Big US crypto opportunity not a sure thing, survey says

About 70% of those surveyed believe crypto supervisory scrutiny remains just as intense

article-image

ArtiMind/Shutterstock modified by Blockworks

share

This is a segment from the Forward Guidance newsletter. To read full editions, subscribe.


A new survey weighing industry leader sentiment shows an optimistic outlook for crypto — with a dose of skepticism too.

It includes opinions from some 230 executives gathering at the CfC St. Moritz 2025 conference. Among them are the CEOs of Binance and Ripple, chair of the CFTC, and executives at TradFi giants like BlackRock, Fidelity and Franklin Templeton.

The biggest opportunities are going to be in the US, 61% of survey respondents agree — followed by the APAC region, then Middle East and Asia. That comes despite America being back of the pack on the favorable jurisdictions list (as legislation sits today), behind the UAE, Singapore, Switzerland, Hong Kong, the EU and the UK.

Developers moving or staying in the US will be a crucial piece to the country’s chance to leapfrog others, an anonymous respondent noted. The person pointed to a year-old report showing 19.6% of developers in Western Europe and 19.2% in North America (the two top spots). 

The popularity of crypto ETFs in the US also contributes to the bullishness for growth there. To that point, 57% expect such wrappers around the top 20 coins in the not-so-distant future. A refresher on proposed funds in front of the SEC can be found here

Other interesting tidbits:

  • 76% say the global macroeconomic backdrop is either “highly favorable” or “conducive” for the crypto industry’s growth.
  • The most interesting opportunities are in fintech, payments and trading tech (tokenization/stablecoins is the runner-up).
  • About a third of respondents expect TradFi institutions to take over the crypto space, while roughly another third believe there will be a 50/50 retail-TradFi split.

Back to regulations, there’s a big “but” coming — as optimism doesn’t cover all feelings. 

Roughly 70% believe supervisory scrutiny remains just as intense, or that those risks could even increase.

On the task ahead of the new US administration, ex-CFTC Chair J. Christopher Giancarlo is quoted as saying: “It’s one thing to end bad policy, but it’s an entirely different thing to create good policy.”


Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

Tags

Decoding crypto and the markets. Daily, with Byron Gilliam.

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.

recent research

Research Report Templates (2).png

Research

We’re bullish on the PUMP token. We believe Pump.fun's brand strength, existing integrations, product roadmap, and strategic levers justify PUMP's TGE valuation, and expect the token to re-rate meaningfully higher in the months ahead.

article-image

Trade isn’t war and prosperity isn’t a contest

article-image

Data shows frontrunning has declined on the network compared to last year

article-image

Industry watchers weigh in on what’s coming for bitcoin, M&A and tokenization before the year wraps

article-image

“We are open 24/7/365, but good luck getting an employee to pick up.”

article-image

BitVM3’s “garbled circuit” approach faces critical security and scaling research before it will be practical

article-image

Big blockers wasted a bitcoin fortune trying to prove a point