Pantera Capital's Head of Investment Research released 12 predictions for 2026, covering DATs, AI, stablecoins, and more.

PANews reported on December 25th that Jay Yu, Head of Research and Investments at Pantera Capital, released 12 predictions for the crypto industry in 2026:

1. Capital-efficient consumer credit: Crypto lending that combines on-chain and off-chain credit modeling, modular design, and AI behavior learning will become a new frontier.
2. Prediction market differentiation: The prediction market will be divided into a "financial" direction (integrated with DeFi, supporting leverage and staking) and a "cultural" direction (more localized and with long-tail interests).
3. Agentic Commerce and x402: The x402-based payment framework will expand, and Solana may surpass Base in x402 transaction volume.
4. AI as the Encryption Interface Layer: AI-assisted trading and analysis will become widespread, while LLM-driven trading AI is still in the experimental stage.
5. The Rise of Tokenized Gold: Tokenized gold has become a popular asset for hedging against inflation and the dollar problem.
6. BTC Quantum Threat: Breakthroughs in quantum technology may prompt BTC institutions to discuss countermeasures, but it will not threaten the value in the short term.
7. Unified privacy development experience: Privacy frameworks (such as Kohaku) evolve into enterprise-grade privacy services.
8. DATs consolidation: The number of DATs in major sectors will be reduced to 2-3, through consolidation or transformation into ETFs.
9. The line between tokens and equity is blurred: governance tokens are facing an existential test, equity-exchangeable tokens may emerge, and the regulatory framework is becoming clearer.
10. Hyperliquid dominates perpetual contract DEXs: Hyperliquid maintains its dominant position, with stablecoins becoming core assets.
11. Prop AMMs Multi-Chain Expansion: Prop AMMs multi-chain expansion accounts for over 50% of Solana transaction volume.
12. Stablecoin international payment flows: More fintech companies (such as Stripe and Brex) are using stablecoins for international payments, and stablecoin chains such as Tempo are becoming major fiat-crypto gateways.