A Decade After Tokenization, Liquidation Alerts Become the Lullaby at Two A.M.

In 2036, stablecoins quietly take over national currencies.

Written by: Tiger Research

Compiled by: AididiaoJP, Foresight News

As of 2026, blockchain technology has yet to truly change the world. But will it bring significant changes by 2036?

The time machine has been activated, destination ------ the year 2036.

1. "Is anyone still using cash?"

In 2036, a currency exchange point in the fictional country of Zutopia. This country has long suffered from inflation. Judy, who has worked for 34 years, pulls out a cash counting machine from her drawer and begins to count the "Bucks."

"I can't believe people are still using Bucks."

This is not surprising. The currency of this inflation-ridden country depreciates daily. Legally, it still exists, but in reality, almost no one uses it anymore. In everyday transactions, everyone has switched to using the USD stablecoin.

Tap tap tap tap.

Listening to the sound of the counting machine, Judy reminisces about the past years.

In 2002, she was 22 years old. That year, Zutopia declared national default. Banks closed, and people could not withdraw their life savings.

"We need to hurry and exchange."

Her father said. As soon as the salary arrived, it had to be exchanged for USD immediately. Even waiting one more day would visibly devalue the Bucks. People checked the black market USD exchange rate before looking at the news headlines every day.

"How much is the USD today?"

This question became the daily opener. Buying USD at the official exchange rate was nearly impossible. The government imposed monthly limits, and no one knew when the bank would freeze USD deposits.

By the mid-2020s, young customers began asking her questions she didn't understand:

"Can I exchange for USDT?"

At first, only a few freelancers and exporters used it to receive overseas remittances. No banks, no waiting in line at exchange points. With just a smartphone, Bucks could be exchanged for stablecoins and converted back when needed.

At that time, Judy never thought this would replace her job. Older people still wanted cash, and many merchants still needed it. But the number of people waiting gradually decreased. Young people disappeared first, followed by middle-aged individuals.

By 2030, even payday no longer had lines. Companies had no reason to hoard Bucks and began to pay part of salaries directly in stablecoins. Bucks were left only for paying taxes and utility bills.

In 2033, the tax department changed its stance. The math was simple: collecting overdue taxes in stablecoins was more cost-effective than using Bucks. A brief notice was posted on the website:

"Tax payments can be made using USDC and USDT as alternative payment methods."

Bucks still existed, but the state itself announced: it would rather accept others' money than its own currency.

In 2034, the Ministry of Finance followed suit. National bonds priced in Bucks repeatedly failed to auction, leading to the issuance of new bonds priced in USD stablecoins. Then came the salaries of civil servants. By 2035, some state governments began paying half of civil servants' salaries in stablecoins ------ because civil servants who only received Bucks were the first and hardest hit by inflation.

Printing money, collecting taxes, paying salaries ------ these were once exclusive powers of the state. Now, they have gradually shifted to stablecoins.

As of May 2026, the total market value of stablecoins was approximately $320 billion, with an annual trading volume of $28 trillion. Compared to the over $2 trillion processed daily by the U.S. wholesale payment network, this is less than three weeks' worth. After excluding wash trading and false transactions, less than 6% was actually used for real payments. The remaining 88% just circulated in exchanges ------ trading, collateralizing, and recycling.

The question is, where does that 6% actually occur? It may have started in New York and Silicon Valley, but the real trading happens elsewhere. Americans have credit cards and bank accounts, which are sufficient. The people who truly need stablecoins are those in countries where their national currency is melting away daily.

Judy puts the counting machine back in the drawer. Will there be customers tomorrow?

At Two A.M., a Ten-Minute Liquidation

In 2036, a small rental room in Singapore.

At 2 P.M., a notification sound rings, and Leah glances at her phone. An alert for a limit order on Nvidia.

In Singapore, it's 2 P.M., and the New York Stock Exchange hasn't opened yet. But the Nvidia chart on her screen is still fluctuating. Without hesitation, she places a buy order. On the same screen, government bonds, real estate REITs, and data center infrastructure funds are displayed side by side.

By 2036, you are trading not just stocks ------ almost everything in the world can be traded.

"No matter where you are, investing never stops."

This is something Leah often says. For her, the world has always been like this.

In 2021, Leah was nine years old. American retail investors drove the stock price of the physical game store GameStop to the sky. That investment felt more like an action where participation itself became meaningful, and the organization of this participation was not by brokers, but by online communities.

A 2025 World Economic Forum survey of 13 countries showed that 30% of Generation Z started investing as soon as they turned 18, far higher than the 9% of Generation X and 6% of the Baby Boomer generation. Generation Z has a deep interest in investing, with 86% having learned about investing before entering the workforce, compared to only 47% of Baby Boomers.

In a Coinbase survey in the fourth quarter of 2025, 73% of young respondents believed it was difficult to accumulate wealth through traditional means, compared to 57% of older generations.

For this generation, investing has become the default option ------ they want to access more and broader opportunities.

In June 2025, tokens collateralized 1:1 with major U.S. stocks like Apple, Tesla, and Nvidia surged onto decentralized exchanges. There were no nationality restrictions, no strict KYC. With just a wallet address, U.S. stocks became accessible, and leverage was almost unlimited.

"I can just try again tomorrow."

Leah logs into the borderless trading platform Lemming Brothers and buys a tokenized Korean real estate index product. Ten minutes later, her phone pops up with a liquidation alert. She dismisses the screen warning as if swatting away background music.

For Leah in 2036, phone notifications are the background noise of daily life. She checks the endless signals in her trading app and picks up her phone again. This sharply contrasts with her parents ------ who only invest in so-called "safe assets" on regulated exchanges.

In Leah's world, all value has been assetized, flowing continuously and unceasingly. This enormous market that never sleeps tempts her every day to make the next trade.

The Day $2.2 Billion Vanished

In 2036, an office of a startup in the Banqiao Technology Valley.

Infrastructure engineer Duxian has been in the industry for 12 years. He stares at the network status dashboard on his monitor, and his hand suddenly stops. Looking at the blockchain list that can now fit neatly on one screen, he murmurs:

"Ten years ago, you had to scroll for a long time. Now there are less than ten."

In 2024, when Duxian just entered the industry, it was the great age of Layer 2 (L2) Rollups. Anyone could copy and paste a few lines of framework code and launch a blockchain under their own name. Duxian's company also rode this wave of infrastructure boom, building validation nodes.

That blockchain was called Allchain. In June 2024, driven by airdrop expectations, the total value locked (TVL) surged to $2.2 billion. He still remembers the scene in the conference room where they raised their glasses to celebrate.

"At this rate, will we become the next Ethereum?"

The joy of launching quickly faded. After the tokens were listed and airdrop rewards were exhausted, the token price and on-chain usage plummeted sharply. Projects and users chasing rewards immediately turned away once the money stopped flowing. Within a year, 97% of the deposits evaporated.

The tragic end of Allchain was not an isolated case. Countless independent networks that sprang up like mushrooms at that time met the same fate. They attracted development teams with sweet incentives, but once the funding stopped, the ecosystem became hollow, leaving only silent empty shells of infrastructure.

The astronomical fixed costs of running independent chains far exceeded the capacity of individual projects. Unable to bear the ever-increasing operational costs, Allchain and others gradually announced shutdowns, fading from history.

Only a few chains survived the cold scrutiny of capital. Hundreds of chains that once seemed poised to change the world quietly went extinct after barely capturing over 10% of the market share.

"At that time, we all thought we could survive and build a vast ecosystem..."

By 2026, people mistook the number of chains for blockchain scalability itself. But fragmented chains only tore apart user experience and pushed security costs to astronomical levels. What people truly wanted was not hundreds of complex networks, but a few large-scale foundational infrastructures that provided uninterrupted liquidity and speed optimization.

Duxian sighed deeply, quietly turned off the monitor, and picked up his bag to go home.

The "Human Eye" Clicks Have Disappeared

In 2036, an office of a media startup in a cave.

When Hao accidentally browsed another platform, he saw a banner ad in the lower right corner and laughed.

"I can't believe there are still companies putting up banner ads on screens, waiting for readers to come."

He was right. That platform's daily traffic was hitting new highs every month, but traditional banner ad revenue was almost nonexistent; the entire advertising model had become a thing of the past.

In the early 2020s, when Hao first entered the media industry, the formula for the online economy was crystal clear: write good articles, and readers will come; when readers come, advertisers will pay for banner ads.

"How many page views today?"

This question opened every morning meeting, determining whether a media outlet could survive.

But this stable formula began to crumble at the end of the 2020s. By 2029, over half of global internet traffic no longer came from humans but from AI agents and robots. AI could scrape articles and summarize them in seconds ------ but machines had no "eyes" to see banner ads.

Initially, like most media outlets, they blocked robots. Server costs skyrocketed, and they simply couldn't keep up. But the cost of blocking was severe. Completely excluded from the AI search and recommendation ecosystem, their brand was utterly forgotten. Media faced a painful choice: block robots and lose traffic, or open the door and earn no money.

"Who are we selling content to now?"

This desperate question filled the office. The answer was not ad space ------ but pricing the content itself.

The real breakthrough came with Coinbase's launch of the x402 standard in May 2025. It revived the long-dormant HTTP 402 response code ------ the "Payment Required" signal.

By 2029, the focus remained on building foundational infrastructure: Know Your Agent (KYA) verification, settlement tracks, etc. The real explosion began in 2030 when a media company sold data directly to AI through the x402 system. Once this was established, other media and data companies quickly followed suit, joining the data sales.

At first, there was plenty of ridicule ------ a few dozen Korean won for a transaction wasn't worth the hassle. But as daily machine calls accumulated into hundreds of thousands and millions, real cash began to flow into their accounts, far exceeding past banner ad revenues.

"No longer do we have to worry about what advertisers think ------ machines pay full price, and the company runs on this."

The old network advertising model, which relied on capturing human eyes to sell ads, slowly faded away, while the machine economy trading through APIs fully unfolded.

Hao closed the dashboard and picked up his coffee cup. The traffic curve still depicted a nearly vertical rise that made no sense by old standards ------ but now it had become routine. He no longer looked at how many people came but at how many AI agents paid today.

Tomorrow, there would be hundreds of thousands of agents knocking on his server door, and that honest transaction line would no longer shorten.