According to multiple research reports, the crypto market landscape in 2026 is undergoing profound changes. Here are some core development directions:

**Chain Layer Competition Returns to Bitcoin**

Currently, the L1 ecosystem faces genuine sluggish growth issues. Against this backdrop, the market’s capital allocation logic will gradually shift—funds will flow toward assets with clear value support and ecological resilience. As the safest digital asset, Bitcoin is bound to become the primary target of capital inflows. While Ethereum has institutional and corporate support, compared to Bitcoin’s independence, ETH still plays a follower role and has not fully established its own value curve.

**Hedging Value of Privacy Assets**

The correlation between ZEC and Bitcoin has dropped to 0.24, indicating that ZEC is gradually evolving into an independently performing asset. From a allocation perspective, these privacy-oriented assets can serve as hedging tools against Bitcoin exposure, providing an alternative during market structure adjustments.

**Rise of Application-Specific Currencies**

By 2026, more application-specific tokens will emerge, with platforms like Virtuals Protocol and Zora leading the way. For example, Virtuals Protocol issues a dedicated token for each AI agent created by users, and all agent tokens are paired and traded with the platform’s native token VIRTUAL. Users need to use VIRTUAL to buy or provide liquidity, directly driving demand for VIRTUAL as the platform prospers, eventually evolving into a dedicated currency within the ecosystem. This design logic will be replicated and iterated by more application-layer projects.

**Reconstruction of Stablecoin Policy Attributes**

Stablecoins are shifting from purely speculative tools to national-level financial strategic instruments. The U.S. passing of the GENIUS Act in 2025 marks the first formal regulation of stablecoins by the federal government, which not only improves the regulatory framework but also signals the integration of stablecoins into the U.S. monetary policy system. The competitive landscape of the stablecoin market will thus be reshaped—Tether, leveraging its first-mover advantage and high profit margins, will continue to deepen its presence in developing countries, with an estimated valuation reaching $500 billion; traditional financial institutions like JPMorgan, Bank of America, and Citibank are targeting high-end markets in developed countries, forming a segmented competitive landscape.

These trends reflect the shift of the crypto market from purely technological innovation to financial and institutional innovation, as well as the gradual integration of traditional financial institutions with emerging crypto ecosystems.