Delphi Digital 2026 Top 10 Predictions: AI Agents Autonomous Trading, Perp DEX Becomes the New Wall Street

Delphi Digital Releases 2026 Outlook Report with Top 10 Key Predictions. The report states that AI agents will achieve autonomous trading through x402 and ERC-8004 protocols, decentralized perpetual contracts exchanges will disrupt traditional finance to become the new Wall Street, market upgrades to first-class derivatives, and ecosystems will reclaim stablecoin yields from USDC issuers.

AI Agent Economy and Autonomous Trading Revolution

(Source: Delphi Digital)

The x402 protocol allows any API to be accessed via encrypted payments. When an agent needs a service, it can immediately pay with stablecoins without a shopping cart or subscription. The ERC-8004 protocol enhances trust by establishing a reputation registry for agents with performance history and collateral.

Combining these creates an autonomous agent economy. Delphi Digital gives an example: users can delegate travel planning, their agents will subcontract to flight search agents, pay data fees via x402, and then book tickets on-chain, all without manual intervention. This seamless machine-to-machine economy will fundamentally change service transaction models.

x402 addresses core pain points of the current API economy: complex subscription models and high fixed costs. Agents can pay on-demand, only for actual API calls used. ERC-8004 solves trust issues by using an on-chain reputation system, allowing users to select well-performing agents, while poorly performing ones are eliminated by the market.

Perp DEX Becomes Infrastructure for the New Wall Street

(Source: Delphi Digital)

Traditional finance is costly due to fragmentation: trading occurs on exchanges, settlement is handled by clearinghouses, and custody by banks. Blockchain integrates all into a smart contract. Delphi Digital notes that Hyperliquid is building native lending features, and decentralized perpetual contracts exchanges could become brokerages, exchanges, custodians, banks, and clearinghouses simultaneously.

Competitors like Aster, Lighter, and Paradex are racing to catch up. This vertical integration will significantly reduce financial service costs and improve efficiency. The multi-layered intermediary structure of traditional finance, which charges fees and adds delays, will be replaced by Perp DEX, consolidating all functions into a single protocol, with transparency and efficiency making a qualitative leap.

Hyperliquid’s lending feature is especially critical. Traditional brokerages offer margin trading but require complex credit checks and collateral management. Perp DEX automates this via smart contracts, monitoring positions in real-time and executing liquidations without manual intervention. This automation reduces costs and eliminates counterparty risk.

Market Predictions Upgrading to Traditional Financial Infrastructure

Interactive Brokers Chairman Thomas Peterffy views the prediction market as an instant information layer for investment portfolios. Delphi Digital forecasts that by 2026, a new category will emerge: stock event markets with profit forecasts and guidance ranges, macroeconomic indicators like CPI and Fed decisions, and cross-asset relative value markets.

A trader holding tokenized Apple stock (AAPL) can hedge profit risks with simple binary contracts, avoiding complex options strategies. Prediction markets will become first-class derivatives. This simplification is especially important for retail investors, as traditional options require understanding complex concepts like Delta and Gamma, while binary contracts only require judging whether an event occurs.

Initial demand will focus on weather contracts for energy, logistics, and insurance risks. These real-economy sectors have rigid risk management needs, but traditional derivatives markets lack liquidity or are too costly. Prediction markets offer more flexible, lower-cost hedging tools.

Ecosystem Reclaims Control of Stablecoin Yields

Last year, the largest compliant US-based crypto exchange earned over $900 million in reserve yields just by controlling USDC distribution. Platforms like Solana, BSC, Arbitrum, Aptos, and Avalanche earn about $800 million annually from transaction fees, yet hold over $30 billion in USDC and USDT on their networks. The platform driving stablecoin usage is capturing yields that surpass their own revenue.

Delphi Digital points out that this is changing. Hyperliquid, through competitive bidding for USDH, has captured half of its reserve yields for its aid fund. Ethena’s “Stablecoin as a Service” model is now adopted by Sui, MegaETH, and Jupiter. The passive accumulation of yields by traditional issuers is gradually being reclaimed by platforms generating demand.

This shift is profound. Stablecoin issuers have long enjoyed risk-free yields, while ecosystems creating demand for stablecoins cannot share in these profits. The new model will incentivize more blockchains and applications to promote stablecoin adoption, as they can directly benefit. It will also foster competition in the stablecoin market, lowering user costs.

DeFi Overcomes Collateral-Free Lending via zkTLS

DeFi lending protocols hold tens of billions of dollars in total locked value, but almost all require over-collateralization. Delphi Digital sees zkTLS technology as the breakthrough. Users can prove their bank balances exceed a certain amount without revealing account numbers, transaction records, or identities.

3jane offers real-time, collateral-free USDC credit lines verified with Web2 financial data. The algorithm monitors borrowers in real-time and dynamically adjusts loan rates. The same framework can use agents’ performance history as credit scores, providing loan guarantees for AI agents. Maple Finance, Centrifuge, and USDai are also addressing related issues. By 2026, collateral-free lending will move from experimental to infrastructure stage.

The innovation of zkTLS lies in balancing privacy and verification. In traditional finance, banks assess creditworthiness by reviewing full financial records, which invades privacy. zkTLS allows selective disclosure, proving only necessary information while keeping the rest private. This breakthrough will expand DeFi’s applicability from crypto-native users to ordinary people with traditional financial assets.

Gold and Bitcoin Lead Currency Depreciation Trades

Delphi Digital notes that since listing gold as one of the best observation charts, its price has surged 60%. Despite gold reaching all-time highs, central banks worldwide purchased over 600 tons of gold, with China being one of the most active buyers.

The macroeconomic environment supports gold’s continued strength. Global central banks are cutting interest rates, fiscal deficits are expected to persist until 2027, global M2 money supply hits new highs, and the Fed is about to end quantitative tightening. Gold typically leads Bitcoin by three to four months. As currency depreciation becomes a mainstream issue before the 2026 mid-term elections, both assets will attract more safe-haven capital inflows.

Exchanges Transform into All-in-One Super Apps

Delphi Digital predicts that Robinhood and others are no longer just exchanges—they are building “super apps.” The largest compliant US crypto exchange has Base as its operating system, Base App as its interface, USDC yields as its backbone, and offers derivatives via Deribit. Robinhood’s Gold membership grows 77% annually, becoming a key retention engine. Binance has reached super app scale, with over 270 million users and $250 billion in payment transaction volume.

As customer acquisition costs decrease, value will concentrate on platforms with users. By 2026, winners will start to pull ahead. This super app strategy is similar to WeChat’s success in China, integrating payments, social, and financial services to create an ecosystem lock-in that’s hard to break.

Altcoins’ Returns Permanently Diverge

Delphi Digital warns that the previous cycle’s widespread upward waves will not return. Over $3 billion worth of tokens are about to unlock, while competition in AI, robotics, and biotech intensifies. ETF capital flows are concentrated in Bitcoin and a few large-cap tokens. Capital will cluster around structural demand: tokens with ETF capital flows, protocols with real revenue and buyback mechanisms, and applications with genuine market fit.