Web3 Market Trends 2026

Tomohiro Iida · Published April 7, 2026 · Updated August 6, 2026

Last verified: August 5, 2026.

Judging from the primary sources on Japan’s financial sector that this article draws on, Web3 in 2026 is shifting from a race to create new tokens toward the question of how far existing rights, finance, and business operations can be safely moved on-chain.

Looking only at crypto-asset prices or at how much attention a topic attracts will not tell a company which area it should enter. Implementation is progressing in the areas that can be designed all the way through: the applicable rules, the parties to a trade, settlement, identity verification, operational responsibility, and secondary distribution. This article sets out the changes Japanese companies should be watching, based on primary sources that could be checked as of August 2026.

Security tokens have moved from the launch of the framework into operation

In Japan, the amended Financial Instruments and Exchange Act that took effect in May 2020 put in place the framework for electronically recorded transferable rights, that is, security tokens. 2026 marks five years since the framework began, and the Japan Security Token Offering Association held a commemorative event on February 20, 2026 setting out how the market has developed and what remains to be solved.

Japan Security Token Offering Association: events（日本語）Includes the February 20, 2026 event marking five years of the framework.

What matters in judging the maturity of the market is not only whether issuances exist. Look at whether the following are in place.

• Whether financial instruments business operators can handle the instrument
• Whether there are investor-protection rules
• Whether holders can be managed after issuance
• Whether tax, accounting, and disclosure can be handled
• Whether a venue for secondary distribution exists
• How settlement and the transfer of rights are synchronised

The Japan Security Token Offering Association and the Japan Securities Dealers Association publish the status of handling of tokenized securities and electronically recorded transferable rights on a monthly basis. Publication began with the April 2024 figures, and as a rule the data is posted on both associations’ sites on the first of each month.

Japan Security Token Offering Association: status of handling (April 2026)（日本語）Published June 1, 2026.

To assess the market, check the continuing statistics — issuance amounts, redemptions, holdings, distribution, and instrument type — rather than counting press releases.

STO and real-estate RWA in Japan: a practical guide

Real-estate RWA in Japan: examples and rules

The range of assets is widening from real estate to bonds, funds, shares, and government bonds

Early domestic security tokens were mostly products built on real estate or on beneficiary-interest-issuing trusts. A wider range of securities is now discussed as candidates for tokenization: bonds, PE and VC fund interests, shares, and government bonds. For shares and government bonds, specific work has been published in 2026.

Progmat: scheme options and open questions for tokenizing equity investment in Japan（日本語）April 2026.

Progmat: start of a joint study on on-chain repo transactions using tokenized government bonds（日本語）May 8, 2026.

What to watch here is the assumption that turning an asset into a token creates liquidity. Liquidity requires the following conditions.

• Investors able to take part in trading
• A mechanism for price formation
• A business that routes orders
• A settlement asset
• Legal effect for the transfer of rights
• Custody and key management
• Continuing disclosure
• Tax and accounting treatment on sale

Even where a token can be issued technically, continuous distribution is unlikely to hold without market design.

RWA (real-world asset tokenization): how it works and the rules in Japan

Connecting to a settlement asset is the next question

Moving only the rights in securities or physical assets on-chain, while settlement stays on conventional bank transfers or a separate system, splits the transaction as a whole. In 2026, work has been published on combining security tokens with stablecoins, tokenized deposits, and digital money so that the transfer of rights and the settlement of funds sit closer together.

The question for a company is not the speed of the chain. It is the following.

• Which asset settlement is made in
• Who issues and redeems it
• The conditions for exchange with fiat currency
• Recovery when settlement fails
• Simultaneity of the trade and the settlement
• AML/CFT
• Confirming balances for accounting purposes
• Operating hours and responsibility for maintenance

Evaluate the value of moving on-chain by whether it reduces reconciliation across rights, funds, and operations, rather than by the fact that the ledger has changed.

The essential value of Web3 and blockchain, and the conditions for implementing it

KYC-verified wallets and AML are being tested in pilots

On March 13, 2026, the Financial Services Agency published the results of the tenth project in its FinTech PoC Hub, which used wallets tied to addresses shown to have been through KYC and tested transactions in crypto-assets, electronically recorded transferable rights, and tokens simulating electronic payment instruments, together with measures to reduce money-laundering and terrorist-financing risk.

Financial Services Agency: FinTech PoC Hub experiment results (project no. 10)（日本語）Published March 13, 2026.

What this shows is that, in the financial sector, raising anonymity is not the centre of the value. An implementation under the applicable rules has to hold the following together.

• The party to a transaction can be identified
• Wallets holding authority can be identified
• Illicit movements of funds can be detected
• Privacy is protected to the extent required
• Regulated entities can supervise
• Operations can be halted, frozen, and restored in an incident

Technologies such as DID, verifiable credentials, and proof of address are used not to avoid regulation but to present verified attributes safely to the party that needs them.

How DID (decentralized identity) works, with use cases

An implementation guide to Verifiable Credentials

The point of contact between Web3 and AI is managing execution authority

There is growing talk of giving an AI agent a wallet and letting it handle payments, exchanges, and even contract execution. Where AI executes an on-chain transaction, however, a wrong answer does not stop at text: it becomes a transfer of assets. What matters is not the degree of autonomy but the boundary of authority.

• Read-only, or more
• Only drafting a proposed transaction
• Whether it runs a simulation
• Whether it signs only after human approval
• Whether there is a value cap and a restriction on destinations
• Whether it can be stopped in an emergency
• Whether an audit log is kept

A company combining AI and Web3 needs to design signing, keys, approval, and responsibility before it works on the appeal of the use case.

Designing AI agents and blockchain safely: signing, permissions, audit, and shutdown

The operating system Netsujo uses to run the company with AI agents

For DePIN, hardware operation and unit economics are the dividing line

DePIN is a framework for running physical infrastructure — sensors, communications, power, storage — through a distributed participation structure. Token design alone, however, does not make it implementable. The following remain as real operational work.

• Procuring and installing equipment
• Power and communications
• Failure and replacement
• Data quality
• Fraudulent observations
• Rewards for participants
• Users and payers
• Who maintains it
• Recovery of equipment on exit

In a pilot, check total cost of ownership per site, observation accuracy, maintenance frequency, and who pays, rather than the token price. In YaseiGrid, our own project, we publish the concept and the verified facts separately.

Where YaseiGrid R&D stands

Where DePIN stands, and the Web3 infrastructure business we are aiming at with YaseiGrid

What companies should confirm in 2026

A company considering Web3 should work through the following order. Not starting from technology selection is the practical way to avoid a PoC with no exit criteria. This is the procedure we use in our own engagements; it is not the only correct one.

1. Rights

What is being digitized. Decide first whether it is ownership, a beneficiary interest, a membership right, a usage right, a proof, or points.

2. Parties

Identify who the issuer, user, distributor, administrator, supervisor, and maintainer are.

3. Trust

Whether there is a reason that no single organisation’s database can solve the problem. Confirm whether a shared ledger across multiple organisations is needed.

4. Rules

Identify which frameworks are involved: financial instruments, crypto-assets, electronic payment instruments, prepaid payment instruments, personal data, and so on.

5. Operations

Decide what happens if a key is lost, if an illicit transaction occurs, or if an organisation withdraws.

6. Unit economics

Look at whether operating cost, value in use, distribution, and continuing revenue hold — not at issuing a token.

7. Verification

Before starting, decide what the PoC measures, on which conditions you proceed to production, and on which conditions you stop.

Do you actually need Web3? Five criteria for the adoption decision

A requirements checklist for Web3 projects

Setting exit criteria before starting a PoC

The conclusion for 2026

Judging from the published Japanese material this article draws on, Web3 is moving from a stage of competing on universal decentralisation to a stage of choosing the areas that can connect to the applicable rules and to existing operations. The opportunity for a company is not using a blockchain.

• Multiple organisations can confirm the same state of rights
• Transfer of rights and settlement can be linked
• Digital assets can be distributed under the applicable rules
• Verified attributes can be presented safely
• Machines and AI can transact with limited authority

Where those conditions match a business problem, Web3 becomes a candidate for implementation. We do not start from technology selection: we organise the rights, parties, rules, operations, unit economics, and exit criteria, and then design the PoC and the production implementation.

Web3 consulting

PoC support

Pricing