Written by: Martin

CZ Zhao Changpeng stated at the 2026 Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos that after more than a decade of development, the current cryptocurrency sector has formed two mature industrial pillars: exchanges and stablecoins. The core of future growth will focus on three new tracks: tokenization, payment integration, and AI collaboration, injecting new imaginative space into the industry's development.

The mature landscape of exchanges and stablecoins has been validated by the market. Data from 2025 shows that the trading volume of perpetual contracts on centralized exchanges reached a historic high of $86.2 trillion, while decentralized exchanges saw a staggering 346% increase in related business, becoming the core hub of industry liquidity. The stablecoin market also performed impressively, with a year-on-year market capitalization growth of 48.9% to $311 billion. USDT and USDC have formed a dual oligopoly, not only supporting the core circulation of cryptocurrency trading but also beginning to penetrate into real economic scenarios such as cross-border payments and DeFi collateral, becoming a key bridge connecting traditional finance and the crypto world.

Based on this mature industry foundation, tokenization is seen as the first potential track. Zhao Changpeng revealed that he is currently promoting asset tokenization cooperation with about 12 national governments, involving fragmented financing of state-owned assets such as infrastructure and real estate. Countries like Pakistan and Malaysia are already on the communication list. This trend is not mere talk; by 2025, the global market size for tokenized assets is expected to approach $20 billion, with institutions like BlackRock and JPMorgan entering the field. The industry predicts that this scale may exceed $40 billion by 2026, becoming an important path for the digitalization of traditional assets.

The cross-border integration in the payment sector is accelerating. Zhao Changpeng emphasized that the backend integration of crypto payments and traditional payments will ignite market growth. There are already clear signals: the cost of cross-border transfers using stablecoins is only 3% of that of traditional correspondent banking models, and settlement times have been reduced from several days to minutes. In emerging markets like Argentina and Nigeria, the penetration rate of stablecoins is increasing by 200% annually. With the improvement of technological compatibility and regulatory frameworks, this efficient payment solution is expected to further penetrate retail consumption, cross-border trade, and other scenarios, opening a new phase of scale growth.

The collaboration between AI and cryptocurrencies outlines a more distant future. Zhao Changpeng proposed that cryptocurrencies will become the native currency for AI agents, which will directly use crypto assets for settlement when autonomously handling payment needs. This concept already has a technological foundation, with projects like Fetch.ai achieving on-chain autonomous collaboration of AI agents. The programmability and security of cryptocurrencies perfectly match the efficient and anonymous payment needs of AI agents, and there is potential for large-scale applications in scenarios such as smart grid scheduling and logistics automation in the future.

From mature industries to the rise of new tracks, the cryptocurrency industry is undergoing a transformation from scale expansion to value deepening. The three directions pointed out by Zhao Changpeng essentially represent a deep integration of technology and the real economy. With the advancement of government cooperation, the implementation of payment scenarios, and the iteration of AI technology, the cryptocurrency industry may usher in a more resilient development cycle.

免责声明：本文章仅代表作者个人观点，不代表本平台的立场和观点。本文章仅供信息分享，不构成对任何人的任何投资建议。用户与作者之间的任何争议，与本平台无关。如网页中刊载的文章或图片涉及侵权，请提供相关的权利证明和身份证明发送邮件到support@aicoin.com，本平台相关工作人员将会进行核查。