a16z released "17 Crypto Trends for 2026," focusing on key areas such as RWA, AI agents, and privacy chains.

The latest annual industry outlook released by the a16z crypto team reveals that by 2026, the crypto ecosystem will undergo profound evolution around five key trends:

native issuance of RWAs (Real-World Assets), a comprehensive upgrade of stablecoin payment infrastructure, the rapid rise of AI agent economies, the systematic construction of on-chain privacy infrastructure, and continuous innovation in new application scenarios such as prediction markets and "Staked Media."

The report points out that stablecoins are playing an increasingly important role in the global payment and settlement system, with an annual transaction volume of $46 trillion, far exceeding traditional payment platforms such as PayPal and gradually surpassing card organizations such as Visa, rapidly growing into a new generation of global clearing and settlement infrastructure network. Meanwhile, in the RWA field, the industry is gradually shifting from simple "asset tokenization" to "native on-chain issuance."

This shift is expected to significantly improve the efficiency and transparency of asset circulation and inject more direct on-chain interoperability into the traditional financial system. Notably, the a16z report specifically emphasizes that privacy will become one of the core dimensions of public chain competition in the next stage.

Blockchains with truly verifiable privacy protection capabilities are expected to gain a significant advantage in institutional applications and highly sensitive transaction scenarios, potentially even leading to a "winner-takes-all" market structure.

Furthermore, the report also focuses on the cutting-edge directions of AI and the crypto-economy integration. Among these, AI-assisted identity verification mechanisms (KYA, Know Your Agent), automated payment rules embedded in smart contracts, and on-chain verifiable media based on staking mechanisms—where users can credibly endorse their published opinions by staking tokens—are considered key innovation areas to explore in 2026.

Overall, a16z's outlook paints a picture of a comprehensively deepening industry landscape from infrastructure to application layers. While stablecoins and RWA are driving the on-chain asset process, privacy, AI, and new social applications are jointly propelling crypto technology towards a more complex, trustworthy, and participatory ecosystem.