If 2024 is the "ice-breaking year" for ETFs opening the door to Wall Street, and 2025 is the "regulatory restructuring year" under Trump's new policies, then the recently concluded Consensus HK 2026 is writing a brand new script for this year.

We are about to witness an explosion of "Silicon-based finance," a close combat of "sovereign stablecoins," and Crypto bidding farewell to on-chain self-indulgence, moving towards invisible infiltration into the real world.

During the three days at the venue, when executives from the Solana Foundation and Binance shared the stage with the suited elites from JPMorgan and BlackRock, an extremely strong sense of division and integration surged forth. The era of the wild and untamed is over, replaced by a precisely operating financial machine driven by national power, decentralized technology, and silicon-based life.

Through sensing the emotions of over 11,000 participants and tracking dozens of closed-door meetings, the author summarizes the three major Crypto consensuses at the start of 2026:

Consensus One: No AI with Economic Independence can be considered Real Silicon-based Life

The definition of AGI is hotly debated in the tech community. However, a new consensus is forming in this arena: Without independent financial sovereignty, even the right to hold a bank account means that so-called AGI is, at best, just an advanced tool for humans.

The strongest震感 (shock) at the conference comes from an inversion of the subject-object relationship. The narrative thread is no longer "How can humans leverage AI for better trading," but rather "How does AI leverage Crypto to reconstruct production relationships"——they are autonomously issuing tokens on-chain, managing funds, and even starting to pay real human employees.

Whether it's the Rentahuman that exploded in popularity at the beginning of 2026 (AI hiring humans for offline errands) or the newly launched ERC-8004 protocol on Ethereum, cutting-edge hackers are working hard to close the loop on this "Silicon-based financial industry chain." Now, Ethereum, Base, Solana, and even Virtuals specifically designed for AI are fiercely competing for the same throne: to become the preferred underlying settlement network for silicon-based life.

This is not just a geek fest; it has also gained official endorsement. During the keynote speech at the conference, Hong Kong's Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury, Chan Mo-po, rarely and accurately depicted this vision: "As AI agents can independently make and execute decisions, we will see the early forms of a 'Machine Economy'—AI can hold digital assets on-chain, pay service fees, and trade with each other."

In 2026, the most active on-chain addresses will no longer be human whales, but tireless AI agents. Crypto is becoming AI's "native bank account," while humans are becoming AI's "meat API."

Consensus Two: Stablecoin Chaos, Hong Kong Fired the First Shot of the "Onshore Counterattack"

During this on-site visit in Hong Kong, I noticed a striking contrast: physical crypto exchange shops (OTC) sprang up like mushrooms after rain, yet the most prominent counters all had a "no soliciting" notice—completely stopping the sale of USDT, USDC, and other dollar stablecoins.

This is by no means a spontaneous action by merchants, but a long-planned "cleanup." On the main stage of the Consensus conference, Hong Kong's Financial Secretary, Chan Mo-po, revealed this riddle: "Hong Kong plans to issue the first batch of stablecoin issuer licenses in March this year."

Image: Cryptocurrency exchange in Hong Kong

This is an extremely keen signal in political economy. Just two weeks ago, the offshore king Tether had just bowed to U.S. regulators, launching the compliance version of the dollar stablecoin, USAT, in an attempt to silently take over Wall Street. Meanwhile, at this end of the globe, in a strong response to counteract the siphoning of liquidity from dollar stablecoins in Asia, Hong Kong has given the strongest answer.

This is no longer merely a Crypto compliance issue, but a fight for currency sovereignty between major powers. From the EU's MiCA bill completely banning non-compliant dollar stablecoins, to Hong Kong's "big move" set to launch in March, and the anticipated euro stablecoin to be officially released in the second half of 2026 led by ten major European banks, a clear line has been drawn.

Hong Kong is using both physical and legal means to cut off the circulation of offshore dollar stablecoins, paving the way for its own "regular army" (Hong Kong dollar / onshore stablecoin). In 2026, stablecoins will no longer be the chips of crypto casinos but the "digital nuclear weapons" of major power financial contests.

The intentions are clear. While the whole of Asia is frantically scanning USDT, Hong Kong has preemptively pressed the pause button. This is "cleaning up the house before welcoming guests," preparing the ground for the compliant Hong Kong dollar stablecoin to be fully launched in March.

Dollar stablecoins, Hong Kong dollar stablecoins, euro stablecoins, yen stablecoins…a stablecoin melee led by governments from various countries is set to officially unfold in 2026.

Consensus Three: Farewell to Self-Indulgence, Real Applications Leading to Mass Adoption are the Only Path

Whether it's Solana's Lily Liu or BitGo executives, everyone reached a rare consensus at the roundtable: the TPS (transactions per second) competition of L1/L2 is already meaningless, as infrastructure is seriously oversupplied.

The consensus for 2026 is: stop reinventing the wheel that only self-indulges Crypto insiders. The real winners are those applications that can invisibly embed Crypto into Web2 scenarios.

A typical paradigm shift is taking place:

1. Unobtrusive Integration: PayPal's PYUSD is not an island; its success lies in seamlessly reaching hundreds of millions of users through Venmo, returning payments to their roots.

2. Global Layout: Protocols like Aeon Pay integratively penetrate the payment networks of eight countries worldwide through on-chain QR code payments, with users even unaware of the existence of blockchain.

This trend has also received the endorsement of Vitalik Buterin. He has recently emphasized multiple times that the industry should stop "buying" user attention through token incentives and instead focus on the actual efficacy of applications.

Many practitioners believe that stablecoins, AI agents, prediction markets, RWA (real asset tokenization), and other sectors are undertaking the preliminary mission for Crypto's large-scale application—they are not isolated speculative targets but the underlying arteries connecting decentralized finance with the real world.

Epilogue: The Great Tide of 2026

The emotions conveyed by Consensus HK 2026 are calm yet brutal.

Crypto is entering a new phase.

It is no longer an era where writing a few lines of Ponzi code can lead to wealth. When the rearmored troops of old money enter the scene, and when AI agents begin executing trading strategies tirelessly 24/7, the window left for retail investors and traditional independent developers is closing.

But at the same time, the great maritime era of "Silicon-based finance" and "borderless compliant payment" is just beginning.

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