Digital assets have entered the mainstream. The question for 2026 is not whether institutional adoption continues but what form it takes. Five structural shifts are converging to define the year ahead, from the maturation of digital asset treasury companies to the proliferation of stablecoins into everyday financial transactions.
Two Prime CEO Alexander Blume offers five specific predictions for 2026, each with supporting data and institutional implications. The thesis is that experimentation is giving way to durability and the structures being built this year will define bitcoin's institutional role for the rest of the decade.
By Alexander S. Blume
Co-Founder and CEO of Two Prime
Why 2026 Is Different
At the end of last year, I predicted 2025 would be “the year of transformative follow-through” for digital assets, following major strides towards mainstream adoption in both the retail and institutional markets. That has played out in a number of ways: increased institutional allocations, more real-world asset tokenization, and pro-crypto regulatory and market infrastructure developments.
We’ve also seen the precarious rise of digital asset treasury companies (DATs). Since then, the prices of bitcoin and ether have risen about 15% as both assets have become more integrated into the traditional financial system and garnered wider adoption.
That digital assets have entered the mainstream is no longer in question. As we look forward to 2026, we’ll see continued maturation and evolution, with experimentation giving way to more sustained growth. Based on recent data and emerging trends, below are my top five crypto predictions for the year ahead.
1. DATs Gain Legitimacy
DATs saw rapid expansion this year, but not without growing pains. With everything from flavored spirits to sunscreens rebranding as buyers and holders of crypto, investor skepticism, regulatory pushback, poor management, and depressed valuations have spelled trouble for this model.
Amid a flurry of launches, some DATs also launched to hold what we could charitably call altcoins, but in reality are just speculative projects with little track record or investment value to speak of. But in the coming year, many of the kinks regarding the DAT market and its strategies will be worked out, and real businesses working on a Bitcoin standard will find their place in public markets.
Many DATs, even the largest ones, will start to trade closer to the value of their underlying assets, and managers will face pressure to more effectively create value for their shareholders. As we know, a company holding a lot of bitcoin and doing nothing with it (while maintaining big expenses like private planes and manager fees) is not a good deal for shareholders.
2. Stablecoins Go Mainstream
2026 will be the year of stablecoin proliferation. Look for USDC and USDT to make their way into more traditional financial transactions and products beyond trading and settlement. Stablecoins may start to appear not just on crypto exchanges, but also inside payment processors, corporate treasuries, and cross-border settlement systems. For businesses, the appeal is instant settlement without relying on slow or pricey banking rails.
Much like with DATs, though, we could see an oversaturation in the stablecoin market: too many speculative stablecoin launches, too many payments platforms and wallets popping up for consumers, and too many blockchains launching to “enable” stablecoins. By the end of the year, we would expect many of the more speculative projects to have either washed out of the market or been acquired, and for a consolidation to occur under more name-brand stablecoin issuers, retailers, payment rails, and exchanges/wallets.
3. The Four-Year Cycle Is Dead
I’m calling it now: the bitcoin four-year cycle will be officially declared dead in 2026. The market is broader now and more institutional, so it is no longer operating in a vacuum. In its place, a new market structure and a continued bid upwards will change bitcoin’s trajectory to continued incremental growth.
That means less volatility overall and a more stable store of value, which should create more widespread adoption by traditional investors and market participants around the globe. Bitcoin’s evolution from a trading vehicle to a new asset class will come with steadier flows, longer holding periods, and fewer “cycles” altogether.
4. U.S. Access to Offshore Liquidity
In tandem with the mainstreaming of digital assets more broadly, and with tailwinds from a favorable administration, rulemaking and market structure will allow U.S. investors to access crypto liquidity abroad. This won’t necessarily be a sudden shift, but over time, we should see more approved affiliates, better custody solutions, and foreign platforms that can meet U.S. compliance standards.
Certain stablecoin projects could also fast-track this trend. U.S. dollar-backed stablecoins already move across borders in a way traditional banking rails can’t, and as major issuers expand into regulated offshore markets, they have the potential to bridge U.S. capital into global liquidity pools. Put simply, stablecoins just may end up doing exactly what regulators have struggled to figure out how to do: connecting U.S. investors to international digital asset markets in a clear, trackable way.
This is important because offshore liquidity plays a key role in price discovery in the digital asset market. The next stage of market maturity will be about standardizing how markets operate across borders.
5. Products Become More Sophisticated
The new year will usher in a new level of sophistication for bitcoin debt and equity products as well as trading products focused on bitcoin-denominated returns. Investors, including those who had previously shied away from digital assets, will embrace this new and more sophisticated product set.
We’ll likely see structured products using bitcoin as collateral and strategies designed to generate true yield from bitcoin exposure rather than simply betting on price moves. ETFs are starting to move beyond basic price tracking, offering yield through staking or options strategies, though fully diversified total‑return products are still limited, and derivatives will become more sophisticated and better integrated with standard risk frameworks. In 2026, bitcoin is likely to function less as a speculative play and more as a core component of financial infrastructure.
This article originally appeared in Forbes.
