Yi Lihua's Major Analysis: 2026, the Year of Financial On-Chain, Why Heavily Invests in ETH and WLFI?

As a top global cryptocurrency trading platform, Gate has witnessed every shift in market sentiment. With over 47 million users and more than $11 billion in reserve assets, the platform is able to keenly capture capital flows from institutions to retail investors.

This time, veteran investor Yi Lihua’s views resonate with the increasingly active ETH and stablecoin trading on the Gate platform.

01 Core Viewpoint: Stablecoins and Ethereum, the Foundation of Financial On-Chain

At the beginning of 2026, the narrative in the crypto market is undergoing a profound shift. Yi Lihua explicitly states that 2026 will be the “Year of Financial On-Chain,” with stablecoins and Ethereum being the most important infrastructure (Infra) in this grand process.

This judgment goes beyond mere asset price fluctuations, directly addressing the core of blockchain technology implementation—the value circulation and settlement layer.

Liquid Capital, founded by Yi Lihua, not only expresses this view but also acts on it. He revealed that WLFI (World Liberty Financial) has recently converted part of its BTC holdings into ETH, based on a long-term consensus on the trend of “financial on-chain.”

In Yi Lihua’s view, Ethereum, as the most mainstream smart contract platform, with its vast developer ecosystem, deep liquidity, and ongoing technological upgrades, makes it the best place to carry trillions of dollars in financial assets on-chain.

02 Analyzing WLFI’s Three Grand Paths

Why heavily invest in WLFI? Yi Lihua provides a clear three-stage projection, illustrating the broad prospects of its anchored stablecoin protocol USD1.

Short-term breakthrough of $10 billion: The goal for USD1 is to soon surpass a $10 billion market cap, establishing a foothold in the stablecoin competition landscape.

Mid-term target of hundreds of billions: As adoption increases, the mid-term goal is to reach a market cap of hundreds of billions of dollars, entering the first tier of stablecoins.

Long-term vision of trillions: Yi Lihua predicts that the global stablecoin market will reach a long-term scale of $3 trillion, with USD1 aiming to capture a share of $1 trillion. This vision implies that USD1 needs to become one of the foundational currencies in the financial on-chain world.

Yi Lihua believes that stablecoin payments have a significant advantage over traditional Visa in terms of efficiency and cost. Collaborating with Web2 companies with hundreds of millions of active users could bring “billions of users into the blockchain and stablecoin world.”

In the future, with an on-chain financial market potentially reaching “hundreds of trillions of dollars,” WLFI is expected to grow into one of the most important financial infrastructures, leveraging its brand, compliance, enterprise services (ToB), and user base.

03 Market Trends and Data Support

Behind institutional views, real market data confirms the trend.

Taking Ethereum as an example, its price has recently shown significant volatility and resilience. According to the latest data from January 8, ETH is priced at approximately $3,149.95, with enormous daily trading volume.

Although the price has pulled back from recent highs, its position as a core asset for DeFi, NFTs, and numerous Layer 2 networks remains unshaken. This is key for investors like Yi Lihua who see it as “infrastructure” rather than an ordinary asset.

Market choices are also clear. On mainstream trading platforms like Gate, Ethereum (ETH) consistently ranks among the top in trading volume, second only to Bitcoin.

Assets related to WLFI (such as World Liberty Financial USD) are also among the most actively traded and well-depth trading pairs on Gate, providing a convenient entry point for investors interested in this sector.

04 How to Participate in the New Narrative of “Financial On-Chain”

For ordinary investors, understanding and participating in this narrative requires clear pathways and reliable platforms.

First, deeply understand the value of infrastructure. This means shifting investment perspectives from short-term speculation to focusing on long-term fundamentals such as the development of the Ethereum ecosystem, stablecoin adoption rates, and compliance progress.

Second, choosing a safe, diversified trading platform is crucial. A platform that offers a rich array of infrastructure assets, with good liquidity and security, is key to future deployment.

For example, Gate, founded in 2013, is a leading global trading platform supporting over 4,200 cryptocurrencies. Its reserves are ample, with a reserve ratio of 124%, providing solid security for user assets.

On Gate, investors can not only conveniently trade ETH but also access innovative financial assets related to WLFI, enabling a one-stop layout of the core infrastructure for “financial on-chain.”

05 Starting the Path of Crypto Infrastructure Investment

Yi Lihua’s judgment sets a serious and grand tone for the 2026 crypto market: While the meme season may come and go, the driving forces behind large-scale blockchain adoption will ultimately be stablecoins and Ethereum-like solid infrastructure.

This wave driven by “financial on-chain” will have a duration and impact far beyond any previous cycle. It is no longer just about speculation and wealth effects but about the efficiency reconstruction and paradigm shift of the global financial system.

For investors, this requires shifting our focus away from daily chart fluctuations to more fundamental and underlying questions: Which networks are carrying real economic activity? Which assets are becoming universal mediums of value transfer?

The answers may well be hidden among those public chains and protocols that process millions of transactions daily, lock hundreds of billions in assets, and continuously attract traditional giants to explore entry.