The institutions are paying attention. Now comes the hard part.

It’s clear that institutions have gotten the message that crypto is open for business — but what now?

OPINION
article-image

Rawpixel.com/Shutterstock modified by Blockworks

share

The institutions are here! 

It’s long been seasonal fashion within the crypto industry to declare, with great aplomb, that the institutions — the investors, the banks, the family offices, the money — are coming. I remember when Barry Silbert declared this forthcoming arrival all the way back in 2013, when he and his team first debuted the Bitcoin Investment Trust. 

Wandering the sidelines of Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit in London this week, what once seemed an ephemeral milestone appeared to be indisputably true: The institutions are here.

Maybe they’ve been here a while, or perhaps they’ve just entered through a side door. Bitcoin ETFs arguably deserve the bulk of the credit. So, too, does the leapfrogging price of bitcoin (today’s volatility notwithstanding). Or Larry Fink, the BlackRock CEO and the premier spokesperson for crypto in an institutional age, may be the one to thank.  

Certainly the conversations on stage in London this week speak to this reality. From enterprise hardware to market structure, the discussions have taken an institutional presence as a given. 

When exactly did they show up? What are they here for? As my colleague David Canellis noted in his wrap-up of DAS London’s first day, these are difficult questions to answer. And there may not be just one reason: Exposure to new asset classes, new technologies or perhaps simply a new way to make money could all be factors. 

DAS London is, perhaps, a meeting-point between the institutions and the startups who hope to attract their business, their investments, or at the very least, their time. 

To put a finer point on it, it’s clear that the institutions have gotten the message that crypto is open for business. Their business, specifically. 

That’s great. But now what?

What happens from this point on will be less flashy, perhaps less headline-y than early industry phases. I’m talking about the grind, the unsexy, the day-to-day work. Attracting institutions to one’s custody platform or trading platform is one thing. What’s next once they’ve settled in?

I underestimated the market pile-on spurred by the launch of the current crop of bitcoin ETFs. I believed growth would be slow at first. I was wrong

Beyond bitcoin ETFs, though, I wonder how slow-going the spread of institutional activity will be within crypto. It’s hard to see traders at major financial institutions apeing into the latest memecoin or dropping millions of dollars on a picture of a dog in a hat

Read more from our opinion section: DeFi needs institutions — and regulation 

But the networks themselves — I’m thinking Bitcoin, Ethereum and Solana — are booming. It’s easy to imagine that perhaps some of that upward momentum is driven by the major players who, by all appearances, are now in the room and seeking opportunities. 

“Infrastructure building” has been a common refrain here in London. Namely, building the rails for institutions to become more comfortable in the somewhat volatile crypto pond. In a way, that’s what the bitcoin ETFs are: infrastructure for institutions to move money into crypto that feels safer and more familiar than a memecoin or NFT.

There’s no short supply of crypto ambition here in London. The good times feel especially good. But history rhymes in this space, and an FTX-scale disaster will happen again. 

Will institutions stick it out during the next crypto hurricane? That’s an open question, and I think the investments and development decisions being made today will prove to be deciding factors. Stay tuned. 



Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

Tags

Upcoming Events

Old Billingsgate

Mon - Wed, October 13 - 15, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

Industry City | Brooklyn, NY

TUES - THURS, JUNE 24 - 26, 2025

Permissionless IV serves as the definitive gathering for crypto’s technical founders, developers, and builders to come together and create the future.If you’re ready to shape the future of crypto, Permissionless IV is where it happens.

Brooklyn, NY

SUN - MON, JUN. 22 - 23, 2025

Blockworks and Cracked Labs are teaming up for the third installment of the Permissionless Hackathon, happening June 22–23, 2025 in Brooklyn, NY. This is a 36-hour IRL builder sprint where developers, designers, and creatives ship real projects solving real problems across […]

recent research

Research Report Templates.png

Research

The convergence of DePIN and energy generation aims to address modern grid challenges by incentivizing distributed generation.

article-image

The deal is likely to fuel further M&A around derivatives trading and infrastructure, Architect Partners’ Michael Klena says

article-image

Stripe announced Stablecoin Financial Accounts, which will allow businesses to have “stablecoin-powered accounts”

article-image

The deal is made up of $700 million in cash and 11 million shares of Coinbase’s Class A common stock

article-image

Blockworks Research uses numbers to help crypto advance to a higher stage of storytelling

article-image

While Arizona’s governor could veto another crypto reserve bill, similar North Carolina and Texas laws are approaching the finish line