Blockchain to 'Explosively Expand' Financial Markets, a16z Crypto Predicts

Robby Petersen, a partner at Silicon Valley venture capital firm a16z Crypto, believes blockchain technology is lowering barriers to traditional financial markets.

According to Petersen, creating a new market in traditional finance requires navigating listing reviews, legal procedures, and regional restrictions.

However, blockchain is changing this by enabling anyone to issue assets and distribute them worldwide.

Petersen cites perpetual futures as an example, pointing out that they allow for 24/7 trading of traditional risk assets such as stocks and commodities on-chain.

The annualised on-chain real-world asset (RWA) perpetual futures trading volume reached approximately 1.4 trillion dollars in July 2026.

Petersen predicts that on-chain markets will eventually cover macro indicators such as foreign exchange, indexes, computing power futures, and the consumer price index (CPI).