Nate Geraci, former president of The ETF Store and current president of NovaDius Wealth Management, outlined Hashdex’s 2026 crypto predictions for X and discussed the fate of stablecoins, tokenized assets, and the AI-driven crypto market.
Hashdex predicts that stablecoin market capitalization will double, tokenized real-world assets will grow tenfold, and investments in the rapidly growing “AI crypto” sector will reach a valuation of $10 billion.
“Crypto dollar” will replace “petro dollar” as USD stablecoin adoption rate increases
Hashdex’s 2026 forecast shows the stablecoin market could grow from $295 billion to more than $500 billion. Economists argued that stablecoins are effectively “re-dollarizing” global finance in the UAE and Latin America, while China and Russia continue to reduce their dependence on the US dollar.
Cryptocurrency predictions for 2026 by @hashdex…
1) Stablecoin market capitalization will double
2) Tokenized real-world assets will increase 10x
3) “AI Crypto” market grows to $10 billion
We also currently recommend a 5-10% crypto allocation for most investors. pic.twitter.com/2CfIXfT0Ea
— Nate Gerach (@NateGerach) December 14, 2025
Payments through platforms such as PayPal in the United States and the adoption of USDC in countries such as Brazil mean there is greater international reliance on dollar-backed digital currencies.
High inflation and current account deficits during the Vietnam War caused the dollar to depreciate, and convertibility between the dollar and gold was suspended in 1971. By 1973, major currencies began to float freely, and OPEC’s oil embargo later that year freed global energy markets from dollar dependence.
Half a century later, the US has reduced its dependence on Saudi oil and Middle Eastern countries are now seeking access to the US dollar stablecoin market.
In late November, Ripple’s dollar-backed stablecoin RLUSD received permission for use within the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) and was officially recognized as an approved fiat reference token.
Regulatory approval will allow licensed companies to conduct regulated activities with RLUSD within the ADGM financial ecosystem, increasing the number of dollars circulating in the market.
Tokenization of real-world assets accelerates
The 2026 forecast also mentions tokenized assets as a growth area, with market capitalization expected to jump from $36 billion to approximately $400 billion.
Financial institutions such as BlackRock, Franklin Templeton, UBS, and Siemens are rebuilding their infrastructure on blockchain and accommodate This transformation. The global market size for tokenized assets is estimated at $664 trillion, highlighting the sector’s long-term potential.
Advances in US-based regulation, including the GENIUS Act, have led more countries to reconsider their digital asset laws. While the law was initially targeted at digital currencies, the next step could be to influence other governments to reduce the friction that financial companies have faced trying to offer tokenized assets to their customers.
Cryptopolitan reported On Saturday, Pakistan signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Binance to tokenize up to $2 billion of state-owned assets. The partnership also includes a blockchain-based distribution plan for national stablecoins and commodity reserves such as government bonds, Treasury bills, oil, gas, and metals.
Pakistan’s Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb called the memorandum “a sign of reforms that will deliver speed and quality results.”
AI boom strengthens the case for crypto investment
Artificial intelligence itself is a catalyst for cryptocurrency growth, and Hashdex believes the AI crypto market could reach $10 billion by 2026. Crypto asset managers noted that blockchain technology’s validation, coordination, and economic autonomy have created opportunities for AI-driven investments.
Sales of AI chips are surging, with demand for processors used for AI training helping Nvidia generate $57 billion in revenue in the three months through October.
However, as reported by the World Economic Forum, Google CEO Sundar Pichai said that “no company is immune” from the bursting of the AI market bubble. This fear dampened the appetite for speculating in cryptocurrencies, and the 30% drop in Bitcoin prices since October sparked a widespread market correction panic.
“We can look back at the Internet now, and obviously there was a lot of overinvestment, but no one questions whether the Internet is deep or not. I expect AI to be the same. So while AI is rational, I also think there is an element of irrationality in moments like this,” Pichai said. busy at the BBC at Google’s California headquarters.
Still, cryptocurrencies account for about 1% of the global investable market, and a 5% crypto allocation increased the annualized return of a traditional 60/40 portfolio from 7.2% to 8.7% over the period April 2022 to September 2025, according to a Hashdex report.
Nate Geraci also pointed out that 45% of financial advisors surveyed by Charles Schwab plan to allocate funds to crypto ETFs in 2026.
