2025 has finally shown that crypto is no longer a parallel universe. Digital assets have grown out of the experimental phase and arrived at the core of the global financial markets. Bitcoin has grown up with ETFs, options markets and the first steps towards corporate adoption. Stablecoins have quietly developed into a global settlement infrastructure, tokenization has advanced from pilot projects to real volumes - especially in private credit and US government bonds. At the same time, decentralized applications are generating real cash flows for the first time, and venture capital is returning, more disciplined and fundamental than in previous cycles. In short, 2025 was the year crypto stopped justifying itself.
2026: Ethereum and Solana in focus
2026 is not about the next hype narrative, but about integration. Macro factors such as liquidity, real yields and monetary policy will continue to set the pace, while major shifts take place in the background: an increasingly multipolar monetary system, growing geopolitical relevance of non-state stores of value and more regulatory clarity. #ethereum is growing into its role as an institutional infrastructure, #solana dominates performance- and volume-intensive applications, specialized platforms are replacing broad all-rounders. For companies, the question is shifting from "whether crypto" to "how much efficiency can be gained". The financial system is not rebuilding itself loudly, but quietly - and 2026 will be the year in which this new architecture becomes visibly resilient.
(Author: James Butterfill, CoinShares, Head of Research)
