I've spent the last year building at the intersection of AI and Web3, and something shifted. The tools I'm using daily—from Cursor writing code alongside me to AI agents managing wallet interactions—aren't experimental anymore. They're production-ready. And the financial infrastructure that seemed perpetually "almost there" is finally arriving.
AI: Building with Agents, Not Just Prompts
Three months ago, I built a voice-enabled legal assistant that could query case law, draft contracts, and interact with document databases. The stack was straightforward: Next.js for the interface, pgvector for semantic search, OpenAI's API for the LLM layer, and WebSockets for real-time voice streaming. What took me three weeks would have taken three months a year ago, and six months before that.
The shift isn't just about faster development. It's about what's possible now. I'm working on projects where AI agents execute financial transactions, manage batch auctions, and navigate complex DeFi protocols autonomously. These aren't demos—they're handling real value in production.
The tooling has reached a threshold where solo developers can build what previously required entire teams. Cursor and similar AI-powered IDEs are changing how we write code. RAG pipelines with Supabase and vector databases make domain-specific knowledge accessible to any application. The barriers aren't technical anymore—they're about design and orchestration.
AI in Finance: From Static Interfaces to Autonomous Actions
The batch auction platform I built last quarter includes an AI agent that monitors liquidity pools, suggests optimal execution windows, and can submit transactions with user approval. The interface isn't a dashboard—it's a conversation. Users describe what they want to achieve, and the agent translates that into smart contract calls.
This pattern is emerging everywhere I look. Static forms and complex menus are being replaced by natural language interfaces that handle the complexity layer. The user says "swap 1000 USDC for ETH at best price over the next hour," and the agent manages the execution strategy, gas optimization, and transaction batching.
The technical foundation is solid. Vector databases for semantic search, function calling in LLMs for deterministic actions, and wallet integration for transaction signing. What I wrote about in Agentic Finance is now deployed in production systems handling real transactions.
Stablecoins: Infrastructure, Not Speculation
After Stablecoin Summer, the regulatory environment is finally clarifying. U.S. policy is shifting from skepticism to strategic support, treating dollar-backed stablecoins as an extension of American financial infrastructure rather than a threat to it.
Living in Costa Rica, I see this differently than most North American observers. When I transfer money internationally, I wait days and lose 3-5% to fees. When I use USDC, it arrives in seconds and costs a few cents. The difference isn't marginal—it's transformative.
Latin America doesn't need to rebuild correspondent banking networks or payment processing infrastructure. We can adopt stablecoins directly. El Salvador demonstrated this with Bitcoin. The next phase will be stablecoin-native financial services: payroll, remittances, savings accounts, and lending—all built on transparent, programmable rails.
Tokenization: Parallel Markets, Not Experiments
Traditional financial institutions are launching tokenized trading venues. Not as pilots or proof-of-concepts—as production infrastructure with regulatory approval. The NYSE is building parallel digital venues that run 24/7, settle instantly, and use stablecoin rails. These aren't retrofits of existing systems. They're new markets built from the ground up on different assumptions.
The transition strategy is revealing: run both systems in parallel. Legacy markets with T+1 settlement and limited hours. Digital venues with instant settlement and continuous operation. Let capital choose which rails to use. This is how infrastructure transitions happen in practice.
What makes this work technically is the combination of programmable ownership and instant settlement. When a trade executes on-chain, settlement happens simultaneously with finality. No counterparty risk. No waiting for banks to clear wires. The trade completes, ownership transfers, done. This isn't a marginal improvement—it changes the operational model of capital markets.
The custody model shifts too. Instead of central clearing houses, custody moves to wallets. The same patterns I've been building with BitLauncher and Opyn—multi-sig wallets, programmable access control, on-chain verification—apply to tokenized equities. Custody becomes a primitive that developers can build on, not a service that requires institutional relationships.
Compliance becomes programmable as well. Transfer restrictions enforced at the smart contract level. KYC verification embedded in wallet credentials. Accreditation checks that happen programmatically before transactions execute. The regulations don't disappear, but enforcement becomes code rather than manual process.
The global access implications are significant. Stablecoin settlement means participants don't need correspondent banking relationships. If you can custody assets in a wallet and settle in stablecoins, the infrastructure barriers drop dramatically. Securities regulation still applies, but the banking friction is gone.
This creates composability. Tokenized securities as collateral in DeFi protocols. Automated market makers for equity liquidity. Cross-chain bridges for asset portability. The same primitives that work for DeFi work for tokenized securities. That design space is just opening up.
Wallet Infrastructure: Closing the UX Gap
The wallet I shipped last month uses WebAuthn for transaction signing—no seed phrases, no browser extensions, just biometric authentication through the device. Users scan a QR code to delegate signing authority, and the wallet handles token swaps and auction participation without requiring them to understand gas fees or transaction construction.
This is what closing the UX gap looks like. Not simpler explanations of complex concepts, but abstractions that hide the complexity entirely. Smart contract wallets with session keys, account abstraction for gas sponsorship, and AI agents that translate user intent into transaction sequences.
The technical pieces exist: ERC-4337 for account abstraction, Passkeys for authentication, safe multisig contracts for custody, and JSON-RPC interfaces for protocol integration. The challenge is integration. Every wallet has different signing methods, different contract interfaces, different ways of handling errors. We need standardization, better tooling, and more developer-focused documentation.
DeFi: Backend Infrastructure, Not Speculation
DeFi is becoming what it was always supposed to be: programmable financial infrastructure. The speculation phase is over. What remains is a set of composable primitives for lending, swapping, derivatives, and yield—all accessible through standardized smart contract interfaces.
The institutional interest is real now. Not because of hype, but because the infrastructure proved resilient through multiple stress tests. Protocols that survived the 2022 collapse are battle-tested. The ones getting traction now have sustainable economics and clear regulatory pathways.
I see DeFi as the backend layer that everything else builds on. AI agents need programmatic access to financial services. Stablecoin applications need yield generation and liquidity. Wallet infrastructure needs protocols to interact with. The pieces are aligning.
Conclusion: The Stack is Ready
I'm bullish on 2026 because the fundamental layers are in place. Not as experimental technology, but as production infrastructure.
AI has matured from chatbots to autonomous agents that can navigate complex workflows and execute transactions. Stablecoins have regulatory clarity and are being adopted as payment infrastructure. Tokenization is moving from experiments to production venues with institutional backing. Wallet technology is finally delivering on the promise of self-custody without sacrificing usability. DeFi protocols are stable, audited, and integrated into broader financial systems.
What comes next isn't speculation. It's deployment at scale.