Maturation: DeFi De-Risks Itself

DeFi Dad and Nomadic break down the biggest lessons from 2025 and share their playbook for navigating crypto in 2026.

Every cycle feels familiar yet completely different, and 2025 proved that again. Bitcoin dominance stayed high, the altcoin rally never came, stablecoin supply rose to new highs, and institutional adoption accelerated faster than expected. Now we're looking ahead to what 2026 holds for crypto investors.

In this episode:
+ Why Bitcoin dominance stayed high and traditional cycle signals failed
+ The year institutional adoption and friendly regulation became undeniable
+ Our 7 predictions for 2026: ETH outperformance, stablecoins hitting $1T, RWA looping, agentic finance, and more
+ Why patience and doing nothing might be your best edge in crypto

------
💎 THIS EPISODE'S PARTNERS

♉︎ TOROS | Exponential gains with leveraged tokens

🌅 NEUTRL | The next generation of crypto-native yield

🛡️ ACCOUNTABLE | Real-time financial verification

🕛 NOON | The highest and safest stablecoin yield, built for the long term

⚔️ KATANA | Deep liquidity & real yield

🔊 DECIBEL | The new sound of trading

🥞 SYRUPUSDC BY MAPLE | DeFi's premium yield asset

🏦 MANTLE | Innovating the future of onchain finance

🐡 PUFFER INSTITUTIONAL | ETH staking solutions for scale

⚙️ GEARBOX PROTOCOL | Onchain lending reimagined

------
⏱️ TIMESTAMPS

0:00 - Intro
2:12 - Why Bitcoin dominance never broke
4:16 - 2025: The institutional adoption year
7:27 - How regulation became a catalyst
8:57 - Bull market top signals didn’t work this cycle
12:26 - Will 2026 repeat 2018 or 2022?
17:23 - What DeFi growing up taught us
28:33 - Prediction #1: BTC and ETH grow as collateral
32:53 - Prediction #2: Stablecoins hit $1T (ETH wins)
39:18 - Prediction #3: DeFi shifts to fundamentals
43:00 - Prediction #4: CLARITY Act passes
46:53 - Prediction #5: RWA looping explodes
55:00 - Prediction #6: ETH outperforms
1:03:30: Prediction #7: Agentic finance moment
1:06:47 - Closing

------
🔗 MORE FROM THE EDGE PODCAST AND EDGE NEWSLETTER

► Newsletter: https://the-edge.xyz
► Apple: https://tinyurl.com/edgepod
► Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/edgepodspotify
► Linktree: https://linktr.ee/edge_pod
► Follow DeFi Dad: https://x.com/DeFi_Dad
► Follow Nomatic: https://x.com/Nomaticcap
► Learn DeFi: http://defidad.com/

------
DISCLAIMER: Nothing said on The Edge Podcast is a recommendation to buy or sell tokens or securities. This content is for educational and entertainment purposes only. Nothing shared here is financial advice. Any views expressed by hosts or guests on the show are solely their opinions. Always do your own research. DeFi Dad, Nomatic, and guests may have positions in the assets or other matters discussed in this podcast.