17 things we're excited about for crypto in 2026 paper

Paper · PageRank 0.0015

Also known as: big-ideas-things-excited-about-crypto-2026

Overview

"17 things we're excited about for crypto in 2026" is a16z crypto's annual big-ideas list, published on a16zcrypto.com and also released as a thread on the firm's X account. Its central claim is that the industry's infrastructure build-out has largely paid off, so the next phase of growth should come from real users, application adoption, the intersection of AI and blockchains, and maturing on-chain finance rather than from speculative narratives. Individual items include better stablecoin on- and off-ramps, thinking about tokenization of real-world assets in a more crypto-native way, stablecoins triggering a bank ledger upgrade cycle, AI agents transacting with a "Know Your Agent" identity layer, decentralized messaging and "secrets-as-a-service," larger prediction markets, staked media, and zkVM provers reaching roughly 10,000x overhead.

Within the DeFi Intel graph, 17 things we're excited about for crypto in 2026 connects to 2 tracked entities, most strongly to a16z Crypto, a16z crypto research.

Relations

Top connections in the DeFi Intel knowledge graph (confidence-weighted, 2 of 2 total).

Frequently asked questions

What is the overall thesis of the list?

That the dividends of crypto's infrastructure build-out are largely realized, so future growth will be driven by real users, application adoption, AI-blockchain integration and maturing on-chain finance rather than speculative narratives.

What does the list say about stablecoins?

It highlights better on- and off-ramps, a more crypto-native approach to tokenizing real-world assets, and stablecoins unlocking a bank ledger upgrade cycle and new payment models. It cites roughly $46 trillion of stablecoin transaction volume in 2025.

What does it predict for zero-knowledge proving?

That in 2026 zkVM provers will reach roughly 10,000x overhead with memory footprints in the hundreds of megabytes.