[Not the next hundred-bagger, but the next "sector locked by institutions for ten years"]

1. Core Market Tone: Bidding farewell to the cycle myth and entering the industrialization phase
The biggest change in the crypto market by 2026 is the end of the era of wild swings driven by retail speculation and narrative hype. It will be replaced by an "industrialization stage" led by institutional funds, with clear regulatory frameworks and technology-driven real-world applications—similar to the internet in 1996, not a bubble on the eve of collapse, but the true beginning of commercial penetration. Institutional capital will no longer pursue short-term arbitrage but treat crypto assets as long-term hedges against currency devaluation and fiscal deficits, which will slow market volatility (Bitwise predicts Bitcoin volatility may be lower than Nvidia), but structural opportunities will become more concentrated.
Key conclusion: By 2026, avoid betting on large cycles; focus on "institution-usable, with real cash flow, privacy-compliant" niche tracks. The following sectors all align with this core logic.
2. Focused sectors and coin recommendations for 2026
Recently, privacy coins and anonymous tokens have been very active, performing well collectively, fermenting over a period of time, even under Bitcoin's downtrend. This is unlikely to be just a celebrity hype; there must be large capital behind it. After capital pushes, market demand follows, and this demand is very likely institutionalized RWA (Real-World Assets). This leads to a combined sector approach:
（一） RWA+ZK Privacy: The "golden combo" for institutional entry—more than privacy, an compliance accelerator
1. Sector logic
RWA (Real-World Asset Tokenization) essentially "gold-plates" traditional assets on the blockchain, breaking down government bonds, real estate, supply chain finance—these "old money assets"—into small tokens for both institutions and retail investors. 2026 is the inaugural year from concept to large-scale commercial use (Grayscale boldly predicts the market will grow a thousandfold by 2030). However, institutional participation has yet to see large-scale explosion; institutions are not afraid to engage but face three hurdles: first, privacy—e.g., tokenizing 10 billion real estate funds without exposing investor identities or property addresses; second, compliance—different countries have varying requirements for asset tokenization, and cross-region circulation risks crossing legal lines; third, efficiency—traditional asset on-chain often has slow circulation, not meeting high-frequency rebalancing needs.
ZK (Zero-Knowledge Proof) is the "all-in-one key": it can serve as a "privacy bodyguard," proving "asset compliance and investor qualification" without revealing specifics; it also acts as an "efficiency amplifier," compressing on-chain data to boost asset circulation speed by over ten times. In 2026, this sector is not about hype but real institutional capital entering—data shows that in 2025, global RWA on-chain volume reached $12 billion, expected to surpass $40 billion in 2026, with the "RWA+ZK" combo accounting for over 60%. BlackRock, J.P. Morgan are quietly deploying; the core reason is that it can connect "traditional assets + crypto compliance" seamlessly. (BlackRock and Franklin Templeton have already allocated hundreds of billions of dollars).
2. Coin recommendations and logic
• ZK (ZKsync): Leading ZK tech, first choice for institutional pilots. As Ethereum Layer 2's ZK leader, Prividium's upgrade in Q1 2026 has been implemented, adding "programmable privacy"—institutions can customize privacy scope, e.g., only disclose asset details to regulators, hide from retail investors. It is currently the second-largest public chain RWA issuance platform, with issuance volume of $3.12 billion (up 38.7% from 2025). Projects like Franklin Templeton's $1 billion government bond tokenization and Goldman Sachs' $500 million corporate bond project are on its ecosystem. Advantages include low cost + high compliance: single RWA token minting costs as low as $0.0001, already certified under EU MiCA. Grayscale has included it in core holdings.
• LINK (Chainlink): RWA "data guarantor," essential across sectors. The key to RWA on-chain is trustworthy off-chain data, such as government bond yields or real estate net worth; LINK does this. Over 80% of global RWA projects use LINK oracles, with call volume in January 2026 up 27% MoM. Fees from RWA alone account for 35% of its total revenue. Its PoR (Proof of Reserve) service is adopted by firms like Franklin, providing real-time proof of RWA asset reserves, alleviating regulatory concerns. More importantly, LINK has partnered with Bloomberg and Reuters, enabling direct access to core financial databases without secondary transfer. As RWA scales, call volume will double.
（二） AI agents + crypto payments: When AI learns to spend— not just a concept, but an efficiency revolution
1. Sector logic
AI used to be a "work-only" tool; now it aims to become a "self-paying" manager. For example: if you ask AI to analyze global markets, it will pay itself to call on US stock data and crypto prices; if you ask it to manage your assets, it will automatically rebalance across DeFi protocols, pay fees, and earn yields—all without your intervention. The core demand behind this is the market and individual desire for "fully automated financial services"—quant funds need high-frequency rebalancing, retail users want passive income, and AI agents can reduce human labor costs to zero.
But AI spending has two hard requirements: first, speed—AI rebalancing may happen multiple times per second, requiring instant blockchain settlement; second, universality—AI must be able to pay across chains, regardless of whether assets are on Ethereum or Solana. At this point, crypto networks become the "financial track" for AI, and Coinbase's x402 protocol is the "universal ticket," enabling seamless cross-chain payments. a16z predicts that in 2026, AI agent payment transactions will surpass 1 billion, and by 2030, the "agent economy" market size will reach $30 trillion. Early deployment is about grabbing sector access.
2. Coin recommendations and logic
• SOL (Solana): The "high-speed track" for AI payments, data beats peers. Why does Pantera Capital favor it? Because speed and cost really deliver. After Firedancer validator upgrade, TPS has reached 78,000 (target 1 million), block finality around 120 ms, and single AI payment fees are just $0.0012—1/600 of Ethereum mainnet. Currently, 37 AI-related DApps are on Solana, accounting for 18% of total DApps, with AI trading making up 23%. Leading AI quant tools like Autopilot settle over 100,000 transactions daily on Solana. In Q2 2026, it will integrate the official version of x402, with AI transaction share expected to rise to 40%.
• TAO (Bittensor): AI capability "trading marketplace," with a closed-loop ecosystem. TAO built a decentralized AI model marketplace—developers upload quality AI models to earn TAO; AI agents call models (e.g., data analysis, image recognition) by purchasing TAO. This creates a "supply-demand-payment" closed loop, avoiding reliance on centralized platforms. By January 2026, the ecosystem hosts 12,000 AI models, with over 85,000 developers, and an average of 5.8 million model calls daily, with fee income up 32% MoM. Its decentralized model feature helps prevent monopolies by Google or OpenAI. Grayscale has listed it as a core AI+crypto asset.
• NEAR (Near Protocol): AI-friendly "infrastructure base," with an intent-based architecture as a trump card. NEAR designed an "intent architecture" for AI agents—no need for complex blockchain knowledge, just say "rebalance $1000 USDC to DeFi," and it automatically handles cross-chain, payment, and execution. Over 50 AI projects are in NEAR ecosystem, with TVL reaching $1.23 billion, up 150% from 2025. AI asset management tools like AI Vault have over 100,000 users managing over $200 million daily. It also partnered with OpenAI, integrating GPT-4 API into NEAR, enabling AI agents to call GPT-4 directly.
（三） DePIN + AI computing power aggregation: The "encryption power source" for实体经济—turning idle GPUs into "money printers"
1. Sector logic
DePIN (Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Networks) is essentially a "decentralized physical infrastructure network," incentivizing ordinary people with crypto tokens to share their GPUs and routers, forming a global distributed infrastructure. The hottest trend in 2026 is "AI computing power aggregation"—currently, AI training lacks GPUs; Nvidia A100 cards sell for tens of thousands, cloud providers (AWS, Alibaba Cloud) charge a 300% premium, while the total idle GPU capacity is 2.5 times that of data centers. DePIN can pool these idle resources and rent them to institutions at over 50% lower cost than centralized providers.
The core of this sector is "real cash flow," not hype—institutions pay for rented computing power, miners earn tokens, creating a positive cycle. Messari predicts that the decentralized AI computing power market will surpass $12 billion in 2026, and by 2028, it will account for 15% of the global AI computing market. This is one of the few crypto sectors capable of generating real cash flow; institutions will not only invest in tokens but also directly rent computing power, with high certainty of real-world implementation.
2. Coin recommendations and logic
• IO: The "leader" in GPU aggregation, surpassing peers in scale. IO has integrated over 142,000 GPUs worldwide (up 42%), including high-end cards like A100 and H100, with total compute power of 2.8 EH/s, capable of supporting large AI model training. In Q1 2026, it partnered with Anthropic to provide part of the training compute for Claude 3, generating $85 million in quarterly rental income. Its compute scheduling tech keeps latency within 200 ms, comparable to centralized cloud providers. Sequoia Capital and a16z are among its strategic investors.
• Render: The "cash cow" for rendering compute, with mature commercial deployment. Render focuses on AI-generated content (AIGC) and film rendering, partnering long-term with Disney, Epic Games, MidJourney. In 2025, revenue reached $320 million with a 35% profit margin, making it one of the profitable DePIN projects. In 2026, it plans to expand into AI training compute, adding 50,000 GPUs, aiming for over $500 million in revenue. Its advantage lies in strong customer stickiness—Disney's animated film 70% of rendering was done by Render, at 40% lower cost than traditional render farms.

3. Summary: Investment logic shift in 2026
The core investment logic in 2026 is "finding institutional needs": RWA+ZK addresses asset compliance needs, AI agent payments solve full automation service needs, DePIN+AI compute power meets实体经济's compute needs. Recommended coins are either underlying infrastructure (ZKS, LINK, NEAR) or core beneficiaries of scenarios (SOL, TAO, IO), all fitting the "institution-acknowledged + technology-implemented + cash flow-supported" industrialization stage, validated by both data and scenarios for high certainty.