RWA, stablecoins, prediction markets, and Agentic payments are not four isolated hotspots, but rather the result of the simultaneous maturation of assets, currencies, identities, transactions, and settlement capabilities.
To be pragmatic, much of the narrative in the crypto industry over the past few years can be distilled into an almost obsessive question:
"What is the next asset that will rise?"
Since the DeFi Summer, NFTs, public chains/L2s, re-staking, memes, and even AI tokens have taken turns in the spotlight. The technological logic and market context of these different narratives vary, but they ultimately return to how price performs. Even though stablecoins, wallets, and cross-chain bridges have clear tool attributes, the market's focus on them often remains limited to how much trading and speculative activity they can support.
However, as we enter 2026, a series of changes across different tracks are beginning to emerge densely within the same time window:
On the surface, these changes seem unrelated, but when viewed together, a more complete narrative emerges: The issuance, custody, trading, payment, and settlement capabilities accumulated by the crypto industry over the past decade are gradually opening up from serving crypto assets themselves to broader financial activities and machine economies.
In other words, while crypto has not escaped speculation, it is growing a more complete infrastructure beneath the speculative market.
Objectively speaking, RWA, stablecoins, prediction markets, and AI Agents are not receiving attention at the same stage due to the sudden emergence of a single hot narrative.
The real reason lies in the fact that the different components needed for a new financial infrastructure, after years of independent development, are finally beginning to connect with each other.
First, stablecoins are no longer a new concept, but the role they play is changing.
As is well known, early stablecoins primarily undertook tasks such as exchange pricing, on-chain hedging, and crypto asset trading settlement, with the vast majority of funds still circulating within the crypto ecosystem. Nowadays, an increasing number of issuers, banks, payment institutions, and fintech companies are beginning to use stablecoins for merchant payments, global payroll, corporate payments, fund aggregation, and cross-border settlements.
According to data disclosed by Circle in the first quarter of 2026, the network's annualized transaction volume based on nearly 30 days of trading at that time reached approximately $8.3 billion, and its partner Nium's payment network covers over 190 countries and regions. This means that stablecoins are no longer just "on-chain dollars" but a form of currency that can be directly called 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 are completed. Thus, for internet applications, sending a stablecoin is becoming increasingly similar to calling a payment API, without needing to understand intermediary banks, clearing times, and cross-border account systems; one only needs to confirm the amount, address, and execution conditions.
This is the key change that shifts stablecoins from a crypto trading tool to payment infrastructure.
If stablecoins address the question of "what money to settle with," RWA addresses "what assets can be traded and settled."
Past RWA products mostly focused on areas such as U.S. Treasury bonds, money market funds, and private credit, with the core value primarily allowing crypto users to gain returns from off-chain assets. However, since last year, TradFi infrastructure has visibly begun to bring securities registration, custody, trading, and settlement processes on-chain.
On July 15, DTCC completed tokenized asset trading tests in a real production environment, with over 30 traditional financial institutions and digital asset companies participating, and plans to officially launch related services in October. Unlike ordinary asset mapping, DTCC plans to ensure that tokenized securities retain all ownership, investor protection, and rights 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"; it means that on-chain assets are beginning to attempt to connect with real ownership, custody relationships, corporate actions, and legal rights, starting to carry part of the lifecycle of traditional assets.
Thus, as this layer of connection gradually establishes, blockchain is not only creating new assets but also beginning to carry part of the operational processes of traditional assets.
Prediction markets fill the gap in the information and price discovery layer.
Stock trading is about future cash flows of companies, bond trading is about credit and interest rates, while prediction markets trade the probability of certain events occurring. Election results, interest rate decisions, sports events, corporate events, and even product release times can all be compressed into a continuously changing market price.
Robinhood disclosed that its prediction market business had over 1 million users participating in its first year, with approximately 9 billion contracts traded, and has acquired a CFTC-regulated exchange and clearing infrastructure. From an infrastructure perspective, prediction markets provide a capability that traditional financial markets find difficult to cover on a large scale, aggregating dispersed information into a probability that can be read in real-time.
While stablecoins and RWA address asset and funding issues, the new variable brought by AI Agents is who initiates economic activities.
Traditional software can only execute operations according to pre-set processes, 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 become new economic actors.
The problem is that the amounts paid by many Agents may only be a few cents or even lower, making it difficult for traditional bank cards to cover fixed fees. Their fixed fees, settlement cycles, and identity verification processes are not inherently suitable for high-frequency, low-value, automated machine payments.
This is precisely where stablecoins and low-cost blockchains can play a role.
Coinbase has integrated x402 and stablecoin wallets with 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 amount, and who specifically initiated the operation through encrypted signature authorization credentials.
Overall, the reason these lines are happening simultaneously is precisely because they are 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 participate in asset exchanges for the first time.
However, it is worth mentioning that determining whether crypto has begun to become infrastructure does not mean judging whether speculation still exists in the market. Just like the stock, forex, and commodity markets also have a large amount of speculative trading, the more important standard is whether external enterprises and users have begun to rely on a set of technologies to accomplish tasks that were previously difficult, costly, or inefficient.
According to this standard, crypto and Web3, as the next-generation financial infrastructure, have already begun to form multi-layered capabilities.
The first layer is asset issuance and mapping.
Now, what can enter the chain is no longer just native tokens. Stablecoins, Treasury bonds, money market funds, private credit, gold, fund shares, and stocks have all appeared in different forms of on-chain products. The significance of various assets going on-chain is not just to put a certificate into a wallet.
When assets can be recognized by smart contracts, they can directly enter processes such as collateralization, lending, trading, fund management, and automated investment. Operations originally scattered among registrars, custodians, brokers, and clearing systems have the opportunity to be compressed into a more unified execution environment.
The second layer is round-the-clock payments and settlements.
Traditional cross-border payments often require multiple intermediary banks and are subject to business hours, account systems, and regional network restrictions. Stablecoins can achieve near real-time, round-the-clock value transfer under a unified asset standard.
J.P. Morgan stated that Kinexys has processed over $4 trillion since its launch, with an average daily trading volume exceeding $7 billion, and has expanded blockchain deposit accounts to multiple currencies, including USD, EUR, GBP, JPY, HKD, SGD, and CNY.
In simple terms, on-chain settlement does not necessarily require all funds to be converted into publicly issued stablecoins; in the future, there may simultaneously exist bank deposit tokens, regulated stablecoins, central bank digital currencies, and on-chain commercial bank currencies. Their commonality is that funds can be read and scheduled by programs and completed in sync with asset delivery.
The third layer is continuous trading and price discovery.
Crypto has already proven that markets can operate around the clock and can automatically match and manage liquidity through smart contracts.
This capability is being brought 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 difficult to price directly.
In the future, a company can not only hold on-chain money market funds but also automatically adjust cash positions based on changes in interest rate prediction markets; AI Agents may also read asset prices, event probabilities, and liquidity conditions simultaneously before deciding whether to execute trades.
At that time, the market will provide not just quotes for viewing, but a set of real-time signals that can be directly called by software.
The fourth layer is identity, permissions, and authorization.
Financial activities are not just about transferring assets; they must also answer 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 responsible if something goes wrong?
In the early days, Crypto primarily answered these questions through private keys, where holding a private key meant having full control. However, as enterprises, institutions, and AI Agents enter the blockchain, a single private key clearly cannot meet the complex needs of permission management.
Google AP2 uses verifiable authorization to record user intent; Visa is establishing an Agent identity directory, credentials, and scoring mechanisms; Mastercard's Agent Pay for Machines aims 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 instead of handing over complete control of their accounts.
This means the role of wallets may also change. In the future, wallets will not only store assets and private keys but also manage user identities, institutional credentials, Agent permissions, spending budgets, and authorization records, becoming a control interface for users to enter the on-chain economy.
The fifth layer connects with real-world laws and regulatory systems.
Whether a financial system can become a true infrastructure depends not only on whether the technology can operate but also on whether real-world laws recognize the transaction results.
In January 2026, the U.S. SEC issued a statement on tokenized securities, clearly distinguishing between tokenized securities directly issued by issuers, tokenized rights formed by third-party custody of underlying assets, and on-chain products that only provide synthetic price exposure. This distinction is crucial because several products may appear as "on-chain stocks," yet the legal rights actually held by the holders may differ completely.
The CLARITY Act attempts to further delineate the regulatory scope between the SEC and CFTC, establishing clearer rules around digital asset issuance, trading platforms, software developers, DeFi, and investor protection. The bill is still controversial and has not yet completed legislation, but the regulatory focus has gradually shifted from "should Crypto exist" to "who can issue, who is responsible for custody, and what rules apply to what assets."
This shift itself is an important signal of infrastructureization because only when participants can roughly judge their legal responsibilities can banks, brokerages, asset management firms, and payment companies make long-term investments rather than just conducting isolated experimental projects.
Is Crypto moving from a speculative market to infrastructure?
The answer is affirmative, and this process is irreversible, but it is not a binary replacement process.
Crypto will not suddenly lose its speculative attributes due to stablecoin payments and the growth of RWA; more accurately, it is establishing a set of execution systems that can be jointly used by real assets, traditional institutions, and intelligent software beneath the existing trading market.
This change is first reflected in the expansion of funding sources in the industry. In the past, a large portion of protocol revenue came from leveraged trading, asset issuance, clearing, and on-chain capital circulation. Now, a second type of cash flow is emerging from external economic activities, with enterprises using stablecoins for cross-border settlements, funds distributing and managing assets through on-chain channels, and software purchasing APIs on a per-use basis, with Agents automatically paying for data and model fees.
Secondly, the participants in the on-chain economy are also expanding. The typical users in the past were human traders sitting in front of screens clicking "confirm" and "sign"; in the future, a large number 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 handles the specific execution.
Regulatory discussions are also changing. Past debates mainly focused on whether Crypto should be included in the existing financial system; now the question is gradually shifting to how to delineate regulatory boundaries, protect investors, constrain intermediary institutions, while retaining space for self-custody and open software.
However, from "can operate" to "worth relying on long-term," the crypto infrastructure still has a long way to go.
First, on-chain confirmation does not equate to legal finality. Questions such as who holds the assets behind the tokens, whether investors can retrieve assets after the issuing institution goes bankrupt, whether different jurisdictions recognize ownership transfers on-chain, and what rights token holders actually possess—whether they have dividend rights, voting rights, or merely price exposure—cannot be solved solely by smart contracts.
Agentic payments also face boundaries of responsibility. When an AI Agent executes a wrong transaction due to erroneous information, prompt injection, or model hallucination, it remains unclear whether the responsibility lies with the user, the model provider, the wallet, or the merchant. Currently, there is a lack of mature handling mechanisms, and in the future, wallets need to address not just how to enable Agent payments, but also how to limit which assets it can use, who it can pay, what the limits are, and how to pause and revoke permissions in case of anomalies.
Meanwhile, as the number of assets and networks increases, the issue of liquidity fragmentation may become more pronounced. The same stablecoin, fund, or security may be distributed across different public chains, bank ledgers, and permissioned networks but may not be able to circulate freely. The next stage is more about establishing unified asset standards, cross-network communication, and secure settlement mechanisms than continuing to issue more assets.
Privacy is also an unavoidable aspect for institutions. Public blockchains facilitate verification and auditing, but enterprises are unlikely to want to disclose all customer, supplier, payroll, and fund flow information. How to leverage zero-knowledge proofs, selective disclosures, and on-chain credentials to meet compliance requirements while retaining necessary privacy will directly determine how far on-chain finance can go.
The more fundamental issue is that while blockchain can improve transaction and settlement efficiency, it cannot automatically create credit. Credit loans, insurance, receivables, default handling, and liquidity support in real financial systems require complex risk control, legal, and liability frameworks. Prediction markets will not naturally resolve issues like insider information, liquidity shortages, and outcome adjudication simply because prices are public.
Therefore, today’s Crypto resembles a basic framework for assets, currencies, transactions, and settlements that has been established, but credit, privacy, responsibility, and legal finality have yet to form a complete closed loop.
It is becoming infrastructure, but it is far from being a set of infrastructures that everyone can trust unconditionally.
Looking back, what is most worth noting in 2026 is not a sudden explosion in a single track, but rather several pieces of the puzzle that have developed separately in the past starting to come together at the same stage.
Assets have taken on on-chain forms, currencies have become programmable carriers, markets are beginning to provide around-the-clock prices, software is gradually gaining payment and trading permissions, and regulation is moving from vague gray areas to more specific boundary delineations.
These changes are not yet sufficient to prove that a "completely new financial system" has been established, but they are enough to indicate that the role of Crypto is changing. It has not left the speculative market; rather, beneath the speculative market, it is gradually establishing a set of execution systems that can be used by real assets, traditional institutions, and intelligent software.
Regardless, the Crypto industry has undergone 15 years of evolution and has finally taken the most critical step from "a sociological experiment of digital gold" to "a high-frequency speculative casino" and then to "frictionless global financial infrastructure."
In the next 15 years, let us continue to witness.
This content is provided for general informational purposes only and doesn't constitute financial, investment, legal, or tax advice. Any events, rewards, online promotions, or related information mentioned herein should not be considered a recommendation, solicitation, or invitation to purchase, sell, trade, or otherwise deal in any crypto assets. Crypto assets are highly volatile and may result in loss. The availability of WEEX services, products, and related events may vary by region. You are responsible for ensuring that your participation is in accordance with applicable local laws and regulations.

Bitget announced on 3 August 2026 that it will stop serving residents of Japan, halting new registrations that day, switching affected accounts to Close-Only mode on 1 November 2026 at 11:00 GMT+9, and force-closing all remaining open positions on 31 December 2026 at 11:00 GMT+9. Crypto withdrawals are stated to remain available after that date, with no withdrawal deadline published.





























Bitget announced on 3 August 2026 that it will stop serving residents of Japan, halting new registrations that day, switching affected accounts to Close-Only mode on 1 November 2026 at 11:00 GMT+9, and force-closing all remaining open positions on 31 December 2026 at 11:00 GMT+9. Crypto withdrawals are stated to remain available after that date, with no withdrawal deadline published.