Keyrock Identifies 12 Key Crypto Charts to Monitor for 2026

Keyrock, in collaboration with Dune, has unveiled a comprehensive dashboard titled "12 Charts to Watch in 2026," aiming to illustrate the overarching trends and metrics in the cryptocurrency market for the upcoming year. By pairing live data with specific predictions for 2026, the report highlights key areas such as trading, issuance, payments, and funding, providing insights into how these aspects are becoming increasingly institutionalized.

Key Takeaways

Keyrock’s dashboard presents 12 critical charts that predict several trends in the cryptocurrency space for 2026.
A significant increase in prediction market volumes is anticipated, projecting a rise to $25 billion.
Tokenization is expected to accelerate, particularly for cash-like products and private credit.
The onchain vault asset under management (AUM) is projected to triple to $36 billion by the end of 2026.
New dynamics in decentralized exchange (DEX) and centralized exchange (CEX) trading will be crucial for assessing market depth.

Overview of Crypto Metrics for 2026

Keyrock emphasizes the importance of prediction markets, which showed a remarkable growth in 2025, experiencing a 9.2 times increase in weekly volume to nearly $5 billion. The report predicts a further fivefold increase for 2026, forecasting the weekly volume to reach $25 billion, with a similar rise in open interest reflecting a deeper engagement in these markets.

In terms of tokenization, Keyrock tracks the non-stablecoin onchain Real-World Asset (RWA) Assets Under Management (AUM), actively excluding stablecoins to focus on the movement of capital market assets onchain. In 2025, non-stablecoin RWA AUM surged by 3.4 times, with projections indicating over fourfold growth in 2026, driven by developments in tokenized cash-like products such as T-bills and money market funds, as well as private credit.

Another area to watch is x402, a payments protocol initiated by Coinbase in 2025, which facilitates software-based payments for digital services using stablecoins. The report suggests that weekly x402 volume may surpass $100 million in 2026, representing a shift towards "machine-native commerce."

Onchain Asset Management Trends

Keyrock also explores onchain asset management, specifically vault AUM across leading providers. They argue that 2025 marked a period of product development, while 2026 will focus on broader distribution. They predict vault AUM may triple to $36 billion by the end of next year, with at least one major broker-dealer likely to introduce an onchain vault "yield shelf."

The report also evaluates derivatives as a stress test for market depth. Notably, the ratio of DEX to CEX futures trading grew more than threefold in 2025, climbing from 6.34% to 21%. Keyrock emphasizes that open interest, as opposed to volume, is essential for determining whether trading venues can manage significant risk as new asset classes transition onchain. For 2026, the target is for onchain perpetual open interest to exceed $50 billion.

Monitoring Value Return

Value return is assessed through buyback activities. The report highlights substantial buyback initiatives in 2025 from entities like Hyperliquid, Raydium, and Pump.fun, predicting that weekly spending on buybacks will at least double from 2025 levels. Moreover, a shift is anticipated from fixed percentage fee models to more dynamic "value-aware" execution strategies.

Solana's Miner Extractable Value (MEV) is discussed in the context of distribution challenges. Keyrock notes that tip-based MEV has decreased significantly, dropping from a peak of 100,000 SOL (valued at around $25 million) to a low of 1,000 SOL (approximately $139,000). They point to the Block Assembly Marketplace (BAM) as a potential game-changer in moving MEV capture dynamics.

Furthermore, Keyrock uses "shielded ZEC" as a benchmark for privacy, forecasting a rise in shielded deposits from 4.9 million to over 7 million by the end of 2026. They are also tracking developments on Ethereum, specifically monitoring whether blob fees establish a meaningful baseline, forecasting a median hourly blob cost of at least $0.05 per blob across the year.

Consumer Payments and Traditional Finance Integration

Consumer spending via crypto cards is another area of focus, with the report predicting monthly spending could reach $500 million at least once in 2026. Traditional finance (TradFi) integration is also assessed through spot Bitcoin ETF AUM, with expectations that holdings will surpass 2.5 million BTC in 2026, with net inflows being positive for at least eight months throughout the year.

Finally, the analysis on stablecoin funding relies on data from Aave's USDC variable borrow Annual Percentage Yield (APY) on Ethereum, which saw rates vary from 2.4% to 9.8% in 2025. The expectations for 2026 focus on rate stability, projecting a decrease in the 30-day rolling volatility of USDC borrow APY to an average below 0.25, down from roughly 0.40 in 2025—an essential factor for implementing longer-term institutional strategies.

At the time of writing, the overall cryptocurrency market capitalization stands at $3.25 trillion.

Total crypto market cap chart Total crypto market cap highlights below the 20-week EMA, 1-week chart | Source: TOTAL on TradingView.com