1. Year of Tokenization: The year 2026 will be a turning point when Wall Street will fully start to tokenize real assets (real estate, bonds, etc.) on the blockchain. Regulators have given the "green light," and giants like BlackRock have already launched successful products (for example, BUIDL).
2. The return of ICOs: The Initial Coin Offering (ICO) model will return, but in a more mature form. Following the experiments of 2017 and the development of infrastructure (like the recent token sale of Aztec via Uniswap), public token sales will become a more standard and regulated way to raise capital for quality projects.
3. Hybrid DeFi will 'reach the speed of light': Traditional financial applications (neobanks like Coinbase) will massively integrate DeFi products, creating hybrid 'financial superapps.' This will become the main bridge to attract millions of new users into the crypto ecosystem.
4. The hype around robotics tokens: Following the hype around AI, the focus will shift to the robotics sector. This will trigger a wave of investments in relevant low-cap crypto tokens, as traders will look for ways to play into this narrative.
5. Intensification of discussions about quantum attacks: Although a full-fledged quantum computer capable of breaking modern cryptography is unlikely to emerge by 2026, the conversations about this threat will become much louder. The crypto community will start to prepare more actively for a future in which blockchains will require 'quantum resistance.'
In 2026, traditional finance (TradFi) and decentralized finance (DeFi) will finally stop being opposing camps and will start to actively merge, creating a fundamentally new hybrid financial system.