Survival Guide for "Crypto-US Stock Traders" in 2026
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Survival Guide for "Crypto-US Stock Traders" in 2026
Through the Q&A with nine researchers, we reviewed the integration trends between U.S. stocks and tokenization/Web3 in 2025 and looked ahead to investment opportunities and strategies for 2026.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsWritten by: MSX Researcher
The past is beyond reproach; the future is still within reach.
2025 has passed in a flash. This year, global financial markets underwent round after round of "extreme stress tests": geopolitical fluctuations, shifting macro expectations, the ebb of narratives, and the divergence of liquidity all occurred in tandem. Meanwhile, tokenization quietly accelerated, driven by compliance and infrastructure development.
It can be said that from TradFi to Web3, two forces that were originally parallel are converging at an unprecedented speed, aiming at the on-chain and programmable transformation of various financial assets.
To distill market "sentiment" into referenceable "samples," we used MSX as an observation sample and posed nine questions to our internal researchers: from annual keywords, personal gains and losses, and core holdings, to the spillover paths of capital, judgments on where pricing power lies, and the key structural variables that could trigger the "ChatGPT moment" for TradFi × tokenization. We have compiled their responses into this article for our readers.
As a collective retrospective from front-line builders, we hope this offers a glimpse into the gains and losses of U.S. stocks / tokenization / Web3 in the eyes of users this year. Perhaps it can also serve as a reference to discover the hidden sparks of potential and provide a survival guide for 2026.
Note: Researcher holdings disclosure (for sample illustration and research discussion only, not constituting any investment advice)
I. Flashback to 2025: Gains and Regrets in U.S. Stocks / Web3
1. Looking back at 2025, what was the biggest change you observed in the U.S. stock market or the tokenization space? If you had to summarize it with one keyword, what would it be?
DaiDai: I think 2025 was a turning point for the U.S. stock market, shifting from "narrative-driven" to "substantive implementation." The keyword summary would be these four words: "Value Return."
Especially regarding the monetization of AI-related "Capital Expenditure" (CapEx), it was under constant performance scrutiny throughout the year. The market clearly stopped buying into pure "AI stories" and became extremely focused on whether tech giants' capital expenditures could translate into actual revenue.
LittleFox: My keyword is "Regulation-Driven Technology Application."
The biggest change in 2025 was the trend of convergence between traditional finance and Web3. This trend was directly reflected in the increase in stablecoin volume and daily applications. Very noticeably, trading capital in the crypto market saw outflows in 2025, leading to an overall downturn and failing to sustain a bull market state. However, crypto technology has already begun to become part of the infrastructure in traditional finance. Market logic changes rapidly, but following a normal distribution trend, traditional finance, especially the U.S. stock market, will receive more technological support from the crypto market, thereby gaining more user growth globally.
Echo: For a keyword, I think it's "Playability."
From my perspective and that of my friends who are crypto veterans and U.S. stock newcomers, the excitement shifted from "lower barriers to investing in U.S. stocks" to "how to play with tokenized U.S. stocks on-chain." Essentially, this sector has enough playability to keep people from being stuck in narratives.
Value no longer depends solely on how exciting the future story is, but also on how fun the tool is, how it can be played with, and whether it can combine the advantages of both to open up a higher ceiling. Stock + crypto double veterans should be thrilled. Something as solid as Apple stock becomes "financial LEGO" on-chain: it can be held, staked, used to generate yield, even serve as leverage collateral, and instantly switch between multiple states like being packaged into derivatives, with states being stackable.
Frank: If I had to summarize the tokenized U.S. stock sector in 2025 with one keyword, I'd choose "Acceleration."
This "acceleration" didn't come from a single event but was reflected in the synchronized advancement of a whole set of infrastructure and institutional layers. This includes compliance discussions moving forward and a noticeable shift in attitudes towards the "on-chain" topic. Whether it's Nasdaq transitioning from observer to active participant or the proposal of the 5×23-hour trading experiment, it all marks that these Wall Street players are no longer just testing the waters but are starting to dismantle the fences of the old world themselves (Further reading: "Nasdaq Steps on the Gas: From 'Sipping Soup' to 'Eating Meat,' Is Tokenized U.S. Stocks Entering the Decisive Phase?", "U.S. Stocks Sprint Towards 'Never Closing': Why Did Nasdaq Launch the '5×23 Hour' Trading Experiment?").
In contrast, my overall feeling about the U.S. stock market in 2025 was "Turbulence." After all, it wasn't a peaceful year, with events like the April dip and subsequent tariff/geopolitical turmoil shocks. But what was astonishing was its极强的修复力与版块轮动效率 (extremely strong resilience and sector rotation efficiency). From AI and chips to electricity, copper, storage, nuclear energy, and infrastructure, there was almost always a new narrative taking over at each stage.
It can be said that 2025 further widened the认知鸿沟 (cognitive gap) between U.S. stocks and Crypto. In my view, the U.S. stock market is more like a deep sea, while Crypto remains multiple fragmented small ponds. More importantly, U.S. stocks are backed by real profits and cash flow, making their valuation logic repeatedly verifiable—something almost 99% of Altcoins cannot compare to.
Keaton: The keyword I choose is "Second Half."
From my perspective, blockchain has finally entered its second half, moving towards compliance and maturity. Blockchain is finally returning to its intended use: competing with traditional finance's上一代黑箱结算系统 (previous generation black-box settlement systems) through superior clearing and settlement efficiency.
Both user scale and product experience have finally reached the eve of the singularity, capable of supporting some Mass Adoption-level use cases.
L: Looking back at 2025, if I had to summarize the biggest change in the U.S. stock and tokenized asset space with one keyword, I'd choose "Implementation."
Simply put, in 2025, "tokenized trading truly became established." Because from STOs to tokenization, tokenization over the past few years was mostly conceptual. Starting in 2025, it began to revolve around liquidity, trading depth, and real use cases.
Users no longer only care about "whether assets are on-chain," but about "whether they are easy to trade and worth long-term participation."
Ariaina: Looking back at 2025, I believe the emergence of tokenized U.S. stocks is an important signal that on-chain assets are beginning to undergo structural changes.
The concept itself isn't new. In earlier cycles, the market attempted to bring various real-world assets like U.S. Treasuries and real estate on-chain. These explorations had their rationale at their respective stages, but overall, they were more about supplementing on-chain asset types. They didn't truly enter the mainstream or change the core structure of on-chain assets.
Against the backdrop of global economic pressure and tightening liquidity, the Web3 market itself has found it difficult to achieve new growth relying solely on crypto-native assets. However, U.S. stocks, as the world's most mature, most liquid, and most easily understood assets by the masses, their tokenization not only opens up an asset space for Web3 far larger than its own scale but also, in fact, establishes a more direct connection between traditional finance and Web3.
From an ordinary user's perspective, this is a more natural path—users don't need to first understand complex crypto concepts but can start from familiar assets and gradually enter the on-chain system.
Therefore, if I had to summarize this change with one word, I'd choose "Opening"—not opening a specific product or entry point, but opening the ceiling for on-chain assets and opening the long-isolated boundary between Web3 and mainstream finance.
2. What was your most comfortable investment move in 2025, and what was your most regrettable missed opportunity or loss? (Not limited to U.S. stocks / crypto)
DaiDai: This year, I indeed caught most of the meme stocks, like OKLO, RKLB, IREN, NBIS, ASTS, SNDK, MU, OPEN, etc. Yes! I love following trends, especially meme stocks.
In precious metals, I also caught gains in gold and silver, and cleared ETH at 4000+ (looking back, that's another kind of "successful exit at the top"). The biggest regret was not buying back MU and SNDK during the October-November pullback.
LittleFox: For my personal trading, I adhere to the principle of "顺势堪避纪算祸，逆行方得会元功" (Following the trend can avoid disasters, going against it yields great merit). I focus on left-side trading for intraday high frequency, but more often, I combine macro data, company data, and other fundamental information,配合节奏 (matching the rhythm) to find entry opportunities.
The most comfortable trade this year was in November when the market experienced a broad decline due to fundamental pressure. But I predicted that after Nvidia's earnings report, it would inevitably lift the market with定海神针之力 (the power of a stabilizing needle). Because Nvidia's sales situation was basically that all sales tasks were completed early in the year, I couldn't think of any reason for its earnings report to go wrong. So, I increased leverage and bought at a relatively good price (Aside: thinking back now, increasing leverage at that time had an element of gambling. If Nvidia's earnings had gone wrong, it would have caused significant losses. I don't encourage this behavior). This operation was an opportunity to monetize my认知 (cognition). Besides earning some收益 (returns), the greater part was the sense of achievement from monetizing my own understanding, so it's memorable.
As for regrettable missed opportunities, I basically didn't touch the precious metals行情 (trend) until prices rose to levels I found离谱 (absurd). Only then did I start doing deep analysis on precious metals, but by then, there were no suitable entry points within my trading system. I could only watch from afar. This is regrettable because when precious metals showed异动 (unusual movements), I should have prioritized deep analysis.
Echo: The most comfortable was dollar-cost averaging and taking profits on BTC, SOL, and BNB.
The most regrettable was the emotional FOMO buying and letting losses run on TRUMP and CFX. I didn't participate in any other Meme projects later this year; I feel I have no灵性可言 (talent whatsoever) in emotional investing. For U.S. stocks, I threw some lucky money into MSTR at the beginning of the year without any significant收获 (gains).
Taking profits is the greatest respect for trading. Let's共勉 (encourage each other).
Frank: Frankly, I didn't have much active investment in the Crypto space in 2025.
On the contrary, influenced by work, a few of my operations in U.S. stocks were unexpected surprises this year, including阶段性配置 (phased allocations) to Google (GOOGL) and XPeng (XPEV), both yielding relatively good returns. This also made me vaguely realize this might be a turning point in my personal investment path.
Because for a while, I was more accustomed to寻找机会 (looking for opportunities) on-chain, between different protocols, and between on-chain and CEXs/platforms, mainly围绕稳定币套利 (focusing on stablecoin arbitrage). So, I held USDT/USDC long-term, which could yield relatively stable "snack-level" returns. But since deeply接触 (engaging with) U.S. stock investment research in the second half of 2025, I realized a problem I just discussed with a friend today:
My background as a Web3 Native (self-proclaimed) makes my current investment logic somewhat "neither fish nor fowl"—I haven't fully established a systematic value investment framework based on the mature U.S. stock market, yet I'm gradually becoming不适应 (uncomfortable) with the highly emotional, purely speculative gambling style of the Crypto world.
Precisely because of this, I remain cautious towards high-volatility Meme or pure narrative projects and increasingly agree with a体感结论 (feeling-based conclusion): people with a U.S. stock investment background transitioning to Crypto often find it much easier than pure Crypto players entering U.S. stocks.
As for regrets, none really. Although GPS (GoPlus) has been deeply套牢 (stuck) with continuous additional buying, it's based on trust in the project team and observation of C-end security logic. It's not踩雷 (stepping on a landmine). The market is willing to hit, I'm willing to take it.
L: If I had to choose, the most comfortable operations in 2025 actually had a common point: I didn't刻意去「更聪明」 (try to be "smarter") but chose to stand on the side of确定性 (certainty).
In U.S. stocks, I participated more in the AI infrastructure and energy line, like VST, CEG. These aren't the hottest names every day, but the logic is very clear—AI ultimately needs to be implemented,离不开电力和基础设施 (cannot do without electricity and infrastructure). I don't chase highs or频繁操作 (trade frequently). I dare to hold during pullbacks, and the holding process is反而很踏实 (actually very steady).
In Crypto, I similarly延续了现货、偏长线的风格 (continued a spot, longer-term style). Compared to chasing new narratives, I prefer to hold BTC and少量基础设施属性明确的资产 (a small amount of assets with clear infrastructure properties) long-term. Such positions don't require constant monitoring but allow me to始终留在牌桌上 (always stay at the table), following the industry's overall trend.
The most regrettable aspects are also consistent. Whether it's commercial space (ASTS, RKLB) in U.S. stocks or the阶段性爆发的 (periodically explosive) AI + Crypto, Restaking directions in Crypto, I understood the logic but chose a more conservative节奏 (pace) in execution, missing the steepest段 (part).
But looking back, I don't completely regret it. What 2025 made me more certain of is: some market moves are用来「证明市场存在弹性」 (to "prove market elasticity exists"), while some positions are才是用来陪你长期走下去的 (the ones that accompany you long-term). I'd rather reserve my energy for the latter.
Ariaina: If we're talking about my most "comfortable" investment operation in 2025, there wasn't any stroke of genius; it was actually very boring—continuing to hold BTC long-term. As an old BTC dollar-cost averaging practitioner, this year was basically机械式地加仓 (mechanically adding to positions): buying when it rose, buying when it fell,主打一个「我也不知道市场想干嘛，但我不想猜」 (the main theme being "I don't know what the market wants to do, but I don't want to guess"). Not smart, but I slept okay.
Besides BTC, I allocated a small position to BNB this year. Platform coins haven't had a great reputation in recent years, with everyone saying they lack long-term value. My心态也很微妙 (mindset was微妙) when buying: half不相信 (not believing), half忍不住想试试 (couldn't help but want to try).结果 (As a result), BSC was硬生生带了一波应用场景 (forcefully driven into a wave of use cases) by Alpha Meme this year,算是让我这种半信半疑的人捡到了一点逻辑成立的安慰 (which counts as giving a bit of comfort to someone like me who was半信半疑 (half-believing) that the logic held).
If we're talking about the most regrettable operation, it has to be TRX. In my youthful ignorance, after no longer using Tron, I almost gave away the remaining TRX in my hands to friends as "electronic垃圾 (garbage)."谁能想到 (Who would have thought) Brother Sun could actually折腾 (hustle) TRON onto Nasdaq? The biggest lesson for me wasn't missing out on money, but that you can look down on a project, but千万别低估一个能长期折腾、还总能活下来的创始人 (never underestimate a founder who can hustle long-term and always survive).
Also, 2025 was the year I重新开始做合约 (started trading futures again) after two years. The strategy was actually quite老实 (honest): "medium-to-long term, only playing in bull markets." Judging by order win rate, the成绩并不算差 (results weren't bad). The problem was with me—明明 (clearly) it was策略交易 (strategy trading), but emotions最后接管了账户 (finally took over the account). During the September下跌 (downturn),理智下线 (reason went offline),恐慌接管 (panic took over), and I couldn't及时躲开 (avoid it in time). It was a case of the system not breaking, but the person崩 (collapsing) first.
Looking back at this year, whether I made money or not is no longer the most important. A更真实的感受 (more real feeling) is that the market changes every year, but in the course of情绪管理 (emotional management), I'm still年年补考 (retaking the exam every year). Adding one more point about U.S. stock investment: as a complete novice, this year I误打误撞地搭上了 AI 这趟快车 (stumbled onto the AI express train) following "Mai Mai's严选 (strict selection)."老实说 (Honestly), I used to be有点嗤之以鼻 (somewhat disdainful) of traditional financial markets, thinking they were节奏慢 (slow-paced) and没什么想象空间 (lacking imagination).结果行情一走出来 (Once the trend played out), I could only感叹一句 (exclaim):哎呀，真香! (Oh my, it's so good!). Currently still in the学习阶段 (learning phase).先活下来 (Survive first),再谈风格和收益 (then talk about style and returns).
Finally, if 2025 taught me anything in the U.S. stock market, it might not be specific技巧 (skills) but a心态上的转变 (shift in mindset): from "看
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