2026 will bring stablecoins, protocols and cybersecurity to the fore as Bitcoin and tokens cede the driver’s seat for now - KITCO

(Kitco News) – Crypto analysts and industry experts were far more restrained in their predictions for the broader market compared to this time last year – not surprising, considering the performance of digital assets over the last quarter of 2025. And while many still believe Bitcoin could surpass its October high-water mark of $126k at some point in 2026, the focus has clearly shifted from token valuations to the underlying technologies and protocols, and to the slow but steady progression that is seeing blockchain integrate into the broader financial world. Key trends and narratives for 2026 Not surprisingly, many experts point to the integration of AI into every area of the cryptosphere as one of the dominant trends in the year to come – but the key question is how. “In 2026, Decentralized AI (DeAI) will dominate headlines as a solution to the global energy crisis that the current centralized AI systems pose, said Greg Osuri, Founder of Akash. “DeAI solves the single biggest bottleneck to AI growth: energy. It is becoming increasingly obvious that centralized Large Language Models (LLMs) are hitting their scaling limits. As we discover those ceilings in 2026, the industry will pivot toward decentralized solutions. We'll see AI become one of the largest use cases for Web3. Models will need to be more sovereign and scalable, and decentralized networks will be the only way to deliver that at scale.” In the wake of rising geopolitical tensions, Osuri believes the world will see a massive shift toward anonymity, and privacy will become non-negotiable. “We’ll likely see the rise of ‘User-Generated AI,’ creating a strong emphasis on provenance, proving what is real versus fake, something that only blockchain can solve,” he said. “Simultaneously, ‘Physical AI’ (robotics and embodied AI) will go mainstream. I predict 2026 will be the year physical bots have their ‘ChatGPT moment,’ mirroring the mass adoption we saw in 2023.” “In 2026, the focus will shift from massive, general-purpose models to specialized, verifiable intelligence,” Jiahao Sun, CEO of FLock.io, told Kitco News. “It could well be the year of Auditable Intelligence, where the market demands proof of privacy and provenance.” “Crypto in 2026 is going to be a hybrid sport,” said Marlon Williams, Founder of machine learning-powered investment platform DexTrader.ai. “One side of the portfolio gets sharper and quicker: AI scanning, signal stacking, execution at speeds no human can match. The other side gets calmer: Tokenized real-world assets are attracting traders who still want on-chain exposure but without the pure volatility of spot crypto. Treasuries, commodities, even structured credit wrapped into tokens, basically acting as a stability layer while staying native to crypto rails.” Christopher Jensen, VP of Digital Assets Research at Franklin Templeton, told Kitco News 2026 will be the year that Web3 wallets move well beyond storage and function as their own intelligent financial operating systems.  “These platforms will help people set spending rules, automatically rebalance portfolios, track subscriptions, and receive real-time risk alerts, while also supporting tools for taxes, compliance, and reporting,” Jensen said. “This will all make on-chain finance feel more automated and approachable for everyday investors. At the same time, regulated markets are likely to launch around-the-clock trading products tied to major stocks and ETFs, creating a global, 24/7 version of Wall Street that not only expands access but improves risk management for investors worldwide.” On the governmental and international fronts, the overwhelming focus of experts has shifted away from Bitcoin and toward stablecoins: their regulation, adoption and use cases. Bitcoin takes a backseat amid risk-averse market sentiment While 2025 was a massive year for Bitcoin, with King Crypto setting a new high of $126,000, the luster is off the crown as the new year approaches. However, industry experts believe BTC is building a solid base in preparation for the next bull phase – though many stop short of guaranteeing this will happen in 2026. Matthew Sigel, head of digital assets research at VanEck, wrote in his Plan for 2026 that the signals for BTC heading into the new year are “mixed but constructive,” and emphasized that the firm is relying on a restrained framework rather than optimistic narratives. Sigel’s restraint is based in part on Bitcoin‘s historical four-year cycle, which often peaks immediately following U.S. presidential elections, and “remains intact following the early October 2025 high.” He said the coming year is likely to be characterized by sideways churn rather than a return to the prior uptrend. “That pattern suggests 2026 is more likely a consolidation year,” he said. “Not a melt-up. Not a collapse.” Sigel added that global liquidity levels do not support a simple bullish case either. “Global liquidity is mixed,” he said and while expected rate cuts should provide support, “U.S. liquidity is tightening somewhat.” Alex Thorn, head of research at Galaxy Digital, declined to offer a Bitcoin price target for next year altogether.   “BTC will hit $250k by year-end 2027,” he wrote in an X post on Dec. 21. “2026 is too chaotic to predict, though Bitcoin making new all-time highs in 2026 is still possible.” Thorn noted that options markets are pricing “about equal odds of $70k or $130k for month-end June 2026, and equal odds of $50k or $250k by year-end 2026. These wide ranges reflect uncertainty about the near term.” “At the time of writing, broader crypto is already deep in a bear market, and bitcoin has failed to firmly re-establish its bullish momentum,” he said. “Until BTC firmly re-establishes itself above $100-$105k, we feel risk remains to the downside in the near term. Other factors in the broader financial markets also create uncertainty, such as the rate of AI capex deployment, monetary policy conditions, and the U.S. midterm elections in November.” Thorn wrote that Bitcoin is behaving increasingly like a mature macro asset rather than a high-growth speculative one. “2026 could be a boring year for Bitcoin,” he said, but added that “whether it finishes at $70k or $150k, our bullish outlook (over longer time periods) is only growing stronger.” “Increasing institutional access is combining with relaxing monetary policy and a market in desperate search for non-dollar hedge assets,” he concluded. “It’s very possible that bitcoin follows gold to become widely adopted as a monetary debasement hedge within the next two years.” Charlie Morris, CIO and founder of ByteTree, told Kitco News in a recent interview that Bitcoin’s strong correlation with the tech sector means it likely faces an uphill battle in the near term. Morris sees Bitcoin as “the reserve asset of the internet” – but unlike many Bitcoin maximalists, his long-term bullishness does not rely on BTC becoming a fully mainstream reserve asset.  “Why the hell should Bitcoin be the reserve asset of the real world, and why the hell would gold be the reserve asset of the internet?” he mused. “There are people waiting for the central banks to buy Bitcoin. It's just not going to happen. Not in my lifetime, not in anyone's lifetime. Gold has that role.” And the two assets are clearly at opposite ends of the investor sentiment spectrum at the moment.  “Bitcoin is currently very oversold; it's been more oversold in the past,” Morris said. “And gold and silver are very over bought, [but] they've been more overbought in the past. One's hot, one's not, that's pretty obvious.” Morris believes that AI and tech are indeed overvalued – and overdue for a significant correction. “I do think that the Internet's going down, because it's just been too hot for too long,” he said. “AI obviously is a frenzy in terms of capital expenditure and returns on net capital, and the no-profit stocks have overdone it.” “We are in a historic equity momentum bubble; the extension of net positive momentum has never been large for 25 years at least,” Morris added. “And Bitcoin is correlated to the internet, so I think anything internet is probably going to say, ‘Thanks, it's been great, time to take a break.’” Sid Powell, CEO and Cofounder of Maple Finance, told Kitco News that while Bitcoin still moves in cycles, this one is healthier and more resilient.  “The current pullback looks more like a reset that builds a stronger base rather than a sign of deeper weakness,” he said. “What is different this time is the quality of demand. ETFs, institutional allocators, and long-term holders are now part of the market structure, which supports faster stabilization and recovery. That makes rebounds more likely to come sooner and with stronger follow-through once sentiment turns.” Max Gokhman, Deputy Chief Investment Officer at Franklin Templeton Investment Solutions, said 2025 saw BTC capture the attention of institutions.  “Most Bitcoin trading activity this year was driven by large, institutional-sized transactions rather than retail investors,” he said. “If this trend continues, Bitcoin cycles could look less speculative and more macro-driven, with pullbacks that are shallower and shorter. Growing institutional participation could also support steadier demand, gradually lower volatility, and provide quicker recoveries following corrections, which could set the stage for renewed upside into 2026.” Forget altcoins, think protocols in 2026 While the early part of 2025 was characterized by token-driven market exuberance, and the latter part of the year saw crypto valuations pull back, experts believe the focus in 2026 will return to the protocols and projects themselves as investment gravitates toward real-world applicability. Santiago Roel Santos, founder and CEO of Inversion, said the biggest surprise for 2026 won't be a moonshot token. “It'll be the growing realization that a broad basket of L1s continues to underperform because demand never materializes at the base layer,” he said. “Ethereum, in particular, looks more like a mature incumbent than a growth asset. Strong mindshare, broken value capture. It doesn't benefit meaningfully from increased adoption, which will be the biggest surprise for traditional investors buying the ETF, or worse the DAT, expecting Ethereum to be a catch-all play on stablecoins and tokenization.” Instead, returns are moving up the stack. “L2s and application-layer protocols outperform because they sit closer to real activity and directly capture usage,” Santos said. “The tokens that surprise to the upside will be protocols posting real, recurring revenue, particularly those exposed to stablecoin growth and on-chain perpetual trading. They're structurally better positioned than narrative-driven tokens. Revenue matters again.” “Here's the uncomfortable truth: many tokens fail not because usage is low, but because value capture never works as designed,” he added. “That's why I'd expect a basket of crypto-related equities to outperform a basket of crypto tokens this year. Equity structures capture growth more cleanly.” Santos also expects that Bitcoin will continue to outperform because it isn't competing with AI for momentum capital in the way the rest of crypto is. “Everything else is fighting for the same risk-on allocation,” he said. “Bitcoin sits in a different category entirely.” Michael Hubbard, Interim CEO of SOL Strategies, said he’s seeing a growing shift towards utility and the value of blockchains as networks.  “There is a declining volatility and speculation on the Layer 1 tokens, like SOL or ETH, and more focus on the use cases of those networks and ecosystems for things like real world asset tokenization or decentralized physical infrastructure,” Hubbard said. “With growing tokenization of stocks on Solana we will see a continuation of the adoption of blockchain adoption in 2026, with large, established, players looking to dramatically shift their business operations to make use of blockchain technology.” “The biggest surprises will come from sectors quietly building real revenue.,” Powell said. “Tokenized credit, onchain fixed income, and infrastructure tied to real world assets are gaining momentum because they solve clear problems and generate yield. As capital becomes more selective, projects with real users and sustainable economics will stand out. This favors fewer tokens overall, but stronger performance from those aligned with real financial activity.” Simplicity, transparency, and privacy will drive the industry in 2026 As for the digital assets industry itself, insiders see a maturing business environment where technology replaces tokens as the focus, and where more sophisticated customers make stringent demands of digital asset firms.  Alexis Sirkia, Chairman of Yellow Network, told Kitco News that the trend in 2026 will be toward streamlining and simplification.  “I believe the industry is finally realizing that Layer 1 blockchains possess less computational power than systems in the 1980s, which is why the real revolution lies in moving beyond on-chain settlement for every interaction and embracing simpler architecture for high-frequency peer-to-peer communication,” he said. “We are seeing the inevitable rise of TrustFi where advanced distributed ledger technology integrates directly with TradFi to organize the market and provide the safety that institutional brokers require to handle the likely renewed interest coming from ETFs.” “Crypto’s next goal should be to empower developers with a true utility layer that offers the user experience of Web2 while maintaining the trustless nature of Web3 so that the next generation of unicorns can be built as fully automated organizations, running seamlessly on smart contracts,” Sirkia added. “2026 will also be the year when new projects will have to prove their product is a market fit before they worry about liquidity,” Osuri said. “They will need to build something people actually need, not just something that can be tokenized.” Patrick Gerhart, President of Banking Operations at Telcoin, said the biggest development to watch in 2026 is how quickly regulated institutions move from exploring digital assets to actually deploying them.  “Banks and payment firms once piloting blockchain tech are now deciding where it replaces legacy rails, especially with stablecoins, settlement, and cross-border payments,” he said. “We’ll also see consolidation, particularly among infrastructure providers, as regulation raises the bar and only the most compliant, well-capitalized players survive. Regionally, the U.S. is quietly re-emerging as a leader, especially at the state level. States like Nebraska created momentum in 2025, and I only anticipate more states entering the fray, and with them, clearer frameworks that will set off a chain reaction of innovation.” Yuval Rooz, co-founder and CEO of Digital Asset, which created the Canton Network, said the real story of 2026 won't be asset prices, but asset velocity. “We are seeing a massive infrastructure shift where the world's largest custodians are moving beyond 'crypto pilots' to full-scale production networks,” he said. “The goal is collateral mobility, or the ability to move high-quality assets like U.S. Treasuries instantly, 24/7, across privacy-enabled ledgers to meet margin requirements. This is the year institutional DeFi truly solves the T+1 settlement problem. We expect to see a divergence where public chains continue to host speculative retail activity, while a parallel, privacy-focused layer quietly processes the trillions of dollars in actual regulated securities volume.” Powell also believes institutional adoption will continue to rise and will increasingly show up in production rather than pilots. “Consolidation will strengthen the market as capital and talent concentrate around platforms that work,” he said. “Failures will still occur, but they will increasingly be absorbed without systemic shock, showing that the industry is maturing. One positive surprise could be how quickly onchain markets become normalized as part of global finance rather than treated as a separate category.” Yaqub Ahmed, Franklin Templeton’s Global Head of Workplace, Retirement and Wealth, sees significant advancement in the retirement savings space. “I’m excited by how digital assets and blockchain tech can provide a very needed update to the retirement industry in 2026,” he said. “Rather than treating crypto as a standalone asset class, the real change will be in how blockchain infrastructure supports plan personalization, multiple income streams, portable benefits, and digital-first financial tools that align with how younger cohorts already engage with their money. Across the industry, one message comes through clearly: the current retirement system is not built for how people live and work today. The path forward mirrors what leaders are already calling for with better data integration and visibility across accounts, smarter automation to reduce friction, and a shift to wallet-based infrastructure that gives advisors a more holistic view of clients’ financial lives. In that context, crypto’s role is less about volatility exposure and more about making retirement personalized in a way that reflects both income level and life stage.” Williams predicts increasing integration and operationalization of AI in crypto trading.  “There’s a surge in demand for AI-assisted trading, especially from crypto traders who actually enjoy being active in fast markets,” he said. “I’ve spoken to enough of them this year, and the prevailing sentiment is clear – charts move too fast, orderbooks are too thick, and doing it manually just feels inefficient now. They don’t want AI to replace them. They want it to keep up with them.” Centralized and opaque versus community-led and transparent is another key tension within the crypto’s AI rollout. "The industry is finally waking up to the reality that centralized AI is a single point of failure, a 'black box' that is fundamentally incompatible with the future of data ownership,” Sun told Kitco News. “The real revolution in AI is far from bigger proprietary models, but more aligned with building transparent, auditable, and community-owned models. This shift is as inevitable as the move from Web2 to Web3 was.” “Many highly specialized, decentralized AI models are already deployed in high stakes sectors like healthcare and finance with blockchain governance,” he added. “These vertical solutions will succeed where centralized general-purpose models fail, because they solve the critical issues of data sovereignty, regulatory compliance, and domain specific accuracy. The market will reward the protocols that can deliver real world impact and verifiable results, making industry specific DeAI the most valuable sector in the coming year.” Filip Dragoslavic, Co-Founder & Co-CEO of Solflare, believes 2026 will revolve around prediction markets, stablecoins, and AI.  “I expect prediction markets to be one of the biggest topics we talk about because they’ve found a way to make participation broadly accessible in an area that’s usually tightly regulated,” Dragoslavic said. “It’s debatable how long the current pace will last, but I do expect them to be a major focus in the near term. As they gain momentum, I also expect regulation to follow, especially in the EU, even if it’s not yet clear what form that takes.” “Stablecoins will continue to matter because they’ve found real utility, and I see the strongest growth potential in emerging markets where holding USD- or EUR-denominated stablecoins can help combat inflation and make moving capital easier,” he added, “while in wealthier markets, demand for prediction-style products is supported by available capital.” The third big driver is AI. “On the business side, it is increasingly becoming a credits and funding game - if AI-led user experiences consume a lot of credits, companies either need to raise large rounds or be extremely capital-efficient, and that can widen the gap between teams with capital and those without,” Dragoslavic said. “At the product level, I expect plain-language input to become mandatory - people will want to express intent naturally rather than having to follow multiple manual steps. If you’re not building toward that by 2026, you’re going to have a very rough 2027.” Regulation and governmental priorities in 2026 Turning to the regulatory environment, experts are predicting stablecoins will emerge as the central focus of governments in both the developed and developing world, while the threat of quantum computing continues to grow. “2025 saw stablecoins break out of their niche and enter the mainstream,” said Mark Aruliah, Head of EMEA Policy & Regulatory Affairs at Elliptic. “But if 2025 built the momentum, in 2026 we’ll see rapid acceleration as stablecoins become embedded in global finance.” Aruliah said he’s seeing meaningful regulatory progress across global jurisdictions. “While approaches differ, the direction of travel is consistent: stablecoins are being recognised as part of future financial infrastructure,” he said. “From Japan’s regulators working with its largest banks on bank-issued stablecoin pilots, to the EU’s implementation of MiCA, stablecoins are set to be a defining feature of financial services in 2026.” Boris Bohrer Bilowitzki, CEO of Concordium, told Kitco News that while 2025 saw transaction volumes cross $7 trillion, less than 1% represent actual real-world payments. “This highlights the main bottleneck for the growth of stablecoins: users’ lack of trust and concerns about safety,” he said. “USDT and USDC will continue to dominate the market, even as various countries announce plans for their own stablecoins and new entrants join the market. We’ll see the ecosystem continue to develop, but this will remain relatively slow, especially for day-to-day transactions.” “2026 is the year when hype gets separated from real-world utility,” Bilowitzki added. “The ones that’ll survive are the serious infrastructure builders who prioritize security, privacy-preserving identity, and actual utility for consumers in their daily economic activities.” Petr Kozyakov, Co-Founder and CEO of Mercuryo, said that while the US and Europe are developing clearer regulatory frameworks, emerging markets continue to lead in real-world adoption. “Stablecoins are now being used for myriad use cases, including payroll, global remittances, gaming micropayments and business-to-business settlements,” he said. “The year 2026 will see the sector increase penetration, globally, with broader merchant acceptance and deeper integration into digital wallets.” Rebecca Liao, Co-Founder & CEO of Saga, told Kitco News that stablecoins will be the fastest-growing sector in crypto in 2026. “This isn't just due to the fact that most users are most comfortable with non-volatile assets pegged to fiat currency, but it may be the only asset with regulatory clarity for the foreseeable future,” she said. “This legal framework will accelerate their transformation into a universal settlement layer across global commerce. Consequently, crypto as a category by itself will likely shrink, as projects with real use cases, such as stablecoin-based payments, are integrated into industries where their technology is practically applied, establishing them as the default currency for programmable, machine-to-machine, and consumer transactions.” Adrian Wall, Managing Director of the Digital Sovereignty Alliance, also believes that 2026 will be the year stablecoins stop being a crypto product and start being infrastructure. “The next evolution isn’t about ‘crypto adoption,’” Wall said. “It’s about integration. The lines between stablecoins and the broader financial system will blur responsibly, transparently, and in a way that strengthens both U.S. innovation and dollar leadership.” Stephan Dalal, Chief Legal Officer at Open World, told Kitco News that stablecoins will settle 10-15% or more of cross-border transactions as they integrate into major digital wallets and power merchant rails worldwide. “While alternatives emerge, none will challenge USD hegemony – Tether and Circle will expand regulated offerings, reinforcing U.S. financial influence even as geopolitical tensions rise over a unipolar digital dollar.” Maghnus Mareneck, Co-CEO of Cosmos Labs, said legal clarity will unlock a surge of innovation in the stablecoin sphere.  “The frameworks passed in the US, UK, Singapore, and Japan will give traditional financial institutions the confidence to launch their own compliant stablecoins and integrate them into existing systems,” he said. “We’ll see a boom in new stablecoin issuers, from tech firms to telecom companies, all creating digital tokens backed by fiat or real-world assets under oversight.” “Paradoxically, regulation will fuel growth here, instead of hindering it,” Mareneck added. “The competition between jurisdictions will also intensify: for example, the EU’s forthcoming MiCA rules and the US’s GENIUS Act framework may vie with Asia’s approaches to become the global standard.” Lindsey Argalas, CEO of Taxbit, said regulatory clarity is the single biggest unlock for the next era of digital assets. “The passage of the GENIUS Act in the US is not just a domestic milestone; it has accelerated global interest in stablecoins as governments and markets recognize the scale of what is coming,” she said. “Over the next 12 months, I expect to see real velocity. We are moving from experimentation to scaled adoption, and the institutions that invest early in compliance, clarity, and operational readiness will be the ones that lead globally.”  Hong Fang, President of OKX, predicts that in 2026, stablecoins will begin appearing in places we don’t associate with crypto at all, including business payments, Treasury flows, B2B settlement, payroll, and day-to-day financial operations. “What matters now is not how big the market gets, but how naturally stablecoins fit into the way money should move, instantly, transparently, and around the clock,” she said. “As tokenization and blockchain-based settlement mature, stablecoins will serve as the connective tissue between traditional finance and digital asset infrastructure.” Fang said regulation is a major catalyst. “As more regions bring clarity, Europe included, institutions gain the confidence to build products, manage risk, and offer digital asset rails through trusted, compliant channels,” she said. “This clarity transforms stablecoins from niche tools into components of regulated, global financial architecture.” And Daniel Ahmed, COO and Co-founder of Fasset, said stablecoins are likely to underpin much of the Middle East’s next phase of digital-finance development by year-end 2026.  “The region’s deepening digital-asset ecosystem, shaped by an influx of global hedge funds, asset managers, and fintech operators, is being matched by regulators moving with unusual clarity and coordination,” he said. “From VARA’s rulebooks to GCC-wide pilot programmes, policy momentum is steering digital money toward secure, bank-integrated adoption, and these developments are laying the foundation for bank-integrated, compliant adoption of digital assets at scale.” Ahmed said that stablecoins must be purpose-built with embedded transparency, oversight, and Shariah alignment in a region where Islamic finance is a cornerstone of the financial system.  The growing threat posed by quantum computing to financial and civic infrastructure will also dominate governmental priorities. David Carvalho, CEO of Naoris Protocol, said quantum-resistant blockchain and cybersecurity architecture will be a key focus for governments and institutions in the coming year. “One of the biggest stories for 2026 will be the EU transitioning its digital infrastructure to post-quantum cryptography (PQC), due to the threat quantum computers pose to existing encryption,” he told Kitco News. “The European Commission and EU Member States recently released a coordinated roadmap that sets a unified timeline for all Member States to begin national PQC strategies and initial migration steps by 2026. It also stipulates that critical infrastructure and other high-risk sectors must adopt quantum-resistant encryption by 2030, and, by 2035, the PQC transition should be completed for all systems that can feasibly be upgraded.” Bob Blessing-Hartley, CTO at Shielded Technologies, told Kitco News that while quantum computing is a formidable threat, it’s still a few years away, and some of the focus is misplaced.  “I have no crystal ball, but it’s exceptionally unlikely we’ll see a “Y2Q” moment in 2026,” he said. “Our assessments and most credible industry forecasts put the arrival of a cryptographically relevant quantum computer closer to 2035–2040, or 2028–2032 at the very earliest. The fixation on a single ‘quantum doomsday’ date is misplaced.” “What’s largely misunderstood is that the real danger isn’t that quantum computers will break privacy; in fact, the cryptography underpinning advanced zero-knowledge proofs is already quantum-safe because it relies on information-theoretic blinding that no quantum system can reverse-engineer,” Blessing-Hartley said. “The real threat is economic integrity. Quantum-enabled forgery, not decryption, is what would break global trust. Many systems today, including some rollups and L2s, rely on schemes like KZG commitments, which are vulnerable to Shor’s algorithm. In that scenario, a bad actor could mint assets or create fraudulent proofs indistinguishable from legitimate ones.” Nik Bougalis, CTO at Algorand Foundation, believes quantum computers capable of breaking elliptic curve cryptography remain a distant prospect.  “Building a quantum computer with the number of logical qubits needed to attack modern cryptographic primitives is fraught with fundamental obstacles: quantum decoherence and error correction present real scaling challenges,” he said. “The physics and the engineering suggest to me that we’re at least a decade away, maybe two. Ask me again in 2035!” Bougalis, conceded, however, that the quantum threat to blockchains is real. “Cryptographically-relevant quantum computers don’t need to exist for us to begin migrating, and by the time they are ‘around the corner’ it will be too late,” he said. And protocol-level changes are not enough; instead, the broader ecosystem must upgrade. “This means wallets, exchanges, custody providers, developer SDKs, and hardware devices That takes time.” “Ultimately, the divide in 2026 won’t be between chains attacked by quantum computers versus those that survive,” he said. “It will be between projects with concrete post-quantum roadmaps and working implementations, and those still treating this as a theoretical problem. Institutions evaluating blockchain infrastructure for decades-long deployments will increasingly demand evidence of quantum readiness, not just promises.” Black swans and surprises While the 2026 narrative has shifted from the sprint-style bull market’s explosive gains to slow-and-steady marathon-style value creation, crypto wouldn’t be crypto without a few massive, unpredictable, and destabilizing events. Carvalho pointed to the practice of Harvest Now, Decrypt Later (HNDL) as one of the most pervasive cybersecurity threats moving forward – and one that is already very present in 2026.  “Malicious actors are systematically collecting and storing encrypted data today, from sensitive financial transactions to patient health records, personal identifiers, and corporate communications, with the intent of decrypting it once quantum computing becomes commercially viable,” he said. “This threat is particularly acute in data-rich sectors such as telecommunications, finance, and healthcare, where vast volumes of encrypted information are routinely transmitted and archived.” “Even if this data is currently protected by conventional cryptography, once quantum computers achieve sufficient processing power, the encryption algorithms underpinning today’s digital world could be rendered obsolete, exposing decades of stored data to retroactive exploitation,” Carvalho warned. “Against this backdrop, the importance of creating secure, resilient, and post-quantum-ready solutions across critical industries has never been more pronounced.” And the cryptosphere could also see a sudden David-and-Goliath turn in 2026 as the smaller players outflank the fintech giants. “The surprise of the year could come with how quickly regional and community banks leapfrog larger institutions in adopting digital assets,” Gerhart said. “Stablecoins and blockchain banking aren’t just relegated to global banks and payment providers, especially since this tech in particular helps smaller banks compete on speed, cost, and reach.” Sponsored by Discovery Silver Corp. - Learn more about the company, its latest news, and investor materials. Visit https://discoverysilver.com/ Ernest Hoffman Ernest Hoffman is a Crypto and Market Reporter for Kitco News. He has over 15 years of experience as a writer, editor, broadcaster and producer for media, educational and cultural organizations. Ernest began working in market news in 2007, establishing the broadcast division of CEP News in Montreal, Canada, where he developed the fastest web-based audio news service in the world and produced economic news videos in partnership with MSN and the TMX. He has a Bachelor's degree Specialization in Journalism from Concordia University. You can reach Ernest at 1-514-670-1339. Tags: Bitcoin price prediction Bitcoin altcoins AI quantum computing stablecoins institutional adoption crypto Outlook 2026 Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and may not reflect those of Kitco Metals Inc. 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