January 5, 2026 — A regulatory renaissance, the next phase of the AI boom, the continued emergence of tokenization, and the institutionalization of fast-growing prediction markets are just a few of the powerful trends that will drive the evolution of financial market structure in 2026.

The pace of change in financial market structure has accelerated every year since the 2020 pandemic inflection point. 2025 was no different, as market structure was transformed by endless artificial intelligence (AI) innovation, a complete change in regulatory posture in the United States, trading volume records in nearly every market, and economic growth expectations that remained resilient despite trade wars and bubble concerns.

There are no signs of a slowdown in 2026. A new report from Crisil Coalition Greenwich, Top market structure trends to watch in 2026, identifies the most important trends that will influence market structure in the year ahead, including:

Silicon Valley firms can move fast and break things in pursuit of AI progress. Capital markets firms cannot. As a result, we expect the adoption of AI tools for institutional trading to remain limited among broker-dealers and asset managers in the year ahead. Research is ripe for AI disruption in 2026, but actual trading will still generally be handled via more deterministic technology.

A favorable regulatory posture from the Trump administration has given platform builders and their potential users the confidence to move forward in a range of areas, from traditional equity and fixed-income markets to digital assets and prediction markets. 

“Despite the boost the change in regulatory approach has provided to the industry, we’d be remiss not to think about the potential for the exuberance to become irrational,” says Kevin McPartland, Head of Research for Market Structure & Technology at Crisil Coalition Greenwich. “Finding the balance between markets that self-police and over-burdensome regulation is notoriously tricky.”

Institutional market participants and fintechs in 2026 will develop trading tools and strategies to get involved in fast-growing prediction markets. In the short term, trading in contracts with limited financial ties will likely remain the domain of principal trading firms that can provide liquidity for retail investors and generally make a profit on anything with a bid-ask spread. 

Looking further out, asset managers and traditional bank traders may eventually collect enough historical data to also put these products to use, alongside more obvious financial hedges. Expect some consolidation, and possibly some failures, as the market matures. 

Stablecoins gained momentum in 2025 when the GENIUS Act provided clear guidelines for the on-chain movement of dollars. But stablecoins still leave something to be desired. Most stablecoins do not and cannot pay traditional interest like a bank savings account. For that reason, watch for growth in tokenized money market funds and tokenized U.S. Treasuries in 2026. 

“For institutions looking to grow their crypto investing or trading strategy, earning interest on cash balances yet to be deployed is key,” says David Easthope, Senior Analyst for Crisil Coalition Greenwich Market Structure & Technology. 

Additional trends covered in Top market structure trends to watch in 2026 include ongoing growth and a potential clearing of the froth in private credit, a new recognition of the value of good human client service in an era of automation, continued reforms of U.S. equity market regulation, growing mindfulness about disintermediation among broker-dealers and banks, and the tokenization of high-quality assets as a game-changer for financial market structure.