A BlockTempo opinion article argues that the crypto market’s most durable narratives are no longer being driven by crypto-native projects, but by traditional financial institutions and regulated market infrastructure. Citing Tiger Research’s month-by-month list of 2025 themes, the piece says only three narratives have kept real momentum into the present: tokenized stocks, stablecoins, and prediction markets. In each case, the article points to established players such as Robinhood, Nasdaq, DTCC, Visa, Mastercard, BlackRock, Stripe, Kalshi, and ICE. The article links that shift to Washington’s policy turn, including the GENIUS Act’s path for stablecoins and the pending CLARITY Act in the U.S. Senate. It then lays out three additional narratives it expects to gain traction in the second half of 2026: deposit tokens, CBDCs outside the U.S., and competition among cross-border financial alliances led by central banks, banks, and payment groups. Projects mentioned include Agora, Guardian, Acacia, Han River, Pax, CIPS, and mBridge. For Taiwan, the author’s argument is not to compete by launching a Taiwan dollar stablecoin. Instead, the piece says Taiwan’s real strategic leverage lies in semiconductors, AI compute, and a possible compute-pricing and settlement stack built around tokenized GPU-hour capacity and stablecoin-based settlement.

ChainFeeds’ July 23 research briefing pulled together five major crypto themes shaping the market in 2026. The package ranged from the collapse of Movement Labs after a disputed market-making agreement, to a broader debate over whether blockchains can keep relying on block-space sales as their core business model. It also highlighted a structural turn in market demand, with stablecoins and prediction markets standing out as sectors tied to real usage rather than pure narrative cycles. One report revisited the MOVE token launch and the agreement that handed control of roughly 66 million MOVE tokens to market maker Rentech, a setup later tied to a selloff, exchange trading suspensions, and the bankruptcy of MVMT Labs. Another looked at Japan’s long regulatory buildout, tracing the path from Mt. Gox and Coincheck to the 2026 expansion of Financial Instruments and Exchange Act oversight over 105 approved spot crypto assets. The briefing also examined how crypto-native assets are feeding the AI buildout. Power access, data-center infrastructure, experienced founders, and bull-market capital from the previous cycle are being redirected into AI facilities and compute businesses, with examples including Crusoe, CoreWeave, Voltage Park, Anthropic, and Cursor.

Binance will remove OLUSDT, HIPPOUSDT, RLSUSDT, and PUFFERUSDT futures on April 8, end COIN-M support for WIF and WLD by April 9, and list new Micron and Sandisk-linked futures with up to 10x leverage.

OKX launches TRXUSD Expiry Perpetuals (X-Perps), adding a regulated leveraged TRX derivative alongside BNB, LINK contracts. TRX fundamentals show $2T Q1 settlement volume, $86B stablecoin circulation.

Ark Invest bought more than $75 million of crypto-related stocks in June, adding to Coinbase, Circle and Bullish as the sector sold off sharply.

Open USD’s alliance roster is under scrutiny in South Korea after Samsung, Dunamu and other firms said they never entered formal agreements and were only asked whether they might review participation.

More than 100 companies including Visa, BlackRock, Stripe, and Google have formed the Open Standard coalition to launch OUSD. The announcement pressured Circle shares, while CEO Jeremy Allaire defended USDC as the leading institutional stablecoin.

CRCL dropped 17.5% after being removed from multiple Russell growth indexes, while new stablecoin Open USD launched with free minting, challenging USDC’s revenue model.