"There's a lot of noise in the crypto space. Price swings rile up the internet, new jargony terms pop up constantly, and the hype and haters can turn people off before they begin. But if you're curious about where crypto is actually headed, here's what's worth paying attention to in 2026. Three key shifts are changing how everyday people interact with digital assets. None of them require you to have tech or financial expertise. And none of them require you to act right now. Think of this as a look at the horizon, so you can make informed choices when you're ready."
"At the beginning of 2025, our State of Crypto Holders Report found that one in five U.S. adults was using digital assets. And at the end of 2025, our Crypto Holiday Report found that nearly one in four had or were considering gifting crypto for the holidays, indicating that even more Americans had begun embracing digital assets. Crypto is increasingly going mainstream, even when that story doesn't show up in headlines."
"More often, it seems like small, practical changes: a coffee shop adding crypto as a payment option, a payroll service letting employees receive wages in crypto, or an artist selling work directly on a blockchain instead of through a gallery. Think about how mobile payments crept into everyday life. Nobody declared a "mobile wallet revolution." It just became easier to tap your phone than dig for cash; eventually, we stopped noticing the change."
Digital asset adoption is rising quietly across everyday life, growing from one in five U.S. adults using digital assets early in 2025 to nearly one in four considering gifting crypto by year-end. Adoption shows up as practical, incremental changes such as merchants accepting crypto, payroll options delivering wages in crypto, and artists selling directly on blockchains. Simplified infrastructure and convenience are lowering barriers so people can hold assets passively without expertise. Mobile payments provide a parallel: convenience drove gradual normalization. Many new holders may treat crypto as a passive store of value rather than an active trading pursuit.
Read at Fast Company
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