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Renowned Coinbase supporter Fred Wilson anticipates a shift in user experience for cryptocurrency in 2026.
The venture capital tycoon has previously stated that cryptocurrency applications need to conceal the intricacies of blockchain technology to avoid jeopardizing widespread market acceptance.
(Noam Galai/Getty Images for TechCrunch)
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Key points:
- Fred Wilson anticipates that cryptocurrency will become more accessible by 2026.
- Wilson, an early investor in Coinbase, penned his initial article about Bitcoin in 2011, referring to it as an "intriguing investment opportunity."
Fred Wilson, a prominent venture capitalist in the U.S., believes that the pivotal moment for cryptocurrency in 2026 will not stem from new blockchain technologies but rather from making these technologies imperceptible to users.
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“Blockchains will fade into the background behind improved consumer interfaces that enable users to utilize, trade, and transfer tokens without needing to worry about which blockchain they are utilizing,” Wilson, who referred to Bitcoin as an “intriguing investment opportunity” back in 2011, noted in a recent blog post.
This forecast, nestled within a broader collection of Wilson’s technological predictions for 2026, embodies a long-held belief: the potential of blockchain hinges on user-friendliness rather than sheer technical prowess.
Wilson is a co-founder of Union Square Ventures (USV), the New York-based venture capital firm known for its early investments in Twitter, Etsy, and Tumblr. In the realm of cryptocurrency, he was an early supporter of Coinbase (COIN), Ethereum , and Filecoin , and continues to be a prominent voice in ongoing discussions about how blockchain could transform the internet.
Wilson, who has frequently labeled blockchains as the “next significant innovation” after social media and mobile technology, has also been candid about the industry’s more problematic tendencies. He has criticized the culture of hype and token speculation, cautioning that short-term greed endangers the long-standing trustworthiness of the sector.
For Wilson, genuine progress encompasses elements like decentralized identity, peer-to-peer finance, and open protocols that anyone can build upon.
In previous writings, he has likened the current state of cryptocurrency to the early days of the internet, when even sending an email demanded a degree of technical expertise.
He seems to believe that the way forward relies on superior design. Applications should manage the infrastructure aspects — like the blockchain a transaction operates on — behind the scenes, allowing users to concentrate on their goals rather than the means of achieving them.
For Wilson, this extends beyond just user experience; it represents a critical distinction between cryptocurrency remaining a specialized technology and gaining widespread acceptance.
