Written by: imToken

To be realistic, much of the narrative in the cryptocurrency industry over the past few years can be summed up by an almost obsessive question:

“What is the next asset that will rise?”

Since DeFi Summer, NFTs, public chains / L2s, re-staking, meme tokens, and even AI tokens have all appeared in succession. The technical logic and market context of different narratives vary, but they ultimately revolve around how the price behaves. Even though stablecoins, wallets, and cross-chain bridges have clear tool attributes, the market’s attention on them often remains limited to how many transactions and speculative activities they can support.

However, entering 2026, a series of changes across different tracks began to emerge densely within the same time window:

• The total market capitalization of stablecoins reached approximately $300 billion, entering a high-level platform period of penetration into global payment networks;
• DTCC completed its first asset tokenization transition in a production environment and plans to officially launch the service in October;
• Prediction markets are moving from cryptocurrency-native products into brokerage firms and regulated exchanges;
• AI Agents are starting to autonomously purchase data, model calls, and digital services using stablecoins;

On the surface, these changes seem unrelated, but if we put them together, a more complete context emerges: the issuance, custody, trading, payment, and settlement capabilities accumulated by the cryptocurrency industry over the past decade are gradually shifting from serving cryptocurrency assets themselves to opening up to broader financial activities and the machine economy.

In other words, Crypto has not escaped speculation, but it is growing a more complete infrastructure beneath the speculative market.

1. Why did these breakthroughs happen almost simultaneously?

Objectively speaking, RWA, stablecoins, prediction markets, and AI Agents are not receiving attention at the same stage because a single hot narrative suddenly emerged.

The real reason is that different components required for a new financial infrastructure, after years of independent development, have finally begun to connect with one another.

1. Stablecoins turn currency into callable interfaces

First is stablecoins, which are no longer new, but their role is changing.

As is well known, early stablecoins mainly undertook tasks such as exchange pricing, on-chain hedging, and cryptocurrency trading settlement, with the vast majority of funds still circulating around the crypto ecosystem. Now, an increasing number of issuers, banks, payment institutions, and fintech companies are starting to use stablecoins for merchant payments, global payroll, corporate payments, fund collection, and cross-border settlements.

According to data disclosed by Circle in the first quarter of 2026, the annualized transaction volume of the network, based on nearly 30 days of transactions, reached approximately $8.3 billion, and the payment network of partner Nium covers over 190 countries and regions. This also means that stablecoins are no longer just “on-chain dollars” but a form of currency that can be directly invoked by software.

They can be transferred around the clock, embedded in programs, automatically released based on conditions, and can directly become settlement assets after transactions complete. Thus, for internet applications, sending a stablecoin is increasingly resembling a payment API call, without needing to understand agents, clearing times, and cross-border account systems, only needing to confirm the amount, address, and execution conditions.

This is a key change in stablecoins moving from a crypto trading tool to a payment infrastructure.

2. RWA turns assets into programmable objects

If stablecoins solve the question of "what money to settle with," RWA addresses "what assets can be traded and settled."

Past RWA products largely focused on areas such as U.S. Treasury bonds, money market funds, and private credit, with their core value being to allow crypto users to obtain off-chain asset yields. However, since last year, TradFi infrastructure has visibly started bringing securities registration, custody, trading, and settlement processes on-chain.

On July 15, DTCC completed tokenized asset transaction testing in an actual production environment, with participation from over 30 traditional financial institutions and digital asset companies, and plans to officially launch related services in October. Unlike ordinary asset mapping, DTCC plans for tokenized securities to retain all rights, investor protections, and equity arrangements corresponding to traditional securities.

Earlier, the U.S. SEC had already approved Nasdaq in March to allow eligible listed securities to be traded in tokenized form. Tokenized stocks use the same CUSIP as traditional stocks, possess the same substantive rights, and continue to trade under existing market systems and securities rules.

This is fundamentally different from simply issuing a “stock mapping token,” as it signifies that on-chain assets are beginning to attempt to connect with real ownership, custody relationships, corporate actions, and legal rights, undertaking a part of the traditional asset lifecycle.

Thus, as this layer of connection gradually establishes itself, blockchain does not only create new assets but also begins to carry a part of the operational processes of traditional assets.

3. Prediction markets turn future information into prices

Prediction markets complement the information and price discovery layer.

Equities trade on future corporate cash flows, bonds trade on credit and interest rates, while prediction markets trade on the probabilities of certain events occurring, such as election results, interest rate decisions, sporting events, corporate actions, and even product release timelines, all of which can be compressed into a continuously changing market price (extended reading: World Cup Celebration, Prediction Markets On the Table: How Do Polymarkets Break Through to the Masses?).

Robinhood disclosed that its prediction market business engaged over 1 million users in its first year, with approximately 9 billion contracts traded, and has acquired CFTC-regulated exchanges and clearing infrastructure. From an infrastructure perspective, prediction markets provide a capability that traditional financial markets find difficult to scale, which is consolidating information into a probability that can be read in real-time.

4. AI Agents start to become new economic actors

Stablecoins and RWA tackle asset and funding issues, while the new variable brought by AI Agents is who initiates economic activities.

Traditional software can only execute operations according to pre-set procedures, while Agents can understand goals, seek services, compare prices, and make decisions within a certain range of authority. When Agents can autonomously purchase APIs, they are no longer just information tools but begin to serve as new economic actors.

The challenge lies in that a large number of Agent payment amounts may only be a few cents or even lower, making traditional bank card fixed fees difficult to cover. Their fixed fees, settlement cycles, and identity verification processes are not inherently suited for high-frequency, low-value, automated machine payments.

This is exactly where stablecoins and low-cost blockchain can play a role.

Coinbase has integrated x402 and stablecoin wallets into AWS Bedrock AgentCore, allowing businesses to set budgets and governance rules for Agents; Google's Agent Payments Protocol records what users allow Agents to purchase, the maximum amounts, and who specifically initiates operations through encrypted signatures of authorization certificates (extended reading: A Panorama of Crypto AI Protocols: How Do We Build a New Operating System for AI Agents from Ethereum's Battleground?).

2. What capabilities does the next generation of financial infrastructure possess?

Overall, the reason these lines happened simultaneously is that they are originally different components of the same system.

Stablecoins turn currency into APIs, RWA turns assets into programmable objects, prediction markets turn future information into prices, and AI Agents allow software to directly engage in asset exchanges for the first time.

However, it is worth mentioning that determining whether Crypto is starting to become infrastructure does not imply judging whether speculation still exists in the market. Just like the stock, foreign exchange, and commodity markets also have significant speculative trading, the more crucial standard is whether external businesses and users have begun to rely on a set of technologies to accomplish tasks that were previously difficult, too costly, or inefficient.

According to this standard, Crypto and Web3, as the next generation of financial infrastructure, have initially formed multi-layered capabilities.

The first layer is asset issuance and mapping.

Now, what can enter the blockchain is no longer just native tokens. Stablecoins, treasury bonds, money market funds, private credits, gold, fund shares, and stocks have all emerged in different forms as on-chain products, and the significance of assets going on-chain is not merely placing a certificate in a wallet.

When assets can be recognized by smart contracts, they can directly enter collateral, lending, trading, fund management, and automated investment processes, compressing operations that were originally scattered among registrars, custodians, brokers, and clearing systems into a more unified execution environment.

The second layer is around-the-clock payments and settlements.

Traditional cross-border payments often require passing through multiple correspondent banks and are subject to operating hours, account systems, and regional network limitations. Stablecoins can enable value transfers that are nearly real-time and available around the clock under unified asset standards.

J.P. Morgan states that since its launch, Kinexys has processed an accumulated amount exceeding $4 trillion, with a daily average transaction volume exceeding $7 billion, and has expanded blockchain deposit accounts to various currencies including the U.S. dollar, euro, pound sterling, yen, Hong Kong dollar, Singapore dollar, and renminbi.

In simple terms, on-chain settlement does not necessarily require all funds to convert to publicly issued stablecoins; future could see the coexistence of bank deposit tokens, regulated stablecoins, central bank digital currencies, and on-chain commercial bank currencies, with their commonality being that funds can be read, dispatched by programs, and synchronized with asset deliveries.

The third layer is continuous trading and price discovery.

Crypto has proven that markets can operate around-the-clock and that liquidity can be automatically matched and managed using smart contracts.

This capability is being extended to more asset classes. Tokenized securities can shorten the time between trading and settlement, while prediction markets can provide probabilities for events that traditional finance finds challenging to directly price.

In the future, a company can not only hold on-chain money market funds but can also automatically adjust cash positions according to changes in interest rate prediction markets; AI Agents may simultaneously read asset prices, event probabilities, and liquidity situations to decide whether to execute transactions.

At that point, the market will provide not just quotes for people to observe, but a set of real-time signals that can be directly invoked by software.

The fourth layer is identity, permissions, and authorizations.

Financial activities are not just about transferring assets; they must also address a series of questions: Who initiated the transaction? Who has the authority? How long does this authorization last? What is the maximum amount? Who is liable if something goes wrong?

Early Crypto primarily answered these questions using private keys; holding a private key meant having full control. However, as corporations, institutions, and AI Agents enter the blockchain, a single private key evidently cannot meet the complex permission management needs.

Google AP2 uses verifiable authorization records for user intent; Visa is establishing an Agent identity directory, credentials, and scoring systems; Mastercard's Agent Pay for Machines attempts to provide identity authentication, permission settings, transaction, and settlement capabilities for machines.

Account abstraction, Passkeys, multi-signature wallets, session keys, and spending policies also allow users to delegate limited permissions to an application or Agent rather than relinquishing full account control directly.

This implies that the role of wallets may also change. Future wallets will not just store assets and private keys but will need to manage user identities, institutional credentials, Agent permissions, spending budgets, and authorization records, becoming a control interface for users to access the on-chain economy (extended reading: Web3 Wallets in the Decade: As AI's Cliff Edge Approaches, Insights into New Maps for Crypto Users).

The fifth layer is connecting with real legal and regulatory systems.

Whether a financial system can become true infrastructure depends not only on whether the technology can function but also on whether real laws recognize transaction outcomes.

In January 2026, the U.S. SEC issued a statement on tokenized securities, clearly distinguishing between tokenized securities issued directly by issuers, tokenized rights formed by third-party custody of underlying assets, and on-chain products that only offer synthetic price exposure. This distinction is crucial, as several products may look like "on-chain stocks," yet the legal rights held by the holders can differ completely.

The CLARITY Act seeks to further delineate the regulatory purview of the SEC and CFTC, establishing clearer rules around digital asset issuance, trading platforms, software developers, DeFi, and investor protections. The act is still contentious and has not yet completed legislation, but the regulatory focus has gradually shifted from “whether Crypto should exist” to “who can issue, who is responsible for custody, and what rules apply to which assets.”

This shift itself is an important signal of infrastructuralization because only when participants can broadly assess their legal responsibilities, banks, brokerages, asset management firms, and payment companies can make long-term investments rather than just conducting isolated pilot projects.

3. The Journey from "Speculative Market" to "Infrastructure"

Is Crypto transitioning from a speculative market to infrastructure?

The answer is yes, and this process is irreversible, yet it is not an either-or replacement process.

Crypto will not suddenly lose its speculative attributes due to stablecoin payments and the growth of RWA; more accurately, it is building an execution system that can be used by real assets, traditional institutions, and intelligent software beneath the original trading market.

This change is first reflected in the expansion of funding sources within the industry. In the past, a large volume of protocol revenue came from leveraged trading, asset issuance, clearing, and on-chain capital cycles, but now on-chain, a new kind of cash flow is beginning to appear from external economic activities: companies making cross-border settlements with stablecoins, funds distributing and managing assets through on-chain channels, software purchasing APIs on a per-use basis, and Agents automatically making payments for data and model costs.

Second, the participants in the on-chain economy are also broadening. The typical users of the past were human traders sitting in front of screens clicking “confirm” and “sign.” In the future, a large amount of on-chain interactions may be initiated by enterprise systems, payment programs, and AI Agents, with humans responsible for setting goals, boundaries, and permissions, while software completes specific implementations.

Regulatory discussions are also changing. Past debates mainly revolved around whether Crypto should be incorporated into existing financial systems; now, the questions are gradually turning into how to delineate regulatory boundaries, protect investors, and constrain intermediary institutions while preserving space for self-custody and open software.

However, the journey from “can operate” to “is worthy of long-term reliance” still has a long way to go for crypto infrastructure.

First, on-chain confirmation does not equate to legal finality. Who holds the underlying assets behind the tokens, whether investors can recover assets after the issuing institution goes bankrupt, whether different jurisdictions recognize ownership transfers on-chain, and what rights token holders actually possess, be it dividends, voting rights, or only price exposure, these questions cannot solely rely on smart contracts for resolution.

Agentic payments also face boundaries of liability. When an AI Agent executes erroneous transactions due to misinformation, prompt injection, or model hallucinations, it remains unclear whether responsibility lies with the user, model provider, wallet, or merchant; currently, there is a lack of mature handling mechanisms. In the future, wallets will need to address not just how to facilitate Agent payments but also how to define which assets it can use, who it can pay, the limit amounts, and how to pause and revoke permissions in case of anomalies.

Meanwhile, the more assets and networks involved, the more prominent the issue of liquidity fragmentation may become. The same stablecoin, fund, or security might be distributed across different public chains, bank ledgers, and permissioned networks, yet they may not circulate freely. The next focus, more crucial than continuing to issue more assets, is to establish unified asset standards, cross-network communication, and secure settlement mechanisms.

Privacy is also a crucial aspect for institutions' adoption. Public blockchains are conducive to verification and auditing, but enterprises would be reluctant to disclose all clients, suppliers, salaries, and fund flows. Finding solutions through zero-knowledge proofs, selective disclosures, and on-chain credentials to retain necessary privacy while meeting compliance requirements will directly determine how far on-chain finance can go.

The more fundamental issue is that while blockchains can improve transaction and settlement efficiencies, they cannot automatically create credit. Credit loans, insurance, accounts receivable, default remedy, and liquidity support in real financial systems require intricate risk control, legal, and liability frameworks. Prediction markets also do not resolve problems such as insider information, liquidity shortages, and outcome adjudication merely because prices are publicly disclosed.

Therefore, today’s Crypto looks more like a basic framework having been established for assets, currencies, transactions, and settlements, with credit, privacy, responsibilities, and legal finality still not forming a complete closed loop.

It is becoming infrastructure but is far from being a set of infrastructure that can be unconditionally trusted by everyone.

Concluding Remarks

Looking back, what is most noteworthy in 2026 is not a sudden explosion in any single track, but rather several pieces of the puzzle, which have independently developed in the past, beginning to connect at the same stage.

Assets have taken on on-chain forms, currencies have obtained programmable carriers, markets are beginning to offer around-the-clock pricing, software gradually gains payment and trading permissions, and regulations are moving from ambiguous gray areas to more specific boundary definitions.

These changes, while insufficient to prove that a "completely new financial system" has been established, are enough to indicate that Crypto's role is changing. It has not departed from the speculative market but is building a set of execution systems that can serve real assets, traditional institutions, and intelligent software beneath the speculative market.

Regardless, the Crypto industry has undergone 15 years of evolution and has finally taken a critical step from “a sociological experiment in digital gold” to “a high-frequency speculative casino,” and now towards “frictionless global financial infrastructure.”

In the next 15 years, let us continue to witness.