Every cycle, people say that crypto is dead. By retail, and by funding. Attention moves on to the next bubble, this time it is AI. However, when Y Combinator published its list of Biggest Startup Opportunities of 2026, crypto kept its place alongside AI, healthcare, defence, enterprise software, and climate technology.
What surprised me was not that crypto is on the list. Rather, it was the particular formulation of crypto opportunities that caught my eye: YC did not ask the startups to design the next Layer 1, to build another memecoin or NFT marketplace, or to develop a yield farming protocol. Instead, they pointed to the need for stablecoin financial services, crypto infrastructure, institutional crypto products, tokenised assets, and agentic commerce.
This is the first sign that crypto is slowly evolving from an innovation layer to an enabler of other innovations, and, therefore, moving from an industry to an infrastructure. This is not the first sign, either, if you have been paying attention to the broader ecosystem.
Recently, Stripe announced Stablecoin Financial Accounts, a product that allows businesses in more than 100 countries to hold and transfer digital dollars around the world, bypassing the traditional banking system to a large extent. Meanwhile, Visa continues to develop stablecoin settlement and tokenised asset initiatives, and PayPal has expanded the use of its PYUSD stablecoin beyond Ethereum and blockchain-based payments.
The most notable trends in crypto adoption as financial infrastructure are also visible in Southeast Asia. GCash, the largest digital wallet in the Philippines with over 94 million registered users, has partnered with Ava Labs to tokenise EURC, USDC, and USDT on Avalanche in GCrypto. This makes it possible for everyday users to make payments in digital dollars via the most popular local app, instead of buying crypto on centralised exchanges.
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By contrast, the competition between different Layer 1s may well be turning into a race to enable the adoption of digital assets as financial instruments by banks, payment processors, asset managers, governments, and enterprises. BlackRock’s BUIDL, the world’s largest tokenised money market fund, has also joined the ecosystem.
The same can be said for Stellar, which has embarked on a long-term journey to enable cross-border value transfers and displace traditional financial infrastructure in emerging markets and remittance corridors. The recent partnership with MoneyGram and UNHCR, as well as the introduction of Paxos Global Dollar (USDG), are all examples of this.
The broader financial services industry is also undergoing a similar transition. OKX and Standard Chartered Bank recently announced the launch of a collateral mirroring programme, which allows institutional customers to use tokenised money market funds and crypto assets as collateral in OKX’s custody under a regulated framework. The growing consensus within traditional finance is that digital assets will become an unavoidable part of the financial ecosystem.
However, the integration of crypto into traditional finance is much more nuanced and complex than many in the crypto community have cared to admit. DeFi is undergoing a similar transformation at the protocol level, as evidenced by Aave’s recent decision to sunset several smaller Layer 2 markets in favour of a more focused approach.
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In other words, Aave has opted for quality over quantity by shifting its resources to more liquid and relevant chains and products. Once again, we see the signs of a maturing ecosystem that is beginning to move away from the narrative of limitless possibilities and multiple ecosystems to the pursuit of efficiency and pragmatism.
In many ways, the evolution of crypto as an infrastructure layer has already begun. And, ironically, it may well be the payment apps, enterprise software, payroll processors, and AI agents that enable the greatest number of daily crypto transactions around the world.
The end-user will hardly distinguish between a transaction settled on the XRP Ledger, Ethereum, as long as it is cheap, seamless, quick, and available 24/7. Ripple continues working with banks and central banks on CBDC pilots through its CBDC Platform. Hedera is being used by organisations exploring tokenisation and digital identity. The industry’s competitive edge is gradually shifting away from speculation toward financial infrastructure.
It is no wonder that YC keeps believing that crypto is one of the major startup opportunities for the next decade. The next major leap for crypto may be driven not by crypto natives but by traditional payment companies that are looking to disrupt the financial system with better UX and more attractive yield opportunities. Perhaps one day, we will look back on this period of programmable money experiments as a brief episode of adolescence, when people talked a lot about crypto but used it even more.
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