Written by: thedefinvestor

Translated by: Baihua Blockchain

Putting aside price trends, 2025 is an important year for the mass adoption of cryptocurrency. Many people say that this industry has not progressed since the last cycle, but I believe this is completely inaccurate. Take 2021 as an example; cross-chain transactions often took several hours; now, you can use cross-chain aggregators like Jumper to complete fund transfers in minutes. Admittedly, the on-chain user experience (UX) is still not perfect, but the key is that DeFi is on the right track. In this issue, I will share several DeFi trends and products that I expect to gain momentum quickly in 2026.

1. Retail Model Consumer Applications (Consumer dApps)

This may sound vague. Our goal has always been to attract mainstream users (Normies) rather than speculators. But the problem is that, so far, almost every dApp has been designed for crypto, and the UX is too complex for ordinary internet users. Fortunately, this is changing. We are finally seeing new consumer applications that leverage the advantages of crypto technology while providing a Web2 smooth experience. I am closely monitoring several projects that focus on this:

Aave App: A mobile reset application built on AAVE that allows users to earn interest based on a fully crypto technology foundation.

EtherFi Cash: A new crypto neobank where you can spend cryptocurrency, book travel, save asset yields, and make bank transfers.

DeFi App: An on-chain "all-in-one application" that provides the experience of a centralized exchange (CEX) for buying and selling tokens, trading perpetual contracts, and financial statements (while completely abstracting cross-chain and gas fees).

UR: A new crypto bank built by Mantle, featuring excellent UX, supporting spending, wealth management, and bank transfers. I believe we are likely to see multiple crypto consumer products go mainstream in 2026.

2. Non-USD Stablecoins

USD stablecoins currently hold an absolute dominant position. While I expect them to continue growing, non-USD stablecoins feel like a huge untapped market, especially with the USD depreciating about 11% against the Euro by 2025. The foreign exchange (FX) market has daily trading volumes reaching trillions of dollars, and it is foolish to think there is no demand for non-USD stablecoins. Currently, they face two main issues:

Insufficient liquidity (leading to excessive slippage on large trades).

Very low DeFi utility. Once these issues are resolved, I expect stablecoins like the Euro (EUR) and Swiss Franc (CHF) to gain significant attention. Polygon is a project worth watching as they are working on on-chain foreign exchange payments.

3. In-depth Experiments in Tokenomics

Many projects launched buyback programs in 2025. While this has proven to be a wise move in some cases (like Hyperliquid), large projects like Jupiter are stopping buybacks, as the impact on price is minimal. My view is that in 2026, many projects will attempt to stimulate more value for tokens through new experimental tokenomics. Regarding buybacks, using 100% of profits for dividends, like a pension fund, while reinvesting most of the income back into the business for future growth is a better strategy. I believe while pensions are good, using all income for retirement is not a good strategy. Besides the effective issues, another pain point is the selling pressure from 99% of token insiders gradually driving prices to zero. Paradex has proposed a performance-based team unlocking scheme to address this issue, which is interesting. We may see more experiments in this area in 2026.

Conclusion: Besides the trends mentioned above, I expect perpetual contract DEXs (Perps DEX), real-world assets (RWA), and market predictions to continue experiencing exponential growth. However, I believe these are already part of market sentiment, so today I prefer to share some trends that I personally find promising but are less discussed.

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