HashKey, in collaboration with the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology's Digital Finance Lab, released its Top Ten Trends Observations for the Digital Asset Industry in 2026.

On December 29, HashKey Holdings Limited (3887.HK) and the Digital Finance Lab of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology jointly released the "Top Ten Trends in the Digital Asset Industry in 2026". The top ten trends that industry participants are highly focused on in 2026 include:

1. AI Agents are expected to evolve into on-chain executors with autonomous decision-making capabilities;

2. Asset tokenization will accelerate across the board, with large-scale on-chain securities becoming a significant industry milestone;

3. Stablecoin acceptance infrastructure will be fully upgraded, accelerating the integration of stablecoins into the real-world financial system;

4. Hong Kong stablecoin licensing, the normalization of asset tokenization issuance, and secondary market circulation are expected to be implemented;

5. Competition between offshore and onshore trading platforms will intensify, with compliance and transparency becoming competitive barriers;

6. Global liquidity will recover, leading to a boom in digital assets, with capital focusing on core high-quality assets such as BTC/ETH;

7. Staking enters the "institutional era," with DAT and ETFs becoming mainstream, while Liquidity Staking (LSD) faces regulatory pressure;

8. Industry mergers and acquisitions (M&A) will accelerate significantly, with infrastructure and compliant assets becoming the focus of acquisitions;

9. High-performance scaling and compliance/privacy on public chains will become mainstream, with ZK and FHE... Next-generation privacy solutions will become standard equipment for institutional-grade infrastructure;

10. Global regulatory competition will intensify, forming a global competitive landscape around stablecoin clearing, tokenized assets, and institutional access.

The survey results show that the integration of AI and blockchain, asset tokenization, and stablecoin infrastructure received high support rates, reflecting the industry's continued focus on the deep integration of blockchain technology and finance. Meanwhile, over 70% of respondents supported improvements to the regulatory system and changes in market structure, demonstrating that the industry's focus is gradually shifting towards institutional construction, compliance frameworks, and long-term sustainable development paths. HashKey will continue to monitor long-term structural trends in the digital asset industry and conduct relevant business research within a compliant framework. (Source: BlockBeats)