Say goodbye to "casino" mentality; the next wave of crypto applications should focus on mass adoption

Written by: Paul Veradittakit

Translated by: AididiaoJP, Foresight News

2026 will be a pivotal year. We will see the industry shift from “cryptocurrency as an industry” to “cryptocurrency as a service.”

Over the past decade, the crypto world has been full of hype. The approval of Bitcoin ETFs in 2024 brought mainstream financial recognition. In 2025, everyone focused on building the underlying infrastructure. By 2026, true value will belong to companies that use blockchain to solve longstanding problems in traditional industries while making users barely aware of blockchain’s presence.

The future crypto unicorns won’t rely on hype anymore. They will be companies that leverage blockchain technology to boost product efficiency by an order of magnitude, unlocking markets worth hundreds of billions, while hiding complex technology entirely.

Crypto Wins the “Weekend”

When the Iran conflict erupted, U.S. stock markets closed for the weekend, unable to respond to sudden global risks. But the crypto market didn’t stop—Bitcoin surged to $74,000. Decentralized prediction markets like Hyperliquid led the way in price discovery, even before traditional markets opened. This isn’t an isolated case—last month, when China announced new policies, the same happened.

Traditional hedge funds are increasingly entering this space. The “7x24 hours nonstop” crypto market is no longer just a slogan but a structural advantage that traditional finance cannot match.

Despite this, current crypto valuations are still far below what fundamentals suggest they should be. We are undoubtedly in a bear market (the fourth I’ve experienced), but this time is different: regulations are becoming clearer, institutional funds are entering, and infrastructure is improving.

This feeling was especially strong at the recent Hong Kong Consensus conference. The vitality of Asian markets contrasted sharply with the West. Support from both parties’ governments, new institutional entrants, and a focus on consumer applications are fueling a strong bullish sentiment.

Highlights for Asia in 2026:

• Cross-border payments via stablecoins, especially in B2B. For Asia’s more decentralized economies, crypto payments are a natural choice.

• Tokenization of gold, stocks, and real estate. Asian banks and fintech companies are catching up with the U.S.

• Perpetual contracts on DeFi. Driven by retail traders, development may outpace Western markets.

• Prediction markets are expected to become a significant sector, though their form may differ from Western models.

Core Trend: “Crypto as a Service”

The key theme for 2026 is shifting from “crypto as an industry” to “crypto as a service.” The goal is no longer for users to see blockchain but to completely forget its existence.

Over the past decade, we’ve been obsessed with creating “crypto spectacles”—gas fee wars, TPS races, modular stacks, ZK proofs. The 2024 ETF approval was a sign of mainstream recognition. By 2025, infrastructure was laid out. 2026 is time to turn the page.

Farewell to the “Casino” Era

The next generation of unicorns won’t be those “L3 networks built for AI-NFTs.” Instead, they will be companies that use blockchain to increase product efficiency tenfold while hiding the technology entirely, unlocking markets worth hundreds of billions.

This perfectly explains our recent investment logic:

Novig: Bidding farewell to the “pumping” era (Series B, $75 million)

Traditional sports betting is a monopolistic, distorted market. Bookmakers take high commissions from each bet, resulting in a dismal 2% profit margin for users. We led Novig’s $75 million Series B because they treat sports betting as a high-frequency financial product. Through peer-to-peer trading, Novig users achieve an average profit margin of 23%. Most users don’t care about whether the backend uses a decentralized order book—they just know they can get the best odds in the U.S. This is a vivid example of “crypto as a service.”

Based: Consumer-grade super app ($11.5 million Series A)

We recently led Based’s Series A funding. It’s a composable Web3 consumer super app built on the Hyperliquid ecosystem. “Consumer crypto” has often been associated with “clunky experiences.” Based is changing that, making on-chain interactions as smooth as top-tier fintech apps. Complex operations like cross-chain bridging and gas fees are abstracted away, unnoticed by users. They only need to focus on the social and financial value of their assets.

Doppler: Default asset issuance infrastructure ($9 million seed round)

If Based and Novig are sleek new cars, Doppler is the high-performance fuel system. We led Doppler’s $9 million seed round, aiming to become the default infrastructure for on-chain asset issuance. It enables developers to issue assets with institutional-grade security and compliance standards without building everything from scratch. Doppler is like Stripe for on-chain assets—practical features wrapped in a simple API.

Why “Invisible” Matters More Than “Viral”

This trend of “invisibility” runs throughout our entire portfolio:

Real-world assets: Tokenized government bonds are no longer just crypto experiments—they are becoming the backbone of global trade liquidity.

AI agents: Blockchain, through prediction markets and verifiable data, provides AI agents with a trusted “truth layer,” enabling autonomous and trustworthy interactions with digital assets.

Agent payments will accelerate all this. Standards like x402 allow AI agents to transact directly with crypto assets. Gradually clearer regulations around stablecoins make this payment pathway even smoother.

Advice for Entrepreneurs

If you’re planning to start a business in 2026, my simple advice is: stop obsessing over technology and focus more on solving real problems. If your pitch deck’s page on consensus mechanisms comes before the one on customer returns, your thinking is still stuck in 2022.

We’re looking for teams building the next Novig, Based, or Doppler—those who truly understand what “mass adoption” means: when a technology becomes so seamless that people forget it exists, it truly enters thousands of households.