The financial services industry is at a crossroads, with an indisputable trend of financial services that move to cryptography. Digital assets built in the block chain are transforming the financial ecosystem and configuring their future. Digital assets no longer live on the periphery of the global financial system: they are becoming central for their future and for the value movement through capital markets and payment rails.
The relatively small size of the cryptographic market palates traditional financial markets, which is more than the huge opportunity for digital assets and their growth trajectory. The total cryptocurrency market limit is close to $ 3.8 billion, which approaches a segment of the MSCI World index and eclipsed by the global market capitalization for shares, projected to reach $ 128.07 billion this year.
However, the environment of capital markets is thriving, evidenced by Circle and Etoro Opi and these notable mergers and acquisition trends:
- Association: To deepen digital asset strategies – Kraken / Ninjatrader ($ 1.5b); Coinbase / Derebit ($ 2.9b); Ripple / Hidden Road ($ 1.25b); and JPMorgan Chase that links customers with Coinbase wallets, allowing the financing of the cryptographic wallet through credit card rewards and direct account funds.
- Private equity: To enter the new market sectors through an portfolio -based acquisition strategy: Carlyle / Starspay (not revealed); Bain Capital / Acrisure ($ 2.1b).
- Cross -border offers: To strengthen digital transformation and obtain a competitive advantage through the wider reach of the market: Robinhood / Bitstamp ($ 200 million); Swyftx / Caleb & Brown ($ 100m-200m Est.).
This activity is being driven by a highly anticipated change in politics:
- The regulatory action of the stock and values commission (SEC) in 2024 allowed the inclusion of Bitcoin and Ether in ETF based on basic products. This action, accompanied by the Basic Products Trade Commission (CFTC) that clarifies the regulatory framework for the options in these ETFs, raided the way for institutional investors to enter the market. In the first important policy of President Atkins, the SEC inaugurated the “Crypto Project” and approved the channels in kind for the ETF Spot BTC and ETH, which allows authorized participants to create and redeem ETF actions directly in BTC or ETH. In coordination with “Project Crypto”, the interim president of CFTC, Pham, has started “Cripto Sprint”, which seeks to enable “immediate trade of digital assets” in exchanges recorded by CFTC. In addition, the division of the Finance Division of the SEC Corporation declared that the activities of stagnation of liquids covered in its statement issued yesterday do not imply the offer and sales of values.
- The legislative action is taking shape with the approval of the genius law and the law of clarity that makes its way through the Senate. It creates a regulatory framework that supports “digital products” linked to the block chain, excluding traditional products (bank deposits, basic products, values and investment vehicles) and divides the primary regulatory supervision between the CFTC and the Sec. Once promulgated, regulators are expected to quickly implement regulations and an intermediate registration frame. In addition, the Senate Banking Committee published a draft discussion of the Financial Innovation Law responsible to establish a more important role for the SEC than in the clarity law to classify digital assets.
- The Trump administration announced a new era for the growth of digital assets, reinforced in a comprehensive policy report published last week by the White House Working Group on digital asset markets, with guidelines and recommendations that cover status, digital asset market structure (including custody, token emitters and negotiation infrastructure), expanded regulatory authority of CFTC and CFTC and safe hosts for developers.
The activities of politics and capital markets are being aligned. Crypto is no longer out, it is becoming a central infrastructure for the future of finance. The changes we have witnessed so far this year will undoubtedly lead to a robust end for 2025.
