Crypto Startups in 2026: Say Goodbye to Speculation, Focus on 5 Valuable Sectors

Every cryptocurrency cycle inevitably includes a period when some players exit, others suffer major setbacks, and bearish sentiment dominates the conversation. Critics declare that crypto has reached a dead end, regret the time they’ve spent in the industry, and claim the technology holds no value beyond crime and speculation.

This pattern reemerges every few years.

I’m not writing this article to make empty proclamations like “Altcoin season is coming.” My goal is to urge optimism: right now is an outstanding opportunity to build genuine business value in the crypto sector. I’ll share a series of urgently needed startup ideas—concepts whose potential far exceeds the boundaries of the crypto community. These are practical, well-grounded, and ready to make an immediate impact.

Let me be clear: articles like this are often written by venture capitalists, but that’s not my background. I’m not a VC professional, I don’t run an investment fund, and I’m not an angel investor. To be frank, I can’t provide funding for these ideas. If you reach out wanting to pursue them, I’ll be genuinely happy to see you inspired, but I can’t offer investment. At best, if I know someone in the relevant space, I might share your post or make a business introduction.

My actual background is as the founder of a successful decentralized finance media outlet, running one of the largest DeFi-focused YouTube channels in the industry. Previously, I built a sustainable revenue stream at a leading DeFi data company. This experience is crucial because the startup directions discussed here come directly from my first-hand industry insights.

For the past five years, I’ve been a dedicated user of DeFi products. My hands-on experience and industry work have given me a deep, confident perspective on what drives success and where the opportunities lie in crypto.

You might ask, if these ideas are so compelling, why not pursue them myself? On one hand, I’m currently leading revenue and growth at DeFiLlama, a DeFi analytics platform, and already delivering significant value to the industry. On the other hand, I do plan to pursue a few of these ideas myself, and I even hope readers won’t rush to compete in these areas. Still, these concepts are simply too valuable to keep private. In the end, I’ve decided to share them and sincerely hope someone will make them a reality.

Identifying Startup Opportunities from First Principles

To find projects with real utility—rather than those designed solely for crypto speculators—we need to start from first principles.

The core questions are simple: What is the true value of cryptocurrency? What inherent advantages does it offer over traditional finance?

Once we answer these, we can move beyond “crypto for crypto’s sake” and avoid the trap of “using token incentives to attract users to unnecessary apps.” This is how we uncover crypto’s real value proposition.

We need to stop awkwardly forcing crypto into mismatched scenarios and instead discover business opportunities that are naturally suited to blockchain architecture.

I’ve distilled the key advantages of crypto technology over traditional finance. These are the foundation for identifying startup directions:

• Global capital mobility: Cryptocurrencies enable cross-border transfers without foreign exchange fees or capital controls.
• 24/7 instant settlement: Transactions clear in real time, eliminating multi-day waits.
• Privacy protection: While not all cryptocurrencies offer this, those that do can support truly censorship-resistant applications.
• Ultra-low transaction costs: Beyond “no credit card fees,” low fees enable innovations like streaming payments that can’t exist in high fixed-fee traditional systems.
• Programmability and composability: Digital assets are governed by code, not intermediaries—ownership is direct. Assets can flow freely across DeFi apps, and smart contracts unlock additional features.
• Permissionless access: Anyone, anywhere, anytime can join the crypto network. This makes crypto ideal for groups at risk of de-banking and provides a testbed for financial products facing regulatory barriers.
• Transparency and traceability: Asset ownership and on-chain financial data are instantly trackable, enabling automated business processes that were previously complex.

Building on these advantages, I’ve organized this article’s startup concepts into five major categories, each anchored in multiple core values of crypto technology:

• Internet capital markets: Built on global mobility, programmability/composability, and permissionless access.
• Censorship-resistant applications: Built on privacy, permissionless access, and global capital mobility.
• Decentralized science (DeSci): Built on global capital mobility and programmability/composability.
• Stablecoins: Leverage all of the above core advantages.
• On-chain corporate governance: Built on transparency and traceability.

Internet Capital Markets

The future of crypto—and the broader financial and internet landscape—largely depends on the evolution of internet capital markets.

Lately, this concept has suffered from a poor reputation. Many have applied meme coin mechanics to various assets, launching products indistinguishable from meme coins, with weak tokenomics and speculation disguised as ownership investing.

Frankly, we may need new terminology for this sector, but its underlying framework is extremely valuable.

Real internet capital markets aren’t games built around speculative tokens. They’re about making internet-native cash flows investable.

Picture a future where not just on-chain DeFi apps, but every kind of cash flow is tokenized—stable businesses in the real economy, dividend stocks, royalty streams, real estate projects, apps, micro-subscription software bundles, and both on-chain and off-chain products.

These assets become investable, tradable, and recombinable, enabling new financial products. The whole process is globally open, permissionless, and features minimal transaction costs.

This is the true vision for internet capital markets.

I see several urgent opportunities for building on-chain fundraising tools and investor cash flow distribution apps:

• Financing for small and medium businesses
• Micro-subscription software and information product financing
• Securitization of royalty income streams
• Creator revenue rights financing

When “Friends and Family” Funding Fades: New Paths for Capital Formation

Traditionally, entrepreneurs rely on friends and family for seed funding—a practice still common among small businesses.

But changing social structures are undermining this model: families are smaller, friends are scattered worldwide, and relatives live in different countries.

Today, fundraising from friends and family is not only complicated and compliance-challenged, but even pooling funds is a logistical nightmare.

Internet capital markets make global fundraising possible again, and this approach works for any asset type.

What’s more, the resulting cash flows can be repackaged and recombined into new financial products. As millions of businesses and products tokenize their cash flows, we can use time-tested DeFi financial primitives to build new financial ecosystems atop these assets.

Censorship Resistance: A Critical Capability

Censorship resistance is another essential property of crypto assets.

This capability is rooted in crypto’s permissionless and privacy-preserving features.

Public blockchains have realized permissionless access, but privacy has long been overlooked.

To be clear, my current work depends heavily on on-chain transparency. Yet in many use cases, privacy isn’t just preferable—it’s a necessity.

The Shifting Line Between Compliance and Illegality

You may think you don’t need censorship resistance. But can you be certain you’ll never need it?

In parts of Europe, the trend is clear: dissidents face suppression, bank accounts are closed, and people are arrested for social media posts.

The next stage is obvious: political groups lose fundraising channels, bank accounts are frozen, and payment routes are completely blocked.

When that happens, how will these groups continue operating?

The answer: through crypto networks.

These segments are naturally suited to crypto and urgently need entrepreneurial attention:

• Censorship-resistant fundraising tools for political organizations: European governments are increasingly cracking down on populist parties, and losing banking access is only a matter of time. Crypto solutions let these groups fundraise and store capital securely, without fear of being de-banked. Privacy features are especially important to protect members from retaliation.
• Uncensorable crowdfunding platforms: Many platforms claim to resist censorship but ultimately depend on payment processors. Historically, activists and governments have pressured payment providers to force platforms to delist certain campaigns. Crypto-powered crowdfunding can solve this at the root, with decentralized payment flows and no central point of pressure. Even opponents of free speech will be powerless to intervene.

Decentralized Science (DeSci): Where AI Meets Internet Capital Markets

AI is dramatically lowering the barriers for individuals and small teams to conduct original scientific research.

This is already evident in frontier breakthroughs like protein folding. AI can process huge volumes of literature and data, uncovering connections that humans might miss even after decades.

But discovery alone isn’t enough—bringing research to market requires capital.

That’s where decentralized science (DeSci) fills the gap.

The Core Problems DeSci Solves

I previously worked at a nonprofit focused on childhood cancer research. That experience showed me the immense value DeSci can bring to medical funding and scientific advancement.

Many rare or niche diseases are ignored by pharmaceutical giants due to small patient populations and limited short-term commercial value. Research in these areas often relies on repurposing existing drugs or suffers from slow progress due to lack of funding.

Permissionless global capital markets let us find people who truly care about these diseases and channel funding into research projects.

When AI and DeSci combine, individuals and small teams can conduct cutting-edge research.

The most heartbreaking scenario is for rare disease patients. There may be only 20 people worldwide with a particular condition, and research is nearly nonexistent, with almost zero chance of project approval.

DeSci makes research on these conditions possible—and may even lead to breakthrough treatments.

This model also applies to diseases with large patient populations that are nonetheless deprioritized by big pharma.

How DeSci Delivers Capital Returns

Fundraising is just one part of the DeSci ecosystem. We also need mechanisms to verify research results, distribute returns to investors, package intellectual property and royalty streams, and efficiently allocate proceeds.

On-chain milestone-based capital unlocking dramatically reduces administrative overhead, getting more funds directly to research. Higher transparency also lets donors track capital flows and encourages greater contributions.

To make DeSci projects more attractive to investors, we can borrow portfolio strategies from venture capital and film finance—one success can cover the cost of the entire portfolio.

For example, build a basket of 10 high-risk, high-reward research projects. Investors in this basket increase the odds of breakthrough discoveries. If a project develops a treatment, AI tools can help identify other commercial applications.

Stablecoins: The Gold Standard of Crypto

Global stablecoin supply has now topped $300 billion, with hundreds of billions added in the past two years.

According to Treasury forecasts, total supply could reach $3 trillion by 2030.

Conservatively, hundreds of billions more will flow on-chain in the next few years; optimistically, the figure could hit trillions. This doesn’t even include capital already on-chain but not fully utilized.

Stablecoin startup opportunities fall into two main categories: “savings” and “payments.”

Savings Applications

Worldwide, many people want to hold USD assets—especially in developing countries.

Despite its flaws, the US dollar remains the most stable and liquid currency for global trade.

Stablecoins enable savings products that far surpass those in traditional finance. Savers can customize currency and commodity baskets and earn returns from liquidity providers’ FX trades.

Payment and Utility Applications

Stablecoins deliver clear payment advantages: instant settlement, no cross-border fees, ultra-low costs, and round-the-clock availability.

Several companies have already demonstrated the viability of stablecoin payments.

These areas are prime use cases for stablecoin payment solutions:

• Gig economy platforms: Labor arbitrage often involves cross-border payments, which are slow and costly with traditional transfers. Stablecoins solve this perfectly.
• Cross-border remittances: Wire transfers may be the first traditional service disrupted by crypto, but the market still needs better solutions to bridge cash and crypto payments.
• Disaster relief: In disaster or conflict zones, distributing stablecoins directly to victims’ wallets bypasses bureaucracy, corruption, and bank failures—ensuring aid reaches those who need it.

Programmable Money and Streaming Payments

Programmability is another core stablecoin advantage.

This enables continuous streaming payments, not the discrete payroll cycles of traditional finance. Decentralized payment protocols like LlamaPay are excellent examples.

Building on this, we can create even more innovative products:

• Streaming payroll systems: Link streaming payments with time-tracking software—when employees clock in, payments start; when they clock out, payments stop. Wages are settled by the second, paid instantly, eliminating biweekly payroll cycles and late payments.
• Pay-as-you-go subscription software: Users are increasingly fatigued by subscriptions. Software and APIs can use streaming payments so users pay only for actual usage. This creates a direct link between usage and revenue, and eliminates invoices and billing hassles.

On-Chain Corporate Governance: Beyond DAOs

DAO governance has become an industry punchline—and not without reason.

Yet on-chain corporate governance could be one of crypto’s most transformative applications.

Even legacy finance leaders see value in on-chain voting. BlackRock CEO Larry Fink writes, “Tokenization enables digital tracking of asset ownership and voting rights, allowing shareholders to vote securely from anywhere in the world and dramatically reducing governance costs.”

DAOs failed because they tried to implement direct democracy, which simply doesn’t work for business operations.

What Should Ideal On-Chain Governance Look Like?

Token holders often worry their tokens are worthless—and they’re often right.

The solution isn’t to let token holders vote on every issue.

Ideal on-chain governance should mirror traditional corporate structures: clear rights, minority shareholder protections, shareholder-elected boards, and board-appointed management for daily operations.

Routine business decisions should never be subject to direct votes by shareholders or token holders. Instead, token holders’ core right is to elect the board, while management runs the company. These rules can be hard-coded on-chain, such as giving majority token holders control over the treasury.

There’s a clear market need for products that can replicate traditional corporate governance structures on-chain.

From Crypto Governance Tools to Public Company Infrastructure

Thousands of crypto protocols are experimenting with on-chain governance. Once a workable structure is proven, it can be refined and eventually adopted by traditional public companies.

In the future, we can build on-chain equity and shareholder voting systems for public companies.

This creates a clear pathway from niche DAO tools to core infrastructure for public capital markets.

Other On-Chain Corporate Governance Products

As more companies embrace on-chain governance, demand will grow for supporting products:

• Standardized financial disclosure tools: Over the past few years, standardized financial reporting, treasury flow transparency, token unlock/buyback disclosures, and major event announcements could have prevented many risks in crypto. These tools will be equally valuable for other on-chain enterprises.
• M&A platforms: As some crypto teams run out of funds, industry consolidation and M&A are on the horizon. The market needs professional platforms to facilitate token swaps, deal payments, treasury mergers, and ensure full transparency.
• On-chain governance integration for public companies: Tools that let traditional public companies experiment with on-chain voting without disrupting existing structures.
• Compensation management tools: On-chain milestone verification for managing bonuses, token option vesting, and other compensation matters.

Compound Effects: Positive Feedback in the On-Chain Ecosystem

In the years ahead, one of crypto’s greatest attractions is that every real-world cash flow brought on-chain strengthens DeFi architecture and amplifies the utility of other financial primitives.

All the startup ideas discussed here can create real value today. But the real magic will come when tens of millions of real-world businesses complete their on-chain transformation. At that point, DeFi primitives tested over the past five years will be repurposed to serve these external cash flows, creating a whole new financial ecosystem.

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