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Crypto Market Outlook 2026 Highlights Institutional Adoption

Market Movers: The Opening Bell

December 19, 2025

Video Transcript

Another busy week for the crypto industry.

Coinbase is launching prediction markets and now offering stock trading, and it's been a big week for crypto exchange Moon pay as well.

The company will launch a stablecoin with Exodus and the CFTC's Caroline is joining the team.

Meanwhile, Visa is allowing banks to use Circle stablecoin over so long as blockchain, and JPMorgan has launched a tokenized money market fund on Ethereum blockchain.

This shows how stable.

Coins prediction markets and tokenization have been among the biggest fintech trends this year.

Well joining me as we wrap up the year is Rob Haddock, general partner at Dragonfly, a crypto native VC firm.

Rob, great to have you here.

Thank you so much for joining me.

Thanks for having me.

Well, 2025 has been quite the year when it comes to the world of digital assets, but you've been in this space since 2018, so give us an idea of where the money is moving.

Now, yeah, so 2018 was the ICO phase.

It was trying to bring awareness of crypto to a broad set of consumers, but we didn't really have the infrastructure yet.

Today, the infrastructure is now there that we're seeing all of these announcements that you've been talking about JPMorgan, other large institutions coming into the space, the DTCC, and we're starting to see what I call the institutionalization phase of crypto and we're seeing investment into all blockchain infrastructure.

And the assets themselves, Bitcoin, the ETFs coming from large institutions.

That's what we're really excited about is this institutional adoption that's happening in the space right now.

And speaking of which, stablecoin payments have been in the spotlight in 2025, and some estimates do call for growth to double as we head into next year.

So where do you think it belongs in the future of global payments and break it down for us.

So I think double is probably conservative.

My expectation is that it's a lot bigger than that next year.

You know, you just talked about you saw Visa enabling stablecoin settlement 24/7 365, right?

That is an unlock for capital efficiency, it's an unlock for cross-border direct push payments that we've seen with things like Visa Direct, which is the fastest growing part of Visa's business today.

That's going to be, I think, an accelerating force.

We're going to see an accelerating force in cross-border B2B payments, especially in the SMB sector.

We're going to see an acceleration really around payouts for contractors and what is a global economy, right?

And so stablecoins are much better for programmable movement of money.

It's much better for capital efficiency, and our expectation is that stablecoins take over a lot of cross border, take over a lot of corresponding. and eventually move their way into actually merchant acceptance as well as you're seeing with announcements like Klarna USD who wants to do, you know, they have this marketplace for their stablecoin between consumers and their merchants and another area we're focusing on as we head into 2026 is tokenized real world assets.

So what do you expect to see in this space as we head into not just next year but beyond?

So we've seen the figure IPO, which is a very 2nd, I think the 2nd or 3rd best performing IPO of the year, that was the start of tokenizing real estate, so it was a HELO, right?

Now we've seen, you know, this growth of the Biddle Fund, which is BlackRock's money market fund, obviously JPMorgan announced theirs, and what we're starting to see is kind of all large institutions saying, hey, if I can tokenize an asset, I can move it across different counterparties.

Different asset classes much more easily and much more programmably and so we expect that we'll see that go beyond just money market funds now.

We'll start to see things like CLOs or other types of credit products.

We're starting to hear a long conversation around tokenized equities like the DTCC.

So Robinhood obviously had just announced that they were going to be doing that this year as well and has launched that product and so we expect a kind of a snowball effect here as liquidity gets bigger and bigger.

And while I have you here, I do want to get your take on prediction markets.

So even here at the New York Stock Exchange, prediction markets have been in the spotlight this year, especially in the final quarter of 2025 with ICE, the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange, investing in polymarket.

But I understand dragonfly was also an early investor in polymarket and you liken prediction markets to options.

So can you walk us through this?

Yeah, I mean at the end of the day what it is is a binary option, right?

And so it tells you invest or you put money into an outcome that is a yes or no outcome, right, or this person will win or won't win outcome, right?

And it allows you to have direct access to any type of market, right?

And you can create a market on an election, you can create a market on you know weather related activities I've talked about insurance.

Companies who are actively looking at these types of options products to hedge risk for that it might be weather related.

We're starting to see a lot of conversation around how to use these options for institutional use cases, but also as a way to get more direct exposure to an outcome relative to having to worry about 2nd and 3rd order effects like you might when you invest in a certain type of equity or the yield curve, etc.

And finally, before I let you go, not only do you have an engineering background, but you also are in VC so I do want to get your take as well as read on the temperature when it comes to the crypto IPO outlook for next year.

So I mean the single best performing IPO this year was Circle, right?

Figure top 5 performing IPO this year.

Coreweave, which has an AI and crypto story as well, top performing IPO.

There's a clear demand from the market for access to growth technology, crypto and AI being the two areas where we're seeing growth.

If you look at crack and filing, Bicco is out there, and you look at the long list, my expectation is that that continues and there's a real explosion of crypto IPOs next year.

And of course for viewers out there who are watching at the nation's airport gates or in business lounges, they might be wondering what does this actually mean for them, especially as retail investors.

So what would you say to them?

What do they have to look forward to as we head into the future?

I think we're going to continue to see a growth of essentially democratization of assets, right, democratization of things that you can.

In crypto and tokenized assets, they allow for a broader set of access through different brokerages, different front ends, different types, and really globally.

So what I expect for the retail investor to see is that they will continue to get more and more access to all types of investable assets, and that's a good thing, right?

We don't want to have any single asset class just be exposed to institutional investors.

And finally, before I let you go, when we think about 2025, there has been a lot that's happened when it comes to digital assets and crypto, both in Tradfi as well as DeFi, and we continue to keep an eye on the regulatory landscape and legislation coming down the pike.

So what are your expectations from the nation's capital in 2026?

Yes, so clearly the big conversation right now has been around the Clarity Act or some sort of reconciliation thereof.

I expect that that will be the big focus going into early next year.

Following that, I expect probably crypto to take a bit of a back seat as we start to get rule making for genius, as we start to get more rulemaking within the SEC and the CFTC around these different types of assets and how we should treat them relative to brokerages and equities, etc. and so I expect to see a lot more kind of go into the lap of the regulators versus the legislature in 2026.

Well, a lot to look forward to as we head into the new year, so hopefully you'll be back then.

Thank you so much for joining us and happy holidays.

Thank you.

Thank you.

The crypto market outlook 2026 is coming into sharper focus as the digital asset industry closes out a pivotal year marked by accelerating institutional adoption and infrastructure maturity. In a recent discussion, Rob Hadick, general partner at crypto-native venture capital firm Dragonfly, outlined how the sector has evolved from speculative experimentation into a more structured financial ecosystem, with stablecoins, tokenized assets, and prediction markets emerging as key growth drivers.

Hadick, who has been active in the crypto space since 2018, explained that the foundational infrastructure supporting digital assets has advanced dramatically. Earlier cycles were dominated by initial coin offerings designed primarily to introduce the concept of crypto to the public. Today, institutions such as JPMorgan and the Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation are actively building blockchain-based solutions, lending new credibility and durability to the market. This shift marks a meaningful step toward long-term institutionalization.

Stablecoins were a central theme in the crypto market outlook 2026. Hadick noted projections suggesting that stablecoin payment volumes could double in the coming year, driven by their ability to improve capital efficiency and enable seamless cross-border transactions. Major players including Visa and JPMorgan are already leveraging blockchain rails to support stablecoin settlement, allowing transactions to occur around the clock. This always-on settlement capability represents a structural improvement over traditional payment systems.

Tokenization of real-world assets is another area poised for expansion. Hadick highlighted growing interest in tokenized equities and money market funds as firms seek faster settlement and improved liquidity. Companies such as Circle and Figure, both moving toward public listings, illustrate how tokenization is transitioning from theory into active market infrastructure. As adoption increases, tokenized assets are expected to reduce friction across financial markets and broaden access for investors.

Prediction markets also featured prominently in the discussion. These platforms allow participants to express views on future outcomes in a structured, market-driven format. Hadick pointed to the recent investment by Intercontinental Exchange, the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange, in Polymarket as a strong signal of institutional acceptance. He added that prediction markets could serve practical use cases, including risk hedging for insurance firms and other financial institutions.

Looking ahead, the crypto market outlook 2026 includes a potential wave of public offerings across the sector. Hadick cited growing investor appetite for high-growth technologies at the intersection of crypto and artificial intelligence. Firms such as Kraken and BICO are among those preparing for IPOs, reflecting renewed confidence in public market demand. This trend is expected to expand retail investor access to digital asset exposure through traditional financial channels.

Regulation remains a defining variable for the year ahead. Hadick identified the Clarity Act as a focal point for the evolving regulatory environment, noting that regulators are likely to play a larger role than legislators in shaping implementation. Clear rules governing investor protections and the integration of digital assets into traditional finance will be essential for sustaining momentum and managing risk.

In summary, Rob Hadick’s perspective reinforces the view that the crypto market outlook 2026 is defined by maturation rather than speculation. Stablecoins, asset tokenization, and prediction markets are moving from niche concepts to functional components of global finance. As institutional participation deepens and regulatory clarity improves, digital assets are increasingly positioned as a durable layer within the broader financial system.

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