Web3 research firm Tiger Research said on Tuesday it has released a report on 10 major changes it expects in the cryptocurrency market in 2026.

Tiger Research projected that as fund flows become more conservative and institution-led, money will concentrate only in major assets such as bitcoin and ethereum. It said the trickle-down effect seen in the past, where funds flowed into altcoins, will disappear. In such conditions, it said a project's ability to generate real revenue will be key to survival.

The report said more than 85 percent of projects listed this year experienced price declines, proving that survival is impossible with narratives alone. It found that complex, utility-focused tokenomics failed, and that only direct value-return structures through buybacks and burns can convince investors.

The report expected more opportunities for mergers and acquisitions between projects. It said competition to secure market dominance has intensified as the cryptocurrency industry enters a mature phase, and that M&A is the most efficient way to do so. It projected that winner-led M&A will accelerate and the market will be reshaped by businessmen who generate tangible profits.

It projected that traditional industries will step up their entry into the blockchain market. In the RWA market, it said traditional financial institutions will build their own blockchains and take the initiative directly. It said that because financial institutions need to control assets directly, they have no reason to use external platforms. Fintech apps are expected to become the main entry point for cryptocurrencies, replacing exchanges as regulations become clearer. Media companies are expected to introduce prediction markets as part of diversifying revenue models and to try new forms of participation in which readers bet directly on news outcomes.

On the technology front, it said robotics and privacy technologies will rise. It forecast a new gig economy will form as demand for on-site data to train robots meets blockchain-based crowdsourcing. It also projected that as institutional investors flow in in earnest, the importance of privacy technology will grow. Tiger Research stressed that "institutions that move massive capital do not want their transaction routes exposed in real time" and that "technology to secure transaction information will become essential infrastructure for the inflow of institutional money."