Our final Web3 Thoughts of the Week for 2025 looks ahead to how tokenization, stablecoins, RWAs, AI, DeFi, and politics will shape 2026.
Tokenized real-world assets and stablecoins
“As usual, most attention within the crypto sector is being paid to the price of Bitcoin, which continues to slide its way out of 2025 as if glued to a sled. And, as yesterday’s news that Strategy has paused BTC buying and put over $700 million into cash indicates, this selling is likely to continue. Inflows into Bitcoin also declined markedly this year compared to last year, at $27.2 billion compared to $41.6 billion in 2024.
“Where we don’t see any selling happening, though, is the tokenized real world assets (RWAs) sector. Over the past year the value of the RWA sector is up over 220% from a measly $5.5 billion on January 1 to over $18.8 billion today. This is a sector that very few seem to be paying attention to, but that is running away with the returns led by a worldwide feeding frenzy on gold, which hit a new high of $4,448 per troy ounce yesterday, and tokenized forms of which have gone gangbusters this year.
“Indeed, tokenized gold is up 227% from $1 billion to over $3.27 billion year to date, while its sector – RWA commodities – is one of the year’s key growth spots. Beginning 2025 with nothing more than four gold products, this sector is ending it with 15 products spread across not just gold, but now also oil, wheat, platinum, soy, and more. And this is all driven not just by huge institutional interest, but, encouragingly, retail investors getting into stable assets on-chain rather than simply fleeing when times get tough.
“Indeed, the volatile year that we’ve seen has really shaped the sector and made it a robust and fertile growth space. And this is an incredibly positive indicator for the growth of crypto as a whole as RWA’s will provide a firm footing that means liquidity will stay in crypto even when time gets tough. RWA’s are absolutely the future of crypto and deserve much more attention to.”
– Kevin Rusher, founder of RAAC
“Stablecoins will pivot from a crypto on-ramp to the definitive digital dollar for mainstream commerce. Their growth will be propelled not by trading volume, but by a critical mass of regulatory clarity – making them the only de-risked digital asset class that banks, major payment processors, and global enterprises can confidently integrate.
“This regulatory head start cements stablecoins as the fastest-growing and most adopted sector, effectively defining the primary financial touchpoint most people have with blockchain technology.”
– Rebecca Liao, co-founder and CEO of Saga
“Stablecoins are the fastest-growing part of the market, and we’re only at the beginning. Next year we’ll see at least 50 institutions launching their own stablecoins because they finally understand their demand, moving money instantly, cheaply, and globally. Eventually, people will be paying with stablecoins without even knowing it. The first wave is about adoption by fintechs, the second wave is mainstream usage.
“My big prediction is that people will be using stablecoins without realizing it: it’ll just become infrastructure embedded in everyday transactions. Tokenized funds will finally be functional, and usable as collateral in DeFi or other automated strategies. They won’t be flashy products, but they’ll lay the foundation for massive adoption and we’re already seeing early signals with fintechs and conservative banks testing tokenization. That’s where growth is quietly accelerating.”
– Kevin de Patoul, CEO of global crypto investment firm Keyrock
The political scene – United States
“The past couple of weeks in Washington have been quieter on the surface, but anyone following digital-asset policy closely will have noticed a shift. The CFTC’s move to allow spot-crypto products onto regulated exchanges didn’t draw much attention, yet it’s the kind of development that tends to matter later. It suggests regulators are becoming more comfortable treating certain digital-asset activity as part of ordinary market infrastructure rather than something exceptional or experimental.
“On Capitol Hill, the parallel Senate efforts on broader market-structure rules are still moving, though without much public noise. Staff have been refining draft language, comparing notes across committees, and preparing for future markups. It’s precisely now when the conversations turn towards practical measures: what stands a chance in markup, what needs tightening, and where technical input is still missing. It’s not glamorous, but it’s usually when real decisions start to take shape.
“Looking into 2026, the tone may stay measured rather than dramatic but only for a short amount of time before the midterm campaigns heat up. The committees working on market-structure frameworks will be under pressure to show progress before the Midterm election cycle compresses their bandwidth, while regulators will continue deciding how much of their evolving posture can be translated into formal rulemaking.
“None of this guarantees sweeping legislation next year, but it does point toward a stretch where definitions settle and expectations sharpen. For companies paying close attention, the most important opportunities won’t come from hearings or headlines – they’ll come from the quieter exchanges where staff are still open to ideas that can realistically make it onto the page.”
– Michael DiRoma, managing partner at DC-based government relations advisory DiRoma Eck
“Barring significant political self-sabotage, the Democratic Party is positioned to successfully defend or even modestly expand its standing in the midterms. The crypto industry will likely regret – and to a certain extent already regrets – their absolute support for Trump. The Democrats will paint crypto as a proxy for Trump’s corruption and seek to undo many of the policy wins the Trump administration has secured for this technology.”
– Liao
“More bill issuances will pump liquidity, rate cuts are coming, and regulatory clarity for crypto arrives with the CLARITY ACT…. The Big Beautiful Bill will kickstart the economy for the midterms, aiming for a strong 2026, especially the economy, because that’s the main jewel in the crown for the Donald.”
– Boris Bohrer-Bilowitzki, CEO of Concordium
The political scene: Europe
“From our perspective, MiCA is genuinely transformative. It reduces regulatory fragmentation across Europe by introducing a passporting model across the EEA, turning what was once a patchwork of national regimes into a far more level playing field.
“That said, global convergence will remain partial. Compliance obligations, local implementation differences, and the need to tailor products by country, from payment methods and language to customer support, mean that meaningful local variation will persist even within broadly harmonized frameworks.
“The overall impact is a marked increase in institutional confidence. Regulated exchanges with strong compliance, custody, proof-of-reserves and KYC standards are far better positioned to engage banks, insurers and asset managers that were previously on the sidelines. As regulatory clarity deepens into 2026, we expect institutional participation to continue accelerating in Europe and other jurisdictions with clear frameworks, even if true global uniformity remains elusive.”
– Erald Ghoos, CEO of OKX Europe
DeFi
“The real inflection point for DeFi isn’t retail speculation: it’s when institutions start using DeFi infrastructures without even calling it DeFi. They’ll adopt transparency, programmability, and composability because it makes their systems better, even if they won’t accept fully permissionless access.
“There’s no inherent contradiction between institutional growth and DeFi principles. It’s about distribution. Institutions have reach, and once they integrate parts of decentralised systems, adoption accelerates massively. The winners will be the firms that combine self-custody, composability, and open rails into their offerings. Traditional firms won’t go fully permissionless, but they will adopt the key aspects or risk being outcompeted. This hybrid model is where the next wave of adoption and scale will come from.”
– de Patoul
AI and DeAI?
“Where will true, sustainable value accrue in the AI ecosystem next? – The current market narrative surrounding the AI supercycle is dominated by a few centralized hardware giants, but there’s a marked shift. They have placed their bets on a monopolistic future, where one or two companies control the entire pipeline from chip to model.
“However, in the open-source ecosystem, decentralized models are rapidly capturing market share and proving that AI innovation is now pluralistic.
“With major institutional funds quietly liquidating their NVIDIA positions to make room for Bitcoin, the market is set to correct. Investors will realize they were valuing the shovel, not the gold being mined, as the gold is in the decentralized application layer.
“Tokenizing AI utility is the only mechanism that can align the incentives of the model creator, the infrastructure provider, and the end-user. In 2026, the demand for cost-effective, secure, and verifiable AI inference will drive the necessity of systems with a token economy to build industry-specific models trained by the community.
“Just as Bitcoin offered a decentralized alternative to TradFi, DeAI tokens are offering a decentralized alternative to centralized intelligence. Structural milestones, such as the expected TAO halving, prove this sector is moving beyond hype and into a phase of maturity that the traditional AI market has yet to achieve. “
– Jiahao Sun, CEO of FLock.io