TL;DR
- Zodia Custody projects that 2026 will mark a turning point for digital assets, driven by five pillars: custody, stablecoins, collateral, staking, and tokenization.
- The firm anticipates that stablecoins and tokenization will become part of financial infrastructure, transforming liquidity management and capital efficiency.
- According to Zodia, the new crypto era will rely on interoperability, trust, and institutional adoption, leaving speculation behind.
Zodia Custody expects 2026 to be the year when digital assets “mature” and move beyond speculation to become a structural part of the financial system. In its latest report, the custody firm backed by Standard Chartered states that the new market architecture will revolve around five pillars: custody, stablecoins, collateral, staking, and tokenization.
The company predicts that the next institutional cycle will not focus on prices but on interoperability, trust, and capital efficiency. Below are the five pillars that, according to Zodia, will transform the crypto market by 2026:
THE 5 KEY PILLARS ACCORDING TO ZODIA CUSTODY
1) CUSTODY AS CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE
Custody will cease to be a service and become the operational core of institutional adoption. It will be treated as essential infrastructure, on par with payments or clearing. Zodia expects the development of global digital custody standards, multi-custodian models, and partnerships between entities to expand connectivity. Banks will view digital asset infrastructure much like cloud computing: indispensable, but not something to reinvent.
2) STABLECOINS AS LIQUIDITY ENGINES
By 2026, stablecoins will evolve into programmable treasury tools offering continuous liquidity and automated yields. Regulatory clarity will drive the emergence of bank-issued and institutional-grade stablecoins. The boundaries between cash, collateral, and yield-bearing assets will blur, positioning stablecoins as the connective tissue of institutional finance.
3) REAL-TIME COLLATERAL
Collateral tokenization will unlock trillions in idle capital. Tokenized digital assets will be accepted as regulated collateral, and custody will merge with collateral management in a dynamic ecosystem where capital remains both secure and productive.
4) STAKING AND DEFI AS YIELD INFRASTRUCTURE
Staking will no longer be optional and will become embedded within institutional custody. Permissioned DeFi vaults with regulated access and transparent returns will emerge. Protocols like Morpho show that managed DeFi can provide profitability and traceability without compromising security.
5) TOKENIZATION AS THE MARKET STANDARD
By 2026, tokenization will reach mass adoption. Funds, credit instruments, and commodities will operate on-chain with KYC compliance tools and secure custody. Off-exchange settlement (OES) will become the default operational flow, returning control and custody to institutions.
For Zodia Custody, the new era of digital assets will not be defined by speculation but by capital efficiency and full integration with traditional finance.
