Recently, a16z crypto published a long article "17 things we’re excited about for crypto in 2026"; this is not an article calling for a bull market, nor is it recommending a specific chain or token, but a collective judgment on 'what problems crypto needs to solve next' from the perspective of infrastructure and industry evolution.
If I were to describe the core viewpoint of this article in one sentence, it would be:
> The next phase of cryptocurrency is no longer just the market, but the settlement and collaboration layer of the internet itself.
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1. Stablecoins have succeeded, but the real key is 'how to be used in daily life'
a16z pointed out a fact that many people overlook from the beginning:
The trading volume of stablecoins has already reached a global level, with fast speeds and low costs; the technology has actually matured long ago.
The real bottleneck is not on-chain, but off-chain —
That is, how to connect stablecoins to the financial systems people use daily.
The article emphasizes that in 2026, what is really important is not 'another stablecoin', but:
Better channels for deposits and withdrawals
Payment integration that can connect local banks, facilitate instant transfers, and use QR codes
Global wallet layers, cards, merchant payment tools
When stablecoins can naturally integrate into life, they will no longer just be crypto tools but will become the settlement foundation of the internet.
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2. Crypto is not just about putting traditional assets on-chain, but needs to be 'crypto-native'
When talking about RWA (real-world assets on-chain), a16z raised a very critical criticism:
Currently, many so-called RWAs are merely 'copying traditional finance onto the chain' without truly leveraging the advantages of crypto.
They are instead optimistic about:
Perpetual contracts (perps) represent a more crypto-native financial structure
and the lending and credit that 'happens directly on-chain', rather than occurring off-chain and then being packaged on-chain
This represents a trend:
Future financial products may not be digital avatars of TradFi but entirely new structures.
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3. Once AI agents appear, payments will become 'background actions'
A very important part of the article is the depiction of the AI agent era.
a16z believes that in the future, many value exchanges will no longer be operated manually by people but will be automatically completed by AI agents:
Agents buy data for you
Agent payment API, computing power, service fees
Agents settle instantly after completing tasks
This means:
Payments are no longer a process but will become a natural response of the system, like internet packets.
In such a world, blockchain and smart contracts are not just financial tools, but 'network components that enable value to flow automatically.'
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4. KYC is no longer enough, the next step is 'Know Your Agent'
With AI agents entering financial and business scenarios in large numbers, a16z points out a new issue:
The system must not only recognize people but also recognize 'the agents acting on your behalf.'
This is the KYA (Know Your Agent) concept they proposed:
Who does the agent represent
What are the limitations
What is the responsibility attribution when something goes wrong
This will become an inevitable layer of infrastructure when AI and finance combine.
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5. AI is extracting content value; data rights will become a hard demand
a16z also bluntly states that AI agents are causing 'invisible taxes' on the entire open network.
Content is being widely used, but:
Ads are not being seen
Subscriptions are not purchased
Creators do not receive corresponding returns
Therefore, they believe that in the future, it must move from 'one-time authorization' to: real-time, pay-per-use, auditable value return mechanisms.
This is also why blockchain, micropayments, and verifiable records are becoming important again in the AI era.
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6. Privacy will become the true moat of blockchain
There is a very realistic judgment in the article:
Performance, transaction fees, and TPS will ultimately tend to homogenization, but privacy will not.
Because assets are easy to transfer and data is easy to copy,
But once the 'secret' is revealed, it may expose identity, behavior, and connections.
a16z believes that the blockchain capable of carrying financial and real-world applications must treat privacy as a core capability rather than an additional feature.
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7. DeFi is moving from 'programming' to 'specification writing'
Finally, they talked about security and the maturity of DeFi.
The focus is no longer just on avoiding bugs, but on:
Elevating security to the 'design level'
Defining what the system can and cannot do with verifiable specifications (spec)
Directly blocking non-compliant behavior during execution
This means DeFi is moving from experimental systems towards true financial infrastructure.
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The real message this article wants to convey
a16z's article is actually about one thing:
> The future of cryptocurrency belongs not only to traders but to the entire network economy.
Payments, data, rights, privacy, agents, settlement methods,
Are being redesigned into 'programmable, verifiable, and automatically operable' systems.
Market fluctuations are superficial,
What is happening at the underlying level is a structural transformation.
