Despite widespread pessimism, crypto is showing pockets of growth through prediction markets, stablecoins, and real-world assets. When Robinhood Markets and Coinbase Global reported Q2 earnings, both saw huge spikes from prediction market revenue, with Robinhood reporting higher revenue from prediction market trading than from spot crypto trading. Stablecoins Tether and USDC have a combined market cap of $250 billion, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent sees the stablecoin industry ballooning into a $3 trillion market opportunity. Real-world asset deposits tripled year over year to $7.4 billion in Q2 2026, according to CoinShares, and some consulting firms suggest RWA tokenization could become a trillion-dollar opportunity by 2030. The intersection of AI and blockchain is also emerging, with Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong embracing agentic AI finance and Robinhood allowing users to import AI agents.
