Final yr restored crypto’s institutional footing. This yr, in line with Silicon Valley Financial institution (SVB), is when it turns into extra built-in into the monetary system.
Regulatory readability improved in 2025, institutional engagement accelerated and capital markets reopened. Now the main target is shifting from worth cycles to infrastructure as digital belongings change into extra deeply embedded into funds, custody, treasury administration and capital markets.
“Regardless of how tangible or visible, all the forces shaping crypto today share a common thread: Crypto is moving from expectations to production. Pilot programs are scaling and capital is consolidating,” Anthony Vassallo, senior vice chairman of crypto at SVB, informed CoinDesk in an interview.
The financial institution, which maintains greater than 500 relationships with crypto corporations and enterprise companies investing within the sector, says institutional capital, consolidation, stablecoins, tokenization and AI are converging to reshape how cash strikes.
After its 2023 collapse, SVB was purchased by North Carolina–based mostly First Residents Financial institution and now operates inside a top-20 U.S. financial institution with $230 billion in belongings. In 2025, it added 2,100 purchasers and ended the yr with $108 billion in complete consumer funds and $44 billion in loans.
Fewer experiments, extra conviction
“The suits and ties have arrived,” in line with the financial institution’s 2026 outlook report.
Enterprise funding in U.S. crypto corporations rose 44% final yr to $7.9 billion, in line with PitchBook knowledge cited by SVB. Whereas the deal depend fell, median verify sizes climbed to $5 million as traders concentrated capital into stronger groups. Seed valuations jumped 70% from 2023 ranges.
The financial institution warns that demand for institutional-grade crypto corporations may outstrip the variety of investable companies.
“In 2026, conditions are ripe for continued growth in VC investment in crypto. As institutional adoption accelerates, driving larger venture capital checks, we expect continued capital concentration in fewer companies with investors prioritizing higher-quality projects and follow-ons into proven teams,” Vassallo stated.
“For end users, the result will be a more seamless experience across everyday financial interactions, from sending cross-border payments to managing an investment portfolio.”
Company stability sheets are reinforcing the shift. At the very least 172 public corporations held bitcoin within the third quarter of 2025, up 40% from the second, collectively controlling roughly 5% of circulating provide, in line with knowledge referenced by SVB.
A brand new class of digital asset treasury corporations, companies that deal with crypto accumulation as a core technique, has emerged. The financial institution expects consolidation as requirements tighten and volatility exams enterprise fashions.
In the meantime, conventional banks are shifting deeper into the sector. JPMorgan, the biggest U.S. financial institution by belongings, plans to just accept bitcoin and ether as collateral, Bloomberg reported final yr. SoFi Applied sciences affords direct digital asset buying and selling. U.S. Financial institution offers custody by way of NYDIG. SVB expects extra establishments to roll out lending, custody and settlement merchandise as compliance guardrails solidify.
M&A and the race to full-stack crypto
Why construct when you should buy?
Greater than 140 enterprise capital-backed crypto corporations had been acquired within the 4 quarters ending in September, a 59% year-over-year leap, in line with the financial institution’s evaluation of PitchBook knowledge. Coinbase’s $2.9 billion acquisition of Deribit and Kraken’s $1.5 billion buy of NinjaTrader underscored the size.
The pattern extends to banking charters. In 2025, 18 corporations utilized for charters from the Workplace of the Comptroller of the Foreign money (OCC), most of them blockchain-enabled companies. The OCC granted conditional approval to digital-asset-focused belief banks together with custody supplier BitGo (BTGO), Circle Web (CRCL), the corporate behind the second-largest stablecoin, buying and selling platform Constancy Digital Property, stablecoin issuer Paxos and funds community Ripple.
For SVB, that marks a turning level: stablecoin and custody infrastructure shifting contained in the federal banking perimeter. The financial institution expects conventional monetary establishments to speed up dealmaking moderately than threat being disrupted by vertically built-in crypto-native rivals.
“We expect M&A to set a record again in 2026. As digital asset capabilities
become table stakes for financial services, companies will focus on acquisition strategies instead of building products from scratch,” Vassallo says.
“To meet market demands ranging from stablecoin capabilities to full-stack crypto banks, exchanges, custodians, infrastructure providers and brokerages will consolidate into multiproduct companies,” he stated.
Stablecoins change into the ‘web’s greenback’
Stablecoins, SVB stated, are evolving from buying and selling instruments into digital money.
With near-instant settlement and decrease transaction prices than interbank switch system ACH or card networks, dollar-backed tokens are enticing for treasury operations, cross-border funds and business-to-business settlement.
Regulatory readability is accelerating adoption. The U.S. GENIUS Act, handed in July, established federal requirements for stablecoin issuance, together with 1:1 reserve backing and month-to-month disclosures. Related frameworks are in place within the EU, U.Ok., Singapore and the UAE.
Starting in 2027, solely permitted entities akin to banks or authorised nonbanks will probably be allowed to situation compliant stablecoins within the U.S. SVB expects issuers to spend 2026 aligning merchandise with federal oversight.
Banks are already experimenting. Société Générale launched a euro stablecoin. JPMorgan expanded JPM Coin to public blockchains. A bunch together with PNC, Citi and Wells Fargo is exploring a joint token initiative.
Enterprise {dollars} are following. Funding in stablecoin-focused corporations surged to greater than $1.5 billion in 2025, up from lower than $50 million in 2019, in line with SVB.
In 2026, the financial institution expects tokenized {dollars} to maneuver into core enterprise programs, embedded in treasury workflows, collateral administration and programmable funds.
Tokenization and AI
Actual-world asset tokenization is scaling. Onchain representations of money, Treasuries and money-market devices exceeded $36 billion in 2025, in line with knowledge cited by the financial institution.
Funds from BlackRock (BLK) and Franklin Templeton have amassed lots of of tens of millions in belongings, settling flows straight onchain. ETF issuers and asset managers are testing blockchain-based wrappers to cut back switch prices and allow intraday settlement. Robinhood (HOOD) now has tokenized inventory publicity for European customers and plans U.S. growth.
SVB sees personal and public markets converging on shared settlement rails, with tokenization increasing past Treasuries into personal markets and consumer-facing purposes.
Then there’s the convergence with AI. In 2025, 40 cents of each enterprise greenback invested in crypto went to corporations additionally constructing AI merchandise, up from 18 cents the yr prior, in line with SVB’s evaluation. Startups are constructing agent-to-agent commerce protocols, and main blockchains are integrating AI into wallets.
Autonomous brokers able to transacting in stablecoins may allow machines to barter and settle funds with out human intervention. Blockchain-based provenance and verification instruments are being developed to handle AI’s belief deficit.
The patron impression could also be delicate. SVB predicts that subsequent yr’s breakout apps received’t model themselves as crypto. They’ll appear like fintech merchandise, with stablecoin settlement, tokenized belongings and AI brokers working quietly within the background.
From expectation to infrastructure
Silicon Valley Financial institution’s overarching message is to deal with crypto as infrastructure.
Pilot packages are scaling. Capital is concentrating. Banks are coming into. Regulators are defining the perimeter. Blockchain know-how is poised to underpin treasury operations, collateral flows, cross-border funds and components of capital markets.
Volatility will stay, and headlines will proceed to maneuver costs. However the deeper narrative, the financial institution argues, is concerning the plumbing.
“In 2025, momentum in onchain representations of cash, treasuries and money market instruments carried real-world assets into the financial mainstream,” Vassallo stated. “This year, cryptocurrency will be treated as infrastructure.”
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