Jefferies said he expects a new wave of cryptocurrency and blockchain-related public listings as institutional adoption of digital asset infrastructure accelerates on Wall Street and the payments industry.
In a report released after its first Digital Asset Investor Conference in New York, Jefferies said it expects cryptocurrency-related public listings to rise over the next two years and believes the sector could grow to become a $1 trillion public market within five years.
The conference, which brought together executives from 35 digital asset companies along with approximately 150 institutional investors, focused less on bitcoin price speculation and more on how blockchain systems are becoming increasingly integrated into traditional finance.
Jefferies said conversations with clients showed that investors are increasingly convinced that blockchain technology is moving beyond experimentation and into core financial infrastructure.
“Customer engagement continues to grow as the focus shifts to emerging beneficiaries as banks, exchanges, asset managers, fintechs and payments companies integrate blockchain infrastructure,” the report says.
The cryptocurrency IPO market has slowed this year after a booming 2025 that saw several digital asset companies successfully go public amid rising bitcoin prices and renewed investor appetite for cryptocurrency-related stocks. The recent pullback in listings is largely due to increased market volatility and macroeconomic uncertainty, but another wave of offerings is expected to arrive later this year with several crypto companies, including Securitize and Payward, Kraken’s parent company, finalizing their IPO plans.
Jeffries also pointed to tokenization (the process of representing financial assets on blockchain networks) as one of the biggest drivers of that change. Executives at the conference said tokenized money market funds, private credit products and blockchain-based settlement systems are already entering production following recent regulatory guidance that reduced legal uncertainty around digital assets.
Wall Street’s tendency to embrace blockchain technology and not focus on cryptocurrency prices has been a recurring theme in recent months. Giant financial institutions, such as JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley and other traditional fintech companies, are betting on the adoption of technology in their business model, regardless of what the price of bitcoin is doing.
In fact, tokenization and stablecoins were the top topics at Consensus Miami this year, overshadowing all other cryptocurrency-related discussions. “We are moving toward a world where essentially the entire economy will be tokenized,” said Joseph Lubin, CEO and founder of Consensys in Miami.
Jefferies argued that greater regulatory clarity could further accelerate adoption, particularly among heavily regulated financial institutions. The bank pointed to the proposed CLARITY Act, which would establish a broader market structure framework for digital assets in the US, and said the legislation could become “the missing piece” that drives more institutional investments and pushes blockchain-based finance even further into the mainstream.
‘Technological disruption’
The report also highlighted how traditional financial firms are increasingly partnering with crypto-native infrastructure providers rather than competing directly with them.
Conference panelists described a growing ecosystem where banks, trading platforms and payments companies use blockchain networks to reduce settlement times, improve capital efficiency and launch new financial products.
Earlier this year, tokenization company Securitize partnered with transfer agent Computershare to help public companies issue tokenized shares directly within existing shareholder registration systems, while crypto platform Bullish (BLSH), which owns CoinDesk, agreed to acquire transfer agent Equiniti for $4.2 billion to strengthen its blockchain-based settlement infrastructure.
Stablecoins and tokenized payments were repeatedly cited as key near-term growth areas, especially as payments companies look for ways to reduce the cost of cross-border transfers and operate 24 hours a day.
The conference featured executives from companies such as Ripple, Kraken, Galaxy (GLXY), Bullish (BLSH), and Consensys.
While institutional adoption was the biggest catalyst when BlackRock first started bitcoin exchange-traded funds, the adoption aspect was one of the most talked about topics back then. Fast forward to today, and it appears these sophisticated investors view the sector as a disruptive technology that can improve their business model in the long term, rather than short-term speculative trading.
Jefferies said the discussions reflected a broader shift in investor attention away from meme currencies and speculative trading activity toward blockchain systems that generate revenue from trading, payments, lending and tokenized financial products.
“Investors frequently overestimate the magnitude of technological disruption in the short term and underestimate it in the long term,” the report says.
