Author: 0xJeff
Compiled by: Deep Tide TechFlow
Original Title: 7 Major Crypto Trends and Lessons You Must Know Before 2026
2025 was filled with unprecedented turbulence and change. We welcomed a U.S. President who reportedly supports cryptocurrency and artificial intelligence. However, the market in 2025 did not usher in the anticipated bull run; instead, it became a year of "slaughter" for the entire industry.
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Most altcoins experienced a plunge of 80%-99% in 2025
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Bitcoin's market dominance returned to 2019-2020 levels (over 60%), outperforming most coins
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Ethereum (ETH) traded at prices similar to 2022
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The altcoin market was highly fragmented (with 40 to 50 million coin types available)
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Despite continuous positive news within the industry (such as clearer regulatory frameworks, ETF approvals, corporate adoption of blockchain technology, institutional investment in BTC, ETH, and altcoins, etc.), the stock market's performance in 2025 completely crushed the crypto market
Despite the pain and turmoil, 2025 was still regarded by many as the industry's "year of maturation," but it also witnessed a mass exodus of practitioners and investors.
So, for those who remain steadfast in the crypto space, here is the key content you must understand before 2026 arrives:
Let's dive in ↓
Prediction Markets: Versatile Trading Tools
Prediction markets became one of the fastest-growing verticals in 2025—weekly nominal trading volume reached $3.8 billion for the first time, with Polymarket, Kalshi, and Opinion emerging as the dominant platforms in this field.
Although the controversy over whether prediction markets equate to gambling continues, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) regards them as event contracts or binary options based on real-world event outcomes. The CFTC's innovation-friendly stance, coupled with increased market demand for betting/prediction, drove the rapid growth of prediction market trading volume in 2025.
From a trading tool perspective, prediction markets have shown great flexibility. They can be seen as a more user-experience-optimized option tool (though still lacking in liquidity).
You can use leveraged trading on any market, choose "Yes/No" directional bets, use it as a hedging tool (by holding spot positions elsewhere), or earn yields and potential airdrop rewards by executing delta-neutral strategies (evenly distributing "Yes/No" shares in the market).
Cash-Secured Puts and Covered Calls
These two options strategies are well-suited for investors looking to manage their investments in a more conservative manner.
Instead of directly buying altcoins when prices fall or quickly selling them, you can generate cash flow by selling call or put options. If the price reaches a certain target, you can choose to buy the dip or sell your altcoins; if the price does not reach the target, you get your principal back.
This strategy is one of the best ways to generate high annual percentage yield (APR) for your altcoins or stablecoins.
The only caveat is that your principal will be locked up for a period (typically 3-5 weeks), but you receive the option fee (premium) immediately when selling call or put options.
Narrative Fatigue + Equity vs. Token = Return to Fundamentals
The rotation speed of market narratives has accelerated significantly. What used to last for weeks or even months now persists for at most a few days.
The crypto community (CT) is shifting from chasing narratives to focusing on real fundamentals (e.g., user numbers, revenue, growth metrics). The market is more inclined to evaluate metrics of real businesses and clarify the value transfer relationship between the business and the token.
However, this year, in the game between equity and tokens, we have witnessed too much chaos, especially in the mergers and acquisitions (M&A) space:
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Pumpfun acquired Padre (a trading tool), but completely left Padre's token holders in the dark. After the acquisition news was announced, the PADRE token plummeted 50%-80%, triggering a strong backlash from the community. To appease the Padre community's dissatisfaction, Pumpfun promised to airdrop PUMP tokens based on the pre-announcement value of PADRE holdings in the future.
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Circle acquired Axelar but similarly ignored Axelar's token holders. After the acquisition, the AXL token fell sharply. This is recent news, and what happens next remains unknown, but the community is already furious (and rightfully so).
The debate between equity and token holders is intensifying, which also leads us to a deeper question......
Market-Governed Organizations and Ownership Tokens
MetaDAO launched a fair, transparent, and unmanipulable ICO launch platform featuring high circulation, a low fully diluted valuation (FDV) structure, and no venture capital (VC) or private allocation. Additionally, it introduced mechanisms such as performance-based team unlocks and potential fund recovery functions.
This structure grants token holders genuine ownership, control, and alignment of interests, effectively solving issues like project teams abandoning ship, token dumping, black-box operations, and improper acquisitions.
Colosseum (an independent organization accelerating the Solana ecosystem) recently launched "STAMP" (Simple Token Agreement, Market Protection Mechanism), a new type of investment contract designed to merge private VC financing with public MetaDAO ICOs, ensuring investor rights and aligning with MetaDAO's on-chain governance.
The MetaDAO model has given rise to a new category of "ownership tokens"—projects launched through MetaDAO's ICO. Many launched projects have performed strongly—for example, Umbra, Omnipair, and Avici saw strong demand during their financing rounds, and their tokens significantly outperformed the market in 2025.
Through the MetaDAO model, the importance of token holders is elevated; they truly have a voice and actual ownership of the project. Project revenue and fees are no longer directed to equity holders but directly benefit token holders.
The trend of market-governed organizations and ownership tokens is likely to continue into 2026 and will intertwine with the next trend......
The Rise of Security Tokenization
On-chain liquidity is constrained, and the focus of market participants is gradually turning to fundamentals, revenue, buybacks, and other real values. Meanwhile, enterprises are adopting stablecoins, more institutions are deploying capital into the crypto space, and recently, security tokenization has become simpler and more feasible than ever, especially for regulated institutions.
On December 11, 2025, the security tokenization space witnessed a significant regulatory breakthrough. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued a "No-Action Letter," clearly stating that it would not take enforcement action against DTCC's (Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation) subsidiary DTC's pilot security tokenization plan. The pilot includes the tokenization of Russell 1000 index components, U.S. Treasuries, and major ETFs.
This mechanism, during the pilot period (starting in the second half of 2026, lasting three years), enables compliant centralized tokenization operations through DTC, directing activities to regulated infrastructure rather than fully decentralized alternatives.
This means that from 2026 onward, we will see more security tokenization projects, which also implies increased demand for tokenized stocks, accelerating the convergence of traditional finance (TradFi) and decentralized finance (DeFi).
Consumer Crypto Products and Perpetuals Become Core to Crypto
In 2025, consumer crypto products and perpetual contracts (Perps) became core hotspots in the crypto industry:
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Pumpfun peaked in 2024-2025
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Virtuals adopted a similar model but incorporated a new AI smart agent narrative
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Zora also attempted something similar in the content token space, with support from Jesse
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Collectibles, fantasy football, and prediction markets became hugely popular in 2025
These are consumer-oriented products that allow both crypto-natives to have fun and attract non-crypto users (such as prediction market participants) to earn while having fun.
Crypto itself is like a game, and trading is also entertainment. Therefore, novel consumer products that combine the two well tend to stand out more.
Perpetual contracts (Perps) have a similar appeal because they allow users to make precise bets on the rise and fall of asset prices.
If you look at the key metrics of prediction markets and perpetual contracts, you'll find they both reached all-time highs (ATH) in 2025. These figures seem to "shout" that product-market fit (PMF) has emerged in the crypto space: prediction markets reached a weekly nominal trading volume of $3.8 billion, while perpetual contracts reached a weekly trading volume of $340 billion (monthly volume of $1.3 trillion, setting a new ATH).
This is why people are so keen to participate in platforms like Hyperliquid, Lighter, Aster, Polymarket, and Opinion. Huge activity, massive demand, and significant capital flows directly translate into higher valuations and more airdrop rewards.
Consumer crypto products also hold potential, but in 2025, we haven't seen truly sustainable consumer crypto products yet. Sportsdotfun (SDF) showed good early growth and is currently conducting community financing on Legion and Kraken. Although the future of this field is still unknown, the prospects are exciting for now.
What we can learn from this is that if you want to find your edge in this market, either invest in the platforms (like prediction markets, perpetuals, consumer crypto products) or actively participate in these categories:
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Learn how to trade perpetual contracts
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Make predictions in prediction markets
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Use consumer crypto products
Through these practices, you can better understand the market and find your competitive advantage. Otherwise......
You Can Be a "Storyteller"
That's right, now The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), Silicon Valley, and various tech practitioners are all enthusiastic about the role of the "Storyteller." Many startups have opened job postings for "Storytellers."
In the crypto space, this has actually been a common phenomenon for a long time. We have "Yappers," key opinion leaders (KOLs), and storytellers who have been discussing projects and helping build crypto communities for years (even before Kaito coined the term "Yapper").
But now, it seems the whole world is beginning to realize the importance of having the right narrative and conveying the brand, product, and positioning in the right way.
However, the role of a storyteller goes far beyond being a "Yapper." Currently, in the crypto space, many "Yappers" simply copy and paste content to "show presence" rather than trying to truly learn and understand what they are discussing.
This provides an opportunity for those who truly understand the industry, possess professional knowledge, or are curious about learning to stand out—whether in the crypto community (CT) or broader fields.
Those who are good at storytelling can, by expanding their brand influence, ultimately have the freedom to choose: they can choose to develop independently or be "acqui-hired" by startups and projects that fit their brand.
In 2025, we have already seen successful cases of this dynamic. For example, Kalshi recruited well-known figures from the crypto community, and some crypto projects successfully shaped their brand image and attracted more users through close partnerships and ambassador programs (such as sharing badges, etc.).
If you are good at telling stories, this era is your stage!
Core Summary
The crypto market in 2024-2025 was like playing a game of "Monopoly";
While 2026 will be more like the domain of enterprises, startups, and suit-wearing finance professionals—less of the "Monopoly"-style gameplay, fewer opportunities for easy money, and fewer narratives relying solely on "numbers going up."
The future will focus more on fundamentals, alignment of interests, value accumulation, and compound leverage. If you cannot develop a real competitive advantage, even if you are an OG (original gangster), you may eventually become someone else's "bag holder."
Your competitive advantage can be any of the following:
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Having a clear mind, not blinded by delusion;
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Being good at telling a good story;
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Building quality products that are truly needed;
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Insight into trends;
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Trading rationally, not swayed by emotions.
Persist, find your edge, and you will be rewarded.
Thank you very much for reading! If you want to know my views on some projects and more straightforward thoughts, you can check out my The After Hour column on Substack.
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