2026 isn't about hype. It's about utility. 🏗️ Technology is moving "under the hood" where it delivers immediate efficiency without the user even knowing it’s there. Read our full 2026 Crypto Areas Watchlist to see which sectors we think will break out: token-ventures.com/crypto-ar…

Prediction markets don’t have their own category at the @colosseum Crypto World’s Fair. 🔮 But I saw so many strong teams building them that I decided to give them their own category anyway. Here are my picks, plus the best from Markets & Token Launch 👇 @playhunchxyz - a market for everything. Anyone, a person or an AI agent, can open a market in one minute, even from an X post @r8rate - trade people and opinions. Any opinion gets two sides and a live price, no end date needed @tryvarla - borrow stablecoins against your prediction market bets, without selling them @motionmkts - go long or short on attention. Trade people, companies and trends @MentionedMarket - live word markets. Trade on what gets said @Oddiefun - PM for livestreams. The chat types !oddie, AI opens the market, and the streamer earns from every pool @truthdotmarkets - PM for conspiracy theories, decided by evidence @tyrbets - one account for all PM. Bet on Polymarket, Kalshi and 20+ more, and every bet goes where it is cheapest @b4opinion - opinion market, stake USDC on whether people agree with your take @CrispPredict - trade live esports moments in short rounds, while the match is still going @preditmarket - turn any trend or X post into a market in seconds @probabldottrade - trade what an asset will cost if an event happens, and if it does not @fudmarkets - long or short markets on any token and any timeframe, starting with 15-minute memecoin rounds @Daejinxyz - anyone can launch their own prediction exchange, and creators earn 20% of the fees @Hoookedpad - a launchpad where every token gets its own trading rules onchain. Pick from 39 ready rules, or describe one and AI writes it @saplingdotcash - launch and trade memecoins on Solana straight from a Zcash wallet, in private @JustSparkIdeas - a launchpad for solo founders. If the product does not work in 3 months, backers get their money back @corium_so - a launchpad that rewards the buyers who finish the curve, not the snipers who start it @hyfi_xyz - brings CEX liquidity for tokenized stocks onchain, at better prices @ManicTrade - trade Higher or Lower on crypto, stocks and Polymarket events Honorable Mention: @InstinctsMRKT @hedgeyourfun @pfwafun @yanomarkets

Next up: AI projects from the @colosseum Crypto World’s Fair hackathon 🤖 Here are the ones I liked most 👇 @overdotcomputer - a prop firm built for AI. Humans or AI agents get a funded account to trade tokenized stocks. There is no challenge fee, only a small daily fee. You keep 80% of the profit @TryNoahAI: describe your idea in simple words and AI builds and launches the app on Solana. Then Growth Agents help you find users, and later you can open a market around your project @hencemarkets: turn any idea into an index built by AI, and trade it @lanesra_ai: shows crypto companies what ChatGPT and other AIs say about them @Applied_will: turns real expert work into training tasks and private tests for AI labs @bytearenafun: an AI agent plays new games from day one, streams them, and viewers predict what happens @dopamynAI: growth for brands and creators, with real, checked outreach paid in USDC @usehotbot: your own private team of trading bots @leviathangpu: open network for AI training, with “Proof of Gradient” @rep_hq: your checked context that you can carry everywhere, for people and AI agents @reslabs_ai: NFC chips plus onchain identity for real, physical products @xona_agent: a chat AI agent with its own Solana wallet @yiedlai: AI investment strategies that come from a data science competition Did I miss a project you like? Tell me below 👇

Stablecoins, payments and Fintech are one of the hottest topics in crypto right now, and the Crypto World’s Fair at @colosseum showed it. Here is my pick of the most interesting projects 👇 Stablecoins & Payments @BRD_Digital – regulated Brazilian real stablecoin with yield from Brazilian bonds @0xCurvy – privacy layer for stablecoin payments, one SDK for apps and wallets @defaprimitive – turns real-world invoices into stable yield @gloamtrade – private balances and payments that anyone can still verify @norafinancexyz – Brazilian real stablecoin for neobanks, ramps and DeFi @pollar_xyz – lets any Solana app charge users in their local currency @ROZOai – pay for AI and dev tools with the crypto you already hold Fintech @Multihopper – private transfers on your own terms: you pick the path and the timing, and your funds are never mixed with anyone else’s @AnodosFinance – self-custody money app that feels like a normal bank app @apys_co – earn interest on stables and turn it into tokenized stocks @aventivefinance – rewards tools to bring traders in and keep them @deloraprotocol – move and convert any asset across chains with a few lines of code @edenfi_onchain – money app for Africa and its diaspora @trystable – stablecoin backed by US mortgage loans @xplaceapp – spend with a card backed by your portfolio, without selling it Honorable Mention: PayMoji by @RonShanKyo @looftaxyz @Effisend_ @izuki_fi @fairdotclub

DeFi is always one of the biggest categories at @colosseum hackathons, and the Crypto World’s Fair was no different 🎡 Here is my pick of the most interesting projects 👇 @ridemarkets - communities pool money and back traders they trust @akashi_finance - one stablecoin vault for lending + RWA yield, with a junior part that takes losses first @quaymarkets - an exchange where app users get better prices than bots @AquaZero0 - one deposit gives liquidity to many AMMs at once @atoma_fi - market-neutral USDC vaults on RWA perps @butterflymrkt - options built on existing AMM liquidity @caracal_fi - DEX for FX and tokenized assets, using real market prices @whatthehookv4 - Uniswap v4 hook that gives MEV value back to LPs @FrostOptions - reinsurance for funding rate risk @kadexperps - perps on an index of graded trading cards @KimiaProtocol - earn the funding rate without price risk @lpagent_io - LP terminal and copy-LP, built on data from every LP wallet @muralis_io - AI that builds and runs liquidity for tokens @PercolatorTrade - perps for any token, built on Toly’s risk engine @PerpsPadfun - memecoin launchpad where every coin has its own perp position @polarislabxyz - one SDK that brings pro market makers to Solana @0xT3tris - helps asset managers go onchain @TowerExchange - stablecoin DEX aggregator @vannaprotocol - one credit account for people and AI agents @VexiProtocol - fully backed options on Robinhood Chain @LoraFinance - yield on any tokenized stock @fortellfi - prop firm for prediction markets and perps, traders keep 90% Honorable Mention: @zodial_xyz @loyal_hq @attndotmarkets @bondoncredit @tryrunner @coffer_so

Next stop on my Crypto World's Fair tour: Real World Assets 🏛️ Here is my pick of the most interesting projects 👇 @anystock_xyz – one engine to price, check and trade stock tokens across 5 chains @LockgateFinance – early exit for private credit investors @agamafinance – earn yield on tokenized stocks, gold and treasuries without selling them @craftsdev – raise money with equity-linked tokens, legal side included @marcoequities – Hong Kong stocks and pre-IPO Asian tech, paid with stablecoins @equitylayer – companies raise money and issue shares with KYC built in @ReStockFun – pair live tokens with a tokenized stock and pay trading fees to holders @treetino_corp – own a piece of clean energy hardware and get paid from power sales @zona_io – borrow, trade and lend against stock tokens on Robinhood Chain @DualMintRWA – fund real machines and get paid from what they earn @BaseStonk – launch a token paired with a tokenized stock and share trading fees with holders Honourable mention: @hivebits_io @JurassicFi Which one would you pick or add? 👀

For the first time, @colosseum opened its hackathon to every blockchain 🎡 So how did the Crypto World’s Fair go? 2,973 projects 👇 - 1,876 built only on Solana - 635 built on Solana + other chains - 462 did not use Solana at all The strongest chains after Solana: Base (481), Ethereum (365), Robinhood Chain (331), Arbitrum (329) and Hyperliquid (239). Solana is still home for most builders, but it is no longer the only arena. (One project can build on more than one chain, so it is counted for each.) Which chain surprised you the most?

Next stop in the @colosseum Crypto World’s Fair hackathon 🎡 After DePIN, I took a look at two more categories: Enterprise & Compliance + Data & Analytics. Here is my selection of the most interesting projects: @NAUT_so - shows who decides at any crypto company, with a verified Telegram to reach them @SegmentoAI - Google Analytics for Solana, showing what each KOL really brings to a project @PlotArmorX - verifiable rights for film and entertainment IP, with ownership records on Solana @reyelapp - AI customer success agents that find your real users and tell you what to ship next @ConyrAI - real-time Solana intelligence that links wallets, traces funding and flags suspicious activity @ForgeAI_gg - arena and benchmark where AI agents compete in games and strategy challenges @myrad_hq - two-sided marketplace for verifiable human data Which project would you add? Drop it in the comments 👇

The @colosseum Crypto World’s Fair hackathon received 2,973 project submissions! 🎡 Over the next few days, I will share a summary of each category. First up: DePIN. Here is my selection of the most interesting projects you should keep an eye on: 👇🧵 @openroboto - robot training data with verifiable on-chain provenance and licensing @uavdotfun - drone prototypes with a dApp that shares drone revenue with the community @computecompany - verifiable AI chip where anyone can re-check every result, plus a market to rent it Colpero from @luca_trevisani - one shared map for robots and drones, with camera-based position checks against GPS spoofing @captur_go - Upwork for physical AI data collection @sanfdn - live search API for AI agents, powered by a network of real browsers @Evoracharge - GPU nanoclouds deployed at idle energy sources like biogas plants Honourable mention: @HaLoWaveNetwork @DePin_Chest @hydrx_protocol Did I miss a project that deserves a spot? Drop it in the comments 👇

Today we're releasing Blackthorn in Private Alpha: The first Private AI inferencing stack that removes the CPU TEE from the trust chain. Blackthorn can load and run any AI model privately with little performance overhead compared to plaintext inference.

I went through all 8,286 projects from five @colosseum Solana hackathons. 140 launched a token. Only 56, roughly 1 in 148, became a real success: a $1M+ FDV token, a proper funding round, or a working business or exit. Top tokens: @ORESupply, @starpowerworld and @RateX_Dex plus @crediblefin , @weroamxyz , @PayAINetwork , @UmbraPrivacy , @NomuStores and @solrouterai

today MoonPay and @Paysafe are releasing a new Commerce experience designed to make paying with crypto easy for everyone consumers spend tokens, merchants receive fiat now live worldwide across the Paysafe partner network, powered by @MoonPayCommerce

@EBlockchainCon has just wrapped in Barcelona. A well-run two days. I first attended in 2023, when the question on stage was still whether institutional adoption would arrive. This year nobody was asking that. The discussion had moved to the form it takes. #EBC12

Tomas is in Barcelona for @EBlockchainCon this week. If you're raising, or you're an investor who'd like to connect, he's the one to find.

What would the CLARITY Act mean for people building and using crypto? 10 building blocks to understand, from how tokens are regulated to protections for open source developers and self-custody.

Excited to officially join as supporting partners for Zero to Hero 2.0 powered by @superteam! 🚀 The Czech & Slovak Solana builder scene is leveling up.

JUST IN: Solana RWA holders cross 400K for the first time 400K+ holders, up from under 10K in January 2025

Monday reminder, mostly for people who joined in the last few weeks: the updated 2026 roadmap is live, and the first half of it is already done. The network runs in production today. Community nodes supply public web data across multiple platforms, hundreds of agents are deployed and every paid query settles in USDC over x402. None of that is a future milestone! What the rest of the year does is turn that network into a market. Enterprise customers are onboarding now! The operator side of that does not change: demand gets sold on coverage and uptime, and both come from nodes staying online. Keep your Beacon running. Full roadmap: teneo-protocol.ai/roadmap

BREAKING: BlackRock files with the SEC to issue tokenized fund shares on Solana. BlackRock expanded its cash management strategy with the launch of BlackRock Daily Reinvestment Stablecoin Reserve Vehicle ("BRSRV") on Solana. The world's largest asset manager, with $15 trillion in AUM, is bringing stablecoin reserves onchain.

Big news! 🚀 We are incredibly excited to announce that @superteam will support our next Build Station in the Czech Republic 🇨🇿 After the success of our first Zero to Hero program and Build Station this spring, it is time for the next chapter. The exact format is still coming together, but the vision is clear: 🛠️ Zero to Hero 2.0 🎓 Workshops across the Czech Republic (and potentially Slovakia) 🏗️ A bigger Build Station during the next @colosseum hackathon 🤝 Top mentors from the @solana ecosystem 🏆 A chance for new builders to launch their first Solana project Over the coming weeks, we will be looking for: • 📍 A great venue • 🤝 Sponsors for side tracks and prizes • 🧠 Mentors • 🎓 University partners across CZ (and potentially Slovakia) If you or your company would like to get involved or if you have contacts at universities that should be part of this, send us a message. More details soon :)

It’s time to strip away the marketing echo chamber and share a few sober reflections on what is fundamentally broken in the crypto ecosystem. This prolonged stagnation isn’t just a standard cyclical correction. I’ve shared my raw thoughts on where the industry stands today in the piece below.