Keyrock and Dune have published a \u201c12 Charts to Watch in 2026\u201d dashboard that tries to pin next year\u2019s crypto narrative to measurable market structure, where liquidity is forming, where value is being returned, and which rails are quietly becoming systemically important.<\/p>\n
The report<\/a>\u2019s premise is straightforward: each chart pairs a live dataset with an explicit 2026 prediction. Taken together, the set reads like a checklist of whether crypto\u2019s core primitives: trading, issuance, payments, and funding are becoming deeper and more institutional in their behavior.<\/p>\n Keyrock puts prediction markets near the top of the stack after a 2025 run that saw weekly volume rise 9.2x to just under $5 billion, with Kalshi, Polymarket and Opinion controlling a combined 98.4% share at the time of writing. For 2026, it forecasts a 5x jump versus the 2025 run-rate to $25 billion in weekly volume, and a matching 5x rise in open interest as markets deepen and positions persist longer.<\/p>\n On tokenization, the chart tracks non-stablecoin onchain RWA AUM<\/a>, explicitly excluding stablecoins to isolate whether capital markets assets are moving onchain. Keyrock says non-stablecoin RWA AUM grew 3.4x in 2025 and projects more than 4x growth in 2026, led by tokenized cash-like products (T-bills and money market funds) and private credit, with early signs of equities and ETFs as market structure and regulation mature.<\/p>\n A third adoption vector is x402, which Keyrock describes as an open payments protocol pioneered by Coinbase in 2025 to let software, including AI agents pay for digital services using stablecoins. Its measurable call: weekly x402 volume exceeding $100 million in 2026, framed as a proxy for \u201cmachine-native commerce\u201d showing up in production.<\/p>\n For onchain asset management, Keyrock tracks vault AUM across major providers and argues 2025 was about product maturity; 2026 is positioned as distribution. Its headline forecast is vault AUM tripling to $36 billion before year-end, alongside a prediction that at least one major broker-dealer offers an onchain vault \u201cyield shelf.\u201d<\/p>\n Derivatives are treated as the clearest stress test for depth. Keyrock highlights how the DEX-to-CEX futures trading ratio grew more than 3x in 2025, from 6.34% to 21%, and says open interest\u2014not volume\u2014is the key signal for whether venues can \u201chold risk in size\u201d as new asset classes migrate onchain. The 2026 target: onchain perp OI exceeding $50 billion.<\/p>\n Value return is monitored via buybacks. The report notes multi-million-dollar programs in 2025 from Hyperliquid<\/a>, Raydium and Pump.fun, and predicts weekly buyback spend reaches at least 2x 2025 levels, plus a shift away from \u201cfixed percentage of fees\u201d models toward \u201cvalue-aware\u201d execution (pacing bands, triggers, disciplined accumulation).<\/p>\n Solana MEV is framed as a distribution problem as much as a trading one. Keyrock notes tip-based MEV (validator + Jito tips) fell from a peak of 100,000 SOL (about $25 million at the time) to a low of 1,000 SOL (about $139,000), then points to the Block Assembly Marketplace (BAM) as the mechanism that could reshape where MEV is captured, away from reflexive tip spikes and toward explicit execution pricing set by apps and venues.<\/p>\n12 Crypto Metrics To Watch This Year<\/h2>\n