Tech Predictions 2026: Cryptocurrencies and Blockchain

Crypto will exit its legal grey space in 2026. President Trump’s Crypto Week in July 2025 saw the GENIUS Act, the first major US crypto regulation, passed into law, and the announcement of the CLARITY Act. The former is a bipartisan milestone that mandates transparency, audits, one-to-one reserve backing, and consumer protections for stablecoins, while also wrapping them into existing anti-money laundering (AML) and sanctions frameworks. The CLARITY Act will likely be passed in H1 2026, establishing a robust definition of digital commodities and ending the turf war between the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). This will slowly push crypto trading onto supervised venues and force custody and disclosures that resemble traditional finance. The shift will dampen speculation in the short term and allow financial services companies to participate at scale. Durable rulemaking will be favored over case-by-case enforcement, bolstering crypto innovation.

GlobalData defines agentic AI as advanced AI systems that act autonomously, making decisions and taking actions with limited or no human supervision. An AI agent is a software program that interacts with its environment and collects data, which it uses to perform specific tasks, answer questions, and automate processes for users. The agentic AI ecosystem includes software companies that offer agentic frameworks, software platforms, and agentic tools. The list of companies is growing rapidly and includes system integrators, start-ups, and Big Tech. For enterprises that do not have the resources to create their own AI agents, the industry has already developed many pre-packaged AI agents for a wide range of applications, such as earnings analysers, video script generators, and customer profile builders. Dozens of companies are already providing industry-specific agentic AI solutions, and the number is growing.

In terms of early adopters we predict the leading adopters will be financial services, scientific research, healthcare, transportation and logistics, and industrials.

In the report we provide initial best practices as this is a very new area and software developers are still learning their way through the new frameworks, APIs and protocols. In terms of timelines we believe it will take1 1-2 years for commercial deployments to take off but long-term the migration to native-AI architecture has begun and AI agents will play a critical role.

To access the full report visit: Agentic AI: Strategic Intelligence - Market Research Reports & Consulting | GlobalData UK Ltd.

2026 will mark a clear step forward in the institutional adoption of crypto. The events of 2025 (e.g., Circle’s public listing, Stripe’s billion-dollar stablecoin bridge acquisition, and Mastercard’s USDC integration) have established digital assets as a lasting part of the financial landscape. In 2026, stablecoins will be used more broadly in payments, settlements, and treasury operations. Tokenized financial assets will also gain further traction, moving from isolated pilots to meaningful adoption. More funds, bonds, and private assets will begin to be issued and managed on-chain. Exchange-traded fund (ETF) inflows will remain robust, reinforcing institutional confidence in digital assets as a legitimate investment category. By the end of 2026, crypto will be more firmly established in mainstream markets.

The stigma around blockchain being slow and expensive will continue to dissolve in 2026. Ethereum’s May 2025 Pectra upgrade lowered layer 2 transaction fees by roughly 50%, according to Markets.com. Blockchain networks will prove their efficiency as financial services companies and enterprises use them for real operations. For example, IBM launched its Digital Asset Haven platform in October 2025 to facilitate the management of digital assets across blockchains. The era of consortia and experimentation is wavering. Production-ready infrastructure, increased interoperability, and public blockchains will increasingly handle company workloads in 2026. The intersection of blockchain and AI will take shape through proof-of-human systems that verify user authenticity in an AI-saturated tech landscape.

• Winners: Major centralized exchanges like Binance, Coinbase, Kraken, and Crypto.com. Pure-plays like Ripple, Circle, and Ledger, crypto ETF providers like BlackRock and Fidelity, and other finance majors adopting stablecoins, tokenization, and blockchain.
• Losers: Companies that fail to embrace crypto and overlook its new regulatory standards.