 
 
Ripple President Monica Long has outlined forward-looking predictions for 2026 as a decisive year for the crypto industry, arguing that years of regulatory and technical groundwork are finally set to translate into large-scale institutional adoption.
According to Long, the transition from experimentation to full production will be driven by trusted infrastructure and expanding real-world utility, pulling banks, corporates, and service providers deeper into digital asset markets.
Long expects this shift to materialize across four core pillars: stablecoins, on-chain assets, crypto custody, and AI-driven automation, with stablecoins at the center of that evolution. Moreover, the Ripple president believes stablecoins will become the default layer for global settlement rather than an alternative payment rail.
Firms such as Visa and Stripe have already embedded stablecoins directly into existing systems. With U.S. regulatory clarity emerging through the GENIUS Act, compliant dollar-denominated stablecoins like Ripple’s RLUSD could support programmable, round-the-clock payments and collateral flows.
Long points to explosive B2B growth, noting that stablecoin-based business payments reached a $76 billion annualized run rate last year, compared to less than $100 million per month in early 2023.
 
Institutional exposure to crypto is also expected to accelerate sharply. Long projects that by the end of 2026, balance sheets will hold more than $1 trillion in digital assets, with roughly half of Fortune 500 companies operating formal digital asset strategies.
Tokenized assets, stablecoins, and on-chain Treasury instruments are already viewed as operating tools rather than speculative bets, due to the steady expansion of crypto ETFs and corporate treasury adoption.
Meanwhile, custody is entering a consolidation phase. After $8.6 billion in crypto M&A activity in 2025, Long anticipates that more than half of the world’s top 50 banks will establish new custody relationships in 2026, driven by regulatory pressure and the need for diversified risk management.
Finally, Long also highlights the growing convergence of blockchain and AI, where smart contracts, zero-knowledge proofs, and automated decision systems could transform treasury management, lending, and asset allocation.
Source: https://zycrypto.com/ripple-president-shares-crypto-predictions-and-expectations-for-2026/