a16z прогнозирует, каким станет крипторынок в 2026 году на основе 17 ключевых идей a16z Predicts What the Crypto Market Will Be Like in 2026 Based on 17 Key Ideas

17 Key Insights from Company Experts

The cryptocurrency division of Andreessen Horowitz, known as a16z crypto, has unveiled its forecast titled “Big Ideas” for the year 2026. The experts have identified 17 fundamental insights that will shape the near future of cryptocurrencies and related technologies.

The company believes that the industry should primarily focus on “smart” in and out ramps for digital assets. The goal is to connect stablecoins with familiar payment systems. A new generation of startups is working on integration through QR codes, global wallets, and card platforms to facilitate everyday transactions in “stable coins.”

In less than 2025, the volume of transactions involving stablecoins reached a record $46 trillion, surpassing PayPal’s figures by more than 20 times and nearly tripling those of Visa, one of the largest payment networks globally, according to the authors. 

“As in and out ramp systems evolve, with digital dollars connecting directly to local payment systems and vendor tools, new behavior models will emerge. […] Stablecoins will transform from a niche financial instrument into a fundamental accounting layer for the internet,” the report states.

Tokenization will become increasingly “native.” According to a16z, instead of merely migrating traditional assets to the blockchain, “synthetic” versions in the form of perpetual futures will develop, offering deeper liquidity.

Furthermore, stablecoins will provide banks with more innovative solutions. Outdated financial systems will have the opportunity to adopt new technologies without the need for a complete overhaul of their technical architecture through asset integration.

Simultaneously, the internet will become a “bank.” a16z is confident that with the advent of AI agents, “value will begin to flow as quickly as information.” Blockchain and smart contracts will turn cash flow into an online habit, integrating the global network into the financial infrastructure.

“Smart contracts allow for payments across the world in mere seconds. However, by 2026, the popularization of foundational technologies like x402 will make calculations programmable and instantaneous: agents will promptly and permissionlessly pay for data, GPU runtime, or API calls—without invoicing, reconciliation, or batching,” the experts explained.

With the adoption of blockchain technology, capital management will become accessible to everyone. Tokenization and DeFi tools will automate complex investment strategies and portfolio management, lowering the entry threshold for average users.

In the era of AI agents, a key element will be the KYA system — Know Your Agent:

“Just as people require scores to obtain credit, agents will need cryptographically signed credentials to conduct transactions, linking them to principals and reflecting restrictions and responsibilities.”

Additionally, AI models are beginning to be applied for scientific discoveries and solving complex problems. This necessitates the creation of new infrastructure where autonomous agents interact with crypto technologies.

However, the growth of AI imposes a “hidden tax on the open internet,” fundamentally undermining its economic foundations. Data-scraping bots disrupt the advertising model for content monetization. To prevent the “erosion” of the online space, new mechanisms will need to be developed.

According to a16z’s forecast, privacy will become the most important protective barrier in cryptocurrency. In 2026, technologies will evolve allowing users to selectively disclose information for service access while maintaining confidentiality, such as confirming age without providing a date of birth.

The same applies to the near future of messaging. Messengers must shift towards decentralization.

“Communication does not require a single intermediary company. Open protocols are essential for messaging, necessitating no trust. The path to this involves network decentralization: no private servers, no separate applications, all source code open. This ensures best-in-class encryption, including protection against quantum threats,” the company stated.

The market is also showing a need for the emergence of a new service called Secret as a Service, which provides programmable, built-in data access rules, client-side encryption, and decentralized key management.

Blockchain security will become proactive. a16z believes developers should shift from analyzing error patterns to studying potentially vulnerable protocol properties at the design stage.

“Instead of audits and exploit detection, we will ensure compliance with key security properties in the code itself, automatically canceling any transactions that violate them. […] Thus, the once-popular idea of ‘code is law’ evolves into ‘specification is law,’” the authors elaborated.

With increased bandwidth, ZK systems will become consumer goods. Zero-knowledge proof technologies will increasingly be utilized in everyday applications to protect user privacy without requiring in-depth technical knowledge.

According to a16z, 2026 should be an exceptionally successful year for prediction markets. Such platforms will become key tools for decision-making in business and politics, as well as for risk hedging.

The company predicts the flourishing of a media market based on staking. A novel concept will be the advent of cryptographic tools that allow individuals and media outlets to publicly validate their claims.

“As AI makes the creation of unlimited content cheap and easy […], merely relying on the words of people (or bots) is no longer sufficient. Tokenized assets, staking, prediction markets, and transaction histories on the blockchain provide a more solid foundation for trust,” the company noted.

a16z believes that trading for crypto businesses is merely a waystation, not the final destination. There is nothing wrong with trading, as it serves a vital market function, but it should not necessarily be the end goal. Developers focused on the “product” aspect of their solutions may ultimately find themselves at a competitive advantage.

One of the biggest obstacles to the development of advanced blockchain networks in the U.S. over the past decade has been legal uncertainty. However, the country’s government is closer than ever to implementing regulations for the crypto industry, the authors emphasized. If relevant laws are enacted, they will stimulate transparency, establish clear standards, and replace the “roulette of law enforcement” with more explicit and structured regulations.

Notably, investment director at Bitwise, Matt Hougan, predicted a 10-20 fold growth in the digital asset market over the next decade. He referred to statements made by SEC Chairman Gary Gensler regarding the integration of finance and blockchain.