{"id":415415,"date":"2025-12-28T20:32:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-28T15:02:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/2026-will-be-the-year-of-the-utility-token-crypto-news-2\/"},"modified":"2025-12-28T20:43:02","modified_gmt":"2025-12-28T15:13:02","slug":"2026-will-be-the-year-of-the-utility-token-crypto-news-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/2026-will-be-the-year-of-the-utility-token-crypto-news-2\/","title":{"rendered":"2026 Will Be the Year of the Utility Token – Crypto News"},"content":{"rendered":"

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For Animoca Brands co\u2011founder Yat Siu, 2025 will be remembered as \u201cthe Trump year,\u201d not because US President Donald Trump saved crypto, but because the industry bet too heavily on him and mispriced everything from tariffs to rate cuts.<\/p>\n

Trump was supposed to be crypto\u2019s cheat code in 2025. Instead, Bitcoin (BTC<\/a>) is limping into the year\u2019s end, facing its fourth annual decline in history. Memecoin liquidity has been sucked into political side quests<\/a>, and one of the sector\u2019s longest\u2011running builders thinks the market over\u2011trusted the new president.\u200b<\/p>\n

Bitcoin\u2019s 2025 performance. Source: <\/em>CoinMarketCap<\/em><\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cIf I had to give it a grade, I would say B-\/C+,\u201d Siu said. Traders treated Trump as if crypto were his \u201cfirst child,\u201d he says, when in reality, \u201cwe\u2019re probably his third, fourth or fifth child, maybe even an eighth child.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s priorities (tariffs, trade wars, fights over the Federal Reserve) hit risk assets hard<\/a>, and Siu pointed out that when the president starts a tariff war, he\u2019s \u201cnot thinking about what\u2019s going to happen to the price of Bitcoin.\u201d\u200b<\/p>\n

He said crypto\u2019s \u201cTrump trade\u201d didn\u2019t play out in 2025 and that 2026 will force the industry to focus on compliance and real use cases. Animoca\u2019s planned reverse-merger<\/a> listing is his bet that public investors want an \u201caltcoin proxy\u201d once US rules are clearer.<\/p>\n

Related: <\/strong><\/em>March 2025 in charts: Trump trade war hits Bitcoin, $22M in DeFi hacks<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Animoca\u2019s IPO as an altcoin proxy<\/h2>\n

If 2025 was Trump\u2019s year, Animoca wants 2026 to be the year public markets finally get a liquid altcoin proxy. The company plans to go public via a reverse merger with Currenc Group, a Nasdaq\u2011listed fintech, on terms that would leave Animoca owning 95% of the combined entity. \u201cTechnically, on paper they buy us,\u201d he said, \u201calthough we control that.\u201d\u200b<\/p>\n

The pitch is straightforward: MicroStrategy has become a leveraged public vehicle for Bitcoin exposure<\/a>, but there is no equivalent for the long tail of tokens. \u201cIf you\u2019re an investor and you want to have exposure to crypto, you definitely will need to have your Bitcoin \u2026 and then you have the swath of altcoins, and how do you get exposure to that?\u201d<\/p>\n

Buying a base\u2011layer token like Ether (ETH<\/a>) or Solana (SOL<\/a>) gives only limited access, he argues. Animoca\u2019s answer is to position itself as a listed, SoftBank-style aggregator of altcoin upside, providing public market investors with a way to own a diversified slice of the altcoin and Web3 stack.<\/p>\n

The firm has more than 620 portfolio companies and invested in roughly 100 new projects last year alone, Siu said, all of which are off its own balance sheet. In the 2024 financial year, Animoca reported unaudited bookings of $314 million<\/a>, and the company has been EBITDA\u2011positive (profitable on its core operations, before loans and taxes) for four consecutive years.<\/p>\n

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Animoca Brands investment thesis. Source: <\/em>Animoca Brands<\/em><\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Over time, Siu expects Animoca itself to be fully tokenized, transforming the company into a bridge between traditional equity markets and onchain ownership.\u200b<\/p>\n

Related: <\/strong><\/em>Animoca bets on altcoin upside to lure investors as it plans for IPO<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Clarity, GENIUS and the \u201ctokenize or die\u201d moment<\/h2>\n

Siu\u2019s bet on an altcoin\u2011proxy initial public offering (IPO) makes sense if the regulatory ground solidifies, and he sees key US legislation, including the Clarity Act<\/a> and the GENIUS Act<\/a>, as catalytic rather than existential.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe phrase we like to use is \u2018Tokenize or die,\u2019\u201d he said. Once companies have a clear framework for issuing, trading and supervising tokens, he expects a flood of incumbents to enter the market. \u201cCrypto companies are happy to skate on the edge \u2026 but if you\u2019re an established company, whether you\u2019re public or private, why take the chance?\u201d\u200b<\/p>\n

He points to the way large brands responded when stablecoin<\/a> rules firmed up in Washington, and suddenly, after years of hand\u2011wringing, \u201ceveryone is doing stablecoins.\u201d And he expects the same pattern once the Clarity Act formalizes token classification and market\u2011structure rules next year.<\/p>\n

Established issuers will launch tokens tied to their existing businesses because they finally have \u201clegal certainty, which they didn\u2019t have before.\u201d\u200b<\/p>\n

Here, real-world assets (RWAs)<\/a> and tokenized securities serve as the bridge, as an industry expected to grow into the trillions by 2030. Animoca has already started cutting RWA partnerships, including a deal with Grow, a major Chinese asset manager, to work on tokenization and access to token markets for traditional clients.\u200b\u200b<\/p>\n

Related: <\/strong><\/em>Animoca eyes stablecoins, AI, DePIN as it expands focus in 2026: Exec<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

2026: The year of the utility token<\/h2>\n

Siu believes the next thematic shift is already in place. \u201cThe theme of institutionalization of crypto will continue,\u201d he said, but 2026 will be about \u201cnew retail\u201d entering under clearer rules and with products built around use, not just speculation.<\/p>\n

Until now, he said \u2014 a trend that reached a peak during the memecoin season\u00a0 \u2014 so much was focused on the existing crypto trader and launching tokens and memecoins with platforms like Pump.fun<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In that environment, builders could launch a token and not worry about where the customer would come from, focusing on narrative instead of product, but now market conditions are forcing a reset.<\/p>\n

The \u201cmemecoin madness\u201d was capped off by Trump and Melania Trump\u2011branded tokens<\/a> early this year, as Official Trump (TRUMP<\/a>) slid more than 75% from its peak and Melania Meme (MELANIA<\/a>) dropped around 90% from its peak, with hundreds of thousands of small wallets sitting on losses.<\/p>\n

That, according to Siu, was \u201cone heck of a vampire attack on the meme community,\u201d leaving a lot of retail scorched and sucking liquidity out of the rest of the market.<\/p>\n

As capital rotates away from pure speculation, the next wave will depend on products that solve real problems for gamers, creators and brands, pulling in users who never thought of themselves as \u201ccrypto people\u201d in the first place.<\/p>\n

With the Clarity and GENIUS acts laying down a path for compliant issuance, he argues that \u201c2026 will be the year of the utility token because everyone will launch a token that has a use case, and we can talk about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, basically, crypto companies are growing up?<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have to, they have to \u2026 We\u2019re not the only company going IPO.\u201d<\/p>\n