Forbes' outlook for the virtual asset market in the new year?

There is a view that the virtual asset (cryptocurrency) market, which has rapidly been incorporated into mainstream finance on the back of regulatory easing and inflows of institutional funds, will enter a new phase in 2026.

On the 2nd (Korean time), U.S. business magazine Forbes said in "Five trends virtual asset investors should watch in 2026" that virtual assets are no longer peripheral assets but have become a core pillar of the financial system. Forbes characterized 2025 as "a turning point in the virtual asset industry when regulatory improvements and mainstream acceptance began in earnest."

First, it cited the acceleration of institutionalization centered on spot Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded funds (ETFs) as the first key trend. The total assets of virtual asset ETFs and ETPs worldwide have exceeded 200 billion dollars. Forbes forecasted that substantial inflows from large institutions will continue through inclusion in pension funds and model portfolios.

Second is the full-scale tokenization of real-world assets. Although the tokenization market for trading securities, bonds, and real estate on blockchains still represents only a very small part of the overall financial market, it expects that the flow of traditional financial infrastructure moving onto blockchains will accelerate following institutional approval by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Expansion of stablecoin infrastructure was also identified as a major change. Since the passage of the U.S. stablecoin bill in 2025, the market size has exceeded 300 billion dollars, and in 2026 competition over standardization to increase payment stability and interoperability is expected to begin in earnest.

Forbes also presented the on-chain marketization of all assets as the fourth trend. It analyzed that the 24/7 continuous trading characteristic of virtual assets will expand into prediction markets, derivatives, real-world assets, and cultural/content areas, greatly widening the scope of on-chain markets.

Finally, it forecasted that the combination of virtual assets and artificial intelligence (AI) will emerge as a new growth engine. As "agentic commerce," in which AI agents autonomously enter contracts and move funds, spreads, blockchain could become the core infrastructure for machine-to-machine payments and economic activity.

Forbes said, "The virtual asset market in 2026 will be a year marked more by maturity and structural expansion than by past overheating and speculative phases," and added, "A new order combining mainstream finance and technological innovation will take hold in earnest."