SNZ–NTU CCTF Releases "Top 10 Blockchain Industry Trends for 2026"

On New Year’s Eve, we bid farewell to the old and welcome the new. At this moment of transition, we are pleased to share with you the “Top 10 Blockchain Industry Trends for 2026,” a joint publication by the SNZ Holding Research Team and the NTU-CCTF Center for Computational Finance at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. (Read the full report)

Looking back from the beginning of 2026, Web3 is undergoing a profound transformation: from early speculative experiments to verifiable financial infrastructure. Stablecoins are no longer just a unit of account in the crypto market; they are widely discussed as the settlement layer for global payments. RWA assets have moved beyond pilot phases to become composable financial instruments within DeFi. Technologies such as smart accounts, intent execution, and zero-knowledge proofs are bringing on-chain interactions into mainstream user experience expectations.

Based on a systematic review of technological advancements, market dynamics, and cutting-edge academic research, this report distills the top ten trends to watch in 2026:

1. On-chain government bonds and cash management: RWA moving from concept to product

2. Stablecoins: the new focus of global payments in 2026

3. The era of smart accounts: bringing on-chain interactions back to everyday user experience

4. From “manual transaction construction” to “goal-based execution + backend bidding”

5. Zero-knowledge proofs: from privacy features to infrastructure for verifiable computation

6. Privacy and compliance: from trade-offs to verifiable engineering balance

7. Shared security and re-staking: redefining security budgets as tradable economic resources

8. DePIN networks: from incentive-driven narratives to verifiable engineering

9. Decentralized AI: from narrative hype to engineering practice

10. Token governance: from voting procedures to institutionalized design of rights and responsibilities

This report consolidates SNZ Holding’s industry insights in the Web3 space with NTU-CCTF’s academic research, aiming to provide industry builders, researchers, and decision-makers with a forward-looking and practical reference guide.

We invite you to download, read, and share. We also look forward to witnessing the realization and evolution of these trends together in 2026! Happy New Year on the eve of the Lunar New Year, and best wishes for a prosperous Year of the Horse!