From memecoins to machines: Why Web3’s ‘real economy’ narrative is relevant in 2026
As DePIN projects generate revenue and AI agents move onchain, builders are shifting focus from speculation to fundamentals, but questions remain about Web3’s decentralization ethos.
Crypto entered 2026 with a familiar dichotomy: The industry is maturing, but its decentralized identity is at risk. Still, following years heavily dominated by speculation, 2025 became the year that pushed builders and investors toward fundamentals and proved that blockchain can support real-world goods, services and infrastructure.
In this week’s episode of Byte-Sized Insight, Cointelegraph explores what that shift looked like on the ground, particularly through the lens of the emerging “machine economy.”
Leonard Dorlöchter, co-founder of peaq, argues that 2025 was a turning point in how projects were evaluated.
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