The cryptocurrency business is rising underneath tighter guidelines, as giant exchanges form their subsequent cycle round licenses and merchandise constructed to face up to regulatory scrutiny.
As an alternative of chasing explosive progress via speculative listings and high-leverage buying and selling, the main focus for 2026 is shifting towards sturdier foundations, resembling tighter fiat ramps, compliant derivatives in extra jurisdictions and constructing out stablecoin and tokenization rails.
Cointelegraph spoke with Haider Rafique, international managing accomplice at OKX, to unpack how main exchanges are making ready for the yr forward.
Exchanges are leaving their onshore footprints
Rafique mentioned that OKX has already achieved the arduous half: acquiring the regulatory inexperienced gentle to function in virtually all of the areas it cares about.
“We anticipate there’s going to be continued regulatory readability in 2026,” he mentioned, “primarily in the US and hopefully in different elements of Europe.” That can allow OKX to convey extra of its derivatives franchise “onshore.”
The alternate now runs licensed companies throughout the European Union (EU) from a Malta hub underneath the Markets in Crypto Belongings (MiCA) license. It additionally holds a license in Dubai, operates registered entities in Australia, a central financial institution‑permitted funds enterprise in Singapore and a US platform that’s licensed as a cash transmitter in most states.
It additionally maintains domestically compliant operations in markets resembling Brazil and Turkey, making it, in Rafique’s phrases, “in all probability essentially the most licensed alternate in the world our measurement.”
That’s a daring declare as OKX shouldn’t be the one alternate that has been on a licensing spree recently.
Coinbase holds dozens of licenses and registrations throughout 45 US states and a number of worldwide jurisdictions, and in June secured an EU‑extensive MiCA license in Luxembourg.
Bybit has additionally obtained MiCA authorization through Austria and a nod from the United Arab Emirates Securities and Commodities Authority. Binance’s licensing listing contains 20 licenses and registrations in varied jurisdictions.
In 2026, Rafique mentioned the job for OKX is to guarantee its licenses discover success via localized, “fine-tuned” merchandise and fiat on-ramps.
Stablecoins as the brand new money leg
OKX’s first huge structural guess in 2026 might be stablecoins. The worldwide stablecoin market cap climbed to about $310 billion in 2025, led by Tether’s USDT and USDC.
Rafique argued that exchanges are quietly remodeling stablecoins into yield‑bearing monetary merchandise.
“In case you put your cash in a financial institution, you’re dropping between 8% and 40% in excessive‑inflation markets,” he mentioned, including that funds even have to be locked up. In distinction, stablecoins let customers park their crypto and earn with no lockup.
As benchmark rates of interest have climbed into the mid‑single digits, yields on yield‑bearing stablecoins and centralized ‘earn’ merchandise have additionally settled in roughly the 4%-8% vary, as a substitute of the double‑digit payouts seen in earlier cycles.
Paxos’ USDL, as an illustration, launched with a roughly 5% annual yield in 2024, whereas main exchanges resembling Kraken and OKX market round 5% rewards on idle USDT and USDC balances.
Stablecoin balances on exchanges climbed to document or close to‑document ranges in 2025, according to Coin Metrics, highlighting the shift towards yield‑plus‑liquidity merchandise.
Nonetheless, S&P International, warned in a 2023 analysis that stablecoins are not risk-free as they are often weak to de-pegging. The tokens are additionally “topic to market volatility, market confidence and adoption, know-how threat, demand and provide, and market liquidity.”
Elsewhere, the European Central Financial institution has warned that stablecoins pose international monetary stability dangers and will draw retail deposits away from eurozone banks, sparking a sell-off of reserve belongings.
Tokenization, RWAs and the 2026 product slate
Past stablecoins, exchanges are gearing up for the true‑world asset (RWA) tokenization wave. The marketplace for onchain tokenized belongings climbed from underneath $10 billion in 2022 to greater than $19 billion in 2025, and analysis from 21.co tasks it to $5 trillion by 2030.
Rafique mentioned that RWAs are “in the very early innings,” pending regulatory readability on whether or not tokenized belongings qualify as utilities or securities. As soon as that distinction crystallizes, “firms are going to take this actually significantly,” bringing commodities, shares, and metals like gold and silver onchain, wrapped and tradable in exchanges.
A survey by a16z discovered that round half of US Gen-Z and millennial adults now personal or have traded crypto in the previous yr, placing digital belongings on par with direct inventory possession for a lot of youthful traders.
For Rafique, that’s why tokenized shares and RWAs belong on alternate apps. They bring about conventional belongings into the venue that youthful customers already deal with as their major market.
Constructing for a much less explosive Bitcoin
Underpinning OKX’s technique is a extra tempered view of Bitcoin’s (BTC) future, because the asset’s main indicators shift from hype towards macroeconomic forces. Rafique mentioned he sees BTC as more and more tied to US Treasury yields, price expectations, and fairness correlations.
“I’m not like folks the place I’ll give you a very obnoxious quantity,” he mentioned when requested his Bitcoin value prediction for 2026.
His bear case for BTC is round $90,000, which rises to a spread between $150,000 and $200,000 if charges ease and liquidity returns. He rejected “excessive bull circumstances” as reckless optimism that mislead retail traders.
“I don’t need folks to lose their shirts,” he mentioned.
That view defines OKX’s product lens for the approaching yr: treating crypto much less like a as soon as‑in‑a‑lifetime lottery ticket and extra like a core macro asset that drives regular spot, derivatives and RWA flows throughout its newly licensed markets.
