Opinion by: Maksym Sakharov, group CEO and co-founder of WeFi
For more than 10 years, crypto markets have rewarded speculation while sidelining use. Headlines were dominated by price charts, token launches filled up social media feeds, and trading volume was mostly used to show progress.
That obsession is now slowing down the industry. If crypto wants to stay relevant beyond traders, 2026 needs to be a big year for real use, especially in payments, settlements and everyday financial activities.
The shift is already underway, especially among some of the most conservative players in global finance. For example, a recent survey shows that 75% of crypto users aged 18-35 used cryptocurrency at least once last year to pay for goods or services.
People who have the option to use cryptocurrencies as payment still resort to using cards as the primary medium of transaction. If crypto is to mature into financial infrastructure instead of remaining a parallel market for traders, then routine usage must begin to outweigh speculation.
Usage exists, but habit does not
The disconnect between availability and behavior is now measurable. GoMining recently surveyed more than 5,700 Bitcoin (BTC) holders and found that more than 55% rarely or never spend their coins. However, nearly 80% of them support wider crypto adoption and say they believe in its role as a payment method.
This is not a regional anomaly, as most of the respondents were from Europe or North America. Only 12% said they used crypto for daily payments, while 14% and 18% said they used it weekly or monthly, respectively.
The “hold versus spend” behavior can also be seen in other regions. According to a survey by S&P Global, in emerging markets, crypto is often for inflation hedging, remittances and savings, which encourage holding rather than daily spending.
That choice is more important than any short-term token rally because it shows that crypto can do a job that old systems have trouble doing well.
Infrastructure, not ideology, is how crypto becomes relevant.
Trading-first thinking is holding us back
Even though the industry has long developed with more innovations, and things are being made better with clarity, too many crypto projects are still designed just for trading purposes.
The industry’s incentives remain trading-first, with centralized exchanges often designed to get the most liquidity, leverage and fee volume. As a result, people still judge how good an asset is by how well it sells rather than its retention and reliability, thereby affecting how they act, even when payment tools are available.
Related: Universal blockchains buckle under real-world demands
Market cycles and emotions control attention far more than fundamental adoption metrics such as daily active users, transaction volume or developer activity. This creates two problems.
First, it frustrates regulators and institutions who are more concerned about protecting consumers. Second, it creates limitations for regular users who care more about reliability, access and cost-effectiveness than financial gains.
Stablecoins exposed this gap. They’re designed to operate under a traditional currency and only respond to significant changes in their denominated-currency value rather than to speculation.
Different groups of users, from migrant workers to exporters to treasury teams, have largely adopted stablecoins because other cryptocurrency options are either not user-friendly or more expensive.
Designing products without considering these trade-offs means building outside market reality. Focusing on meme-driven narratives only weakens the industry’s credibility.
Maturity means moving money, not markets
The financial infrastructure will mature when no one talks about it anymore.
Credit cards didn’t reshape commerce because people debated Visa’s settlement layer; they changed everything because they just worked.
Cryptocurrency must either adhere to the same trajectory or remain peripheral. Crypto is used, but it does not have a default status. The next credibility test is whether the industry can shift from episodic use to habitual reliance. And settlement volume, payment retention and integration into mainstream commerce will be used to gauge that, not token prices.
Cryptocurrency needs to follow the same path or remain on the fringes.
Consider what Visa’s billion-dollar milestone actually represents. Watching stablecoin settlement volumes rather than token market caps reveals the real story. Having $1 billion settled onchain by a global payments network shows that people trust clarity, compliance and stability. It also demonstrates a move away from experimental designs and toward real financial infrastructure.
Every builder understands this difference, and that’s why this year, policy discussions are focused more on rules for reserves, audits, licensing and cross-border supervision instead of speculative risk management.
Even the Basel Committee — the global body that sets banking standards — reflected the growth of regulated stablecoin activity by rethinking its earlier positions that classified all crypto exposure as carrying the same risk.
The industry’s next credibility test
Crypto has had enough narratives and needs to demonstrate whether it can shift incentives away from volatility toward actual usage in 2026.
Real success won’t be measured in token prices or trading volume, but in settlement throughput, payment reliability and institutional integration.
The industry must accept the uncomfortable truth that some of the most genuine efforts and usable products won’t flash on news headlines or generate hype on social media. Instead, progress will happen quietly, in compliance teams and financial workspaces.
History proves that technologies pegged to trading eventually run out of political and social patience.
Crypto now has a narrow opening. Stablecoins have proven that blockchain systems can move real money on a large scale while still following the rules.
If routine payment usage does not expand meaningfully in 2026 — despite regulatory clarity and proven demand — trading will remain the industry’s gravitational center by default.
Opinion by: Maksym Sakharov, group CEO and co-founder of WeFi.
This opinion article presents the contributor’s expert view and it may not reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. This content has undergone editorial review to ensure clarity and relevance. Cointelegraph remains committed to transparent reporting and upholding the highest standards of journalism. Readers are encouraged to conduct their own research before taking any actions related to the company.
This opinion article presents the author’s expert view, and it may not reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. This content has undergone editorial review to ensure clarity and relevance. Cointelegraph remains committed to transparent reporting and upholding the highest standards of journalism. Readers are encouraged to conduct their own research before taking any actions related to the company.
