Coinbase Ventures outlined sectors it expects to attract funding in 2026 amid rising liquidity, expanding stablecoin use and stronger privacy demand.

Key trends for 2026

According to Coinbase Ventures, demand is shifting toward on‑chain solutions and tools integrated with artificial intelligence across multiple market segments.

• Perpetual futures on tokenized real‑world assets (RWA).
• Trading terminals for prediction markets.
• Uncollateralized lending based on on‑chain reputation.
• Privacy coins that enhance transactional confidentiality.
• Aggregation layers for physical data used in robotics.
• Proofs of humanity to verify human actors on-chain.
• Composable futures markets enabling yield from collateral while maintaining leverage.
• Democratization of on‑chain development via widespread adoption of AI agents.

Perpetual futures on RWA

Coinbase Ventures places particular emphasis on perpetual futures tied to tokenized off‑chain assets as a priority area for investors in 2026.

«synthetic access»

The report explains that such instruments provide synthetic access to off‑chain assets without traditional collateral, meeting traders' needs for hedging exposure.

Investors and traders seek tools to hedge positions linked to oil, inflation, credit spreads and volatility, which underpins expected demand for these products.

Implications for funding

As liquidity grows and stablecoins play a larger role in settlements, funding is likely to follow infrastructure and primitives that enable scalable on‑chain economic activity.

Coinbase Ventures anticipates capital will target protocols that combine privacy, composability and AI integration to support broader market utility and risk management.