a16z's 2025 Crypto Trends: Decentralized Chatbots, On-Chain Government Bonds

a16z has listed the key areas for the cryptocurrency industry in the coming year, emphasizing tokenization use cases and the integration of artificial intelligence with blockchain technology as potential growth drivers. According to a report by a16z, applications based on artificial intelligence and running on-chain are expected to bring at least three emerging trends across the industry: wallets driven by AI agents, decentralized autonomous chatbots, and identity verification solutions. The company believes that decentralized chatbots can be used for social media content and asset management through trusted execution environments: "By running a set of permissionless nodes coordinated by consensus protocols, chatbots could even become the first truly autonomous entity worth billions of dollars."

Another trend expected to emerge by 2025 is related to stablecoins. In recent months, this industry has established markets suitable for global remittances with several companies and protocols launching new stablecoins pegged to USD. Starting next year, a16z predicts that stablecoins will gradually replace everyday credit card transactions. Furthermore, as infrastructure matures it's anticipated that more "non-traditional assets" will go on-chain by 2025 enabling cross-sector tokenization.

The report forecasts previously overlooked assets (such as biometric data) will generate new sources of revenue. It notes: "Individuals can tokenize their own biometric data; then rent out information via smart contracts." It also adds collecting medical data through decentralized scientific protocols is now possible allowing users profit from previously untapped resources. On-chain government bond trading is another prospect for 2025 onwards. With institutional adoption of digital assets backing up government securities tokens market started thriving in 2024 looking ahead a16z expects governments themselves will explore benefits issuing debt on-chain.