a16z releases 2026 three major crypto trend predictions: AI agents, intangible payments, and privacy chains will reshape the industry

a16z’s latest annual cryptocurrency forecast report predicts that by 2026, blockchain, artificial intelligence agents, and the global payment system will undergo profound transformations. The report focuses on three key trends: the rise of AI agents, the integration of payments into the underlying network, and the full advent of privacy blockchains. These changes will reshape the financial infrastructure of the internet.

First, a16z believes that the most disruptive force will come from the explosive growth of autonomous AI agents. In future financial markets, the number of AI agents will far surpass human participants, but currently they still lack identity verification, authorization, and compliance frameworks. a16z anticipates that by 2026, the first “KYA (Know Your Agent)” standard will emerge, binding identities, responsibilities, and rules to agents, enabling them to securely transact on-chain and truly become market participants with programmable economic behavior.

Second, as AI agents automate payment instructions—such as purchasing data, paying for computing power, or calling APIs—the transfer of value will shift from the application layer into the network layer. a16z points out that emerging permissionless payment primitives (such as the x402 protocol) will make payments instant, transparent, and middleware-free. In the future internet, payments will become a foundational function on par with data transfer, while banks, stablecoins, and settlement systems will serve as “invisible infrastructure.”

The third key trend stems from the rapid rise of privacy blockchains. a16z emphasizes that privacy will become the strongest moat for future crypto networks, surpassing performance and throughput. Once transactions are default private, switching between chains will become difficult because migration could leak metadata, creating a “privacy lock-in effect.” Blockchains with strong privacy capabilities will gain long-term advantages in competition. This view is echoed by Arthur Hayes, who pointed out that institutional users cannot operate at scale on public chains, and that Layer-2 privacy solutions may be among the first to be implemented.

Additionally, a16z predicts that stablecoin infrastructure will grow, with more tokenized assets moving onto chains for trading; as SNARK technology accelerates, verifiable cloud computing will become mainstream; and the media ecosystem will see the emergence of a “pledge credit” model, which enhances trustworthiness through on-chain commitments.

Overall, a16z believes 2026 could mark a structural turning point for the crypto industry, with AI, foundational payment technologies, and privacy innovations driving a new wave of infrastructure revolution.