Crypto Venture Capital Firm Dragonfly Managing Partner Haseeb Qureshi Releases 2026 Industry Forecast, Believing Tech Giants like Google, Meta, or Apple Will Launch or Acquire Crypto Wallets; Fortune 100 Companies Will Embrace Blockchain Technology; However, He Warns That Fintech-Led L1 Blockchains Will Struggle to Compete with Ethereum and Solana.
(Background: Payment Giant Stripe Rumored to Launch L1 Blockchain—What Changes Might This Bring?)

Table of Contents

• Fortune 100 Will Embrace Blockchain but Use Existing Tools
• Fintech L1 Cannot Challenge Ethereum and Solana
• Bitcoin Breaks $150,000, but Market Share Will Decline
• Market Will Continue to Prosper, but AI Will Face Short-Term Challenges

On Monday, Haseeb Qureshi, Managing Partner at crypto venture firm Dragonfly, posted a comprehensive forecast for the crypto industry in 2026 on the X platform. The most notable point is: Tech giants—possibly Google, Meta, or Apple—will launch or acquire crypto wallets next year, potentially bringing tens of millions of new users to cryptocurrencies.

Fortune 100 Will Embrace Blockchain but Use Existing Tools

Qureshi predicts that more Fortune 100 companies will build their own blockchain networks by 2026. This wave of adoption is expected mainly from banks and fintech sectors. However, these companies will not start from scratch but will adopt existing mature tools, such as Avalanche blockchain and infrastructure suites like OP Stack, Orbit, and ZK Stack.

This approach will enable enterprise blockchains to remain private and permissioned while maintaining connectivity with public blockchains. In fact, several Fortune 100 financial service companies, including JPMorgan, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, and IBM, have already established private blockchains, although most of these solutions are still in testing or limited use.

Earlier this month, crypto investment firm Galaxy Digital made a similar prediction, expecting at least one Fortune 500 bank, cloud service provider, or e-commerce platform to launch an L1 blockchain by 2026, facilitating over $1 billion in real-world economic activity and building bridges to DeFi.

Fintech L1 Cannot Challenge Ethereum and Solana

Despite an optimistic outlook on enterprise blockchain adoption, Qureshi is skeptical about new L1 blockchains launched by fintech companies. He believes these blockchains will not attract enough users or network activity to challenge native crypto networks like Ethereum and Solana.

“Although recent fintech blockchain hype is notable, their metrics will disappoint,” Qureshi states. “Whether it’s daily active addresses, stablecoin volume, or RWA (Real World Assets), the performance of Tempo, Arc, and Robinhood Chain will fall short, while Ethereum and Solana will outperform expectations.” This indicates that native crypto blockchains will remain the developers’ top choice.

The best developers will continue building on neutral infrastructure chains.

Bitcoin Breaks $150,000, but Market Share Will Decline

Regarding price forecasts, Qureshi expects Bitcoin to surpass $150,000 before the end of 2026 but also predicts its market dominance will decline. In contrast, Galaxy Digital adopts a more conservative stance, suggesting that 2026 will be too chaotic to predict accurately, with Bitcoin prices likely fluctuating between $50,000 and $250,000.

In the stablecoin market, Qureshi forecasts that the current $312 billion market will grow by 60% by 2026. He also expects market leader Tether (USDT) to see its market share decrease from 60% to 55%, indicating that competitors are eroding its dominance.

Market Will Continue to Prosper, but AI Will Face Short-Term Challenges

Qureshi believes the market will continue to thrive in 2026 but remains cautious about AI applications in crypto. He states that AI use cases will be limited to security and will struggle to achieve broader breakthroughs.

“AI agents will still not ‘pay each other’ or spend meaningful amounts in 2026,” Qureshi predicts, also noting that the problem of spam bots on social platforms will remain unresolved. This echoes his previous criticism of AI Agents—he once described the current AI hype as merely “chatbots with meme coins.”

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice. Cryptocurrency markets are highly volatile; please assess risks carefully before investing.