Author: thedefinvestor; Translator: Plain Language Blockchain
Price trends aside, 2025 is a pivotal year for the mass adoption of cryptocurrencies. Many people say the industry hasn't progressed since the last cycle, but I think that's completely inaccurate. Take 2021, for example; cross-chain transactions often took several seconds. Now, you can complete fund transfers in seconds using cross-chain aggregators like Jumper. Admittedly, the on-chain user experience (UX) is still imperfect, but the key is that DeFi is on the right track. In this installment, I'll share several DeFi trends and products that I expect to gain momentum rapidly in 2026
1. Retail Model Consumer Applications (Consumer dApps)
This might sound plausible. Our goal has always been to bring in **norms**, not speculators.
The problem, however, is that almost every dApp so far has been designed for crypto, with a UX that's overly complex for the average internet user. Fortunately, this is changing. We're finally seeing new consumer-grade applications that leverage the advantages of crypto while providing a seamless Web2 experience. I'm closely following several projects they're focusing on: Aave App: A mobile reset app built on AAVE, allowing users to earn interest entirely on a crypto foundation. EtherFi Cash: A new crypto bank (Neobank) where you can spend cryptocurrency, book travel, save asset yields, and make bank transfers. DeFi App: An on-chain "all-in-one" app that provides a centralized exchange (CEX) experience for buying and selling tokens, trading perpetual contracts, and financial statements (while completely abstracting away cross-chain and gas fees). UR: A new crypto bank built by Mantle with an excellent UX, supporting spending, wealth management, and bank transfers. I believe 2026 is highly likely to see several crypto consumer products go mainstream. 2. Non-USD Stablecoins USD stablecoins currently hold absolute dominance. While I expect them to continue growing, non-USD stablecoins feel like a huge untapped market, especially with the USD expected to depreciate by about 11% against the Euro by 2025. With trillions of dollars traded daily in the FX market, it would be foolish to think there's no demand for non-USD stablecoins. Currently, they face two main problems: Insufficient liquidity (leading to excessive slippage on large transactions). Extremely low DeFi utility. Once these issues are resolved, I expect one of the stablecoins, such as the Euro (EUR) and the Swiss Franc (CHF), to gain significant attention. Polygon is a project worth watching, as they are working on on-chain foreign exchange payments. 3. Deep Experimentation with Tokenomics Many projects launched buyback programs in 2025. While this proved wise in some cases (such as Hyperliquid), large projects like Jupiter are ceasing buybacks, and the impact of buybacks on price is negligible. My view is that 2026 will see a large number of projects attempting to generate more value for tokens through new experimental approaches to token economics. Regarding buybacks, even retirement funds like Apple only use a portion of their income for dividends, reinvesting the majority in the business for future growth. I believe that while retirement funds are good, using all income for retirement is not a wise strategy. Besides the effectiveness issue, another pain point is the selling pressure from 99% of token insiders gradually pushing them to zero. Paradex has proposed a performance-based team unlocking solution to address the problem, which is quite interesting. We may see more experimentation in this area in 2026. In summary: Besides the trends mentioned above, I expect perpetual contract DEXs (Perps DEX), Real-World Assets (RWA), and market predictions to continue their exponential growth. However, I believe these are already market consensus, so today I'd like to share some less discussed trends that I personally favor.