#a16z gives 17 signals for 2026, and essentially there is only one thing

Cryptocurrency is upgrading from a "speculative system" to "social infrastructure."
The following 17 points may seem scattered, but can actually be condensed into 5 main narratives.
1. #隐私 , from moral slogans to business moat
Privacy will become the most important moat in the crypto space
This statement is very weighty.
In the past, privacy was a "value system,"
Starting in 2026, privacy is a competitive advantage.
‍#AI agents need private states
Financial activities require untraceability
Companies cannot expose strategies on public blockchains
Zero-knowledge, TEE, FHE are no longer research projects,
but product-level essentials.
👉 Blockchains without privacy
will be directly bypassed by enterprises and agents.
2. Prediction markets: from casinos to "collective intelligence layer"
Prediction markets will become larger, broader, and smarter
a16z is not talking about betting,
but about information aggregation mechanisms.
Prediction market =
Faster than polls
More decentralized than experts
More authentic than social media
When AI agents can automatically place orders, hedge, and arbitrage,
prediction markets are no longer "human emotion casinos,"
but machine collaboration consensus engines.
3. RWA and stablecoins must be "crypto-native"
Reconsider RWA and stablecoins
Translate into plain language:
It’s not about copying TradFi onto the chain,
but about transforming the financial paradigm itself.
Stablecoins are not "digital dollars," but programmable liquidity
RWA is not "asset tokenization," but a reconstruction of settlement, custody, and clearing
Anyone still doing "real estate on-chain" or "art on-chain,"
is still stuck in 2022.
4. Trading is no longer the endpoint, but a "transit station"
Trading will become a transit point for crypto businesses
This statement is fatal for exchanges.
Future trading:
Just a node of liquidity
A step for agents to execute tasks
A byproduct of payments, lending, and hedging
The real value is not in "matching,"
but in who controls the task flow.
5. A comprehensive shift from "people" to "agents"
This is the most aggressive and certain main line of a16z.
From KYC → Know Your Agent
From user → agent
From wallet → state machine
The future network:
AI has identity
AI has funds
AI has permissions
AI will sign, pay, hedge
This is also why:
Secrets-as-a-Service
Decentralized messaging systems
Protocols = Laws (Spec is Law)
will suddenly become extremely important.
6. Stablecoins are not financial innovation, but bank upgrades
Stablecoins will trigger a cycle of bank ledger upgrades
The internet is becoming a bank
a16z’s two points are actually the same sentence.
Stablecoins are not about replacing banks,
but about moving bank ledgers onto the internet’s speed.
24/7 clearing
Real-time settlement
Global reach
Programmable compliance
Banks will not disappear,
but will become APIs.
7. The ultimate endgame: law finally catching up with technology
When legal frameworks match technological architectures, full potential is unleashed
This sentence is the climax of the entire list.
It’s not that blockchain doesn’t work,
but that laws have never kept pace.
Once:
Tokens = legally recognized rights
Smart contracts = legitimate execution vehicles
On-chain states = auditable facts
Then blockchain will no longer be "the crypto industry,"
but the default financial and informational infrastructure.
A one-sentence summary of a16z’s 2026 worldview:
Crypto is no longer a challenger to the old system,
but the default operating system of the new system.
The speculative phase is over.
The infrastructure war has just begun.