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Famed Coinbase backer Fred Wilson predicts 2026 UX pivot for crypto
The VC mogul has previously said crypto apps must hide blockchain complexity or risk missing mass-market adoption.
Jan 5, 2026, 5:49 p.m.
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What to know:
- Fred Wilson predicts crypto will become more user-friendly in 2026.
- Wilson, who was an early investor in Coinbase, wrote his first post about bitcoin in 2011, calling it an "interesting investment opportunity."
Fred Wilson, one of the most influential venture capitalists in the U.S., thinks crypto’s breakthrough moment in 2026 won’t come from new blockchains — but from making them invisible to their end users.
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“Blockchains disappear behind better consumer interfaces that allow users to use, spend, trade, and send tokens without concerning themselves with which blockchain they are on,” Wilson, who called bitcoin an "interesting investment opportunity" back in 2011, wrote in a blog post published last week.
The prediction, tucked into a longer set of Wilson's tech forecasts for 2026, reflects a view he has held for years: blockchain’s promise depends on ease of use, not technical horsepower.
Wilson is a founding partner of Union Square Ventures (USV), the New York-based VC firm behind early bets on Twitter, Etsy, and Tumblr. In crypto, he was early to Coinbase (COIN), Ethereum , and Filecoin , and remains a consistent voice in long-term conversations about how blockchain could reshape the internet.
Wilson, who has often described blockchains as the “next big thing” after social and mobile, has also been openly critical of the crypto industry’s worst habits. He’s pushed back against the culture of hype and token speculation, warning that short-term greed threatens the long-term credibility of the space.
That real work, in Wilson’s view, includes things like decentralized identity, peer-to-peer finance, and open protocols that anyone can build on.
In past posts, he’s compared the current state of crypto to the early internet, when even sending an email required a level of technical know-how.
The path forward, he seems to believe, lies in better design. Apps should handle the infrastructure details — like what chain a transaction is on — in the background, so that users can focus on what they want to do, not how they’re doing it.
For Wilson, this isn’t just a UX issue — it’s the difference between crypto staying a niche technology and achieving broad adoption.
AI Disclaimer: Parts of this article were generated with the assistance from AI tools and reviewed by our editorial team to ensure accuracy and adherence to our standards. For more information, see CoinDesk's full AI Policy.
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