beginning to emerge: stablecoins for AI. AI agents will spend money and conduct transactions independently → Cloudflare, Google, OpenAI, and Stripe are all preparing the payment infrastructure for this world. 2⃣ Ethereum, Solana , and other chains: who does what? Ethereum is positioned by Messari as the central payment hub for large, institutional, and RWA funds. L2 handles transactions, but the L2 Token doesn't benefit much from it. Base is strongest in terms of revenue, Arbitrum is strongest in DeFi. Solana is completely different; he's the king of retail, the king of speculation, the king of memecoin. Where there's retail, there's Volume – Solana remains the main playing field. TRON remains a " USDT printing machine" in emerging markets. Messari believes TRON will remain very difficult to displace if it maintains its position as a central USDT trading platform. 3⃣ DeFi 2026: No More Scavenging Three trends: 🔸 DEXs are becoming super apps. They're not just swap services; they're integrating wallets, bots, launchpads, and subscriptions. Money is earned not just from transaction fees, but from controlling the entire user flow. 🔸Modular lending is gaining ground. Morpho is expected to gradually take market share from AAVE because: - risk separation - Serving RWAs, institutions, and new banks - acting as a “backend” for fintech 🔸 Stablecoins with real returns: - Yields come not only from bonds, but also from credit, AI, GPUs, real estate, and infrastructure. - Stablecoins that pay interest will become the default collateral and savings option in DeFi. ✍️ Qing (via @0xBitalk)