CoinDesk’s latest edition of Crypto for Advisors, its weekly newsletter for financial advisors, centers on a widening disconnect: many clients already hold crypto as part of long-term wealth planning, while traditional advisors still refuse to manage it.
The newsletter says digital assets and blockchain technology are becoming part of the backbone of traditional finance, and more people now see crypto as something to hold long enough to pass on to their children through an estate plan. In that setting, an advisor’s value is not limited to investment selection. It also includes making a client’s life easier by reducing the number of accounts, the paperwork burden and the number of people a client needs to call. CoinDesk’s argument is that this gap around crypto is becoming a point where advisory relationships can be won or lost.
Joyce Lai says crypto is already on the family balance sheet
Joyce Lai, founder of Real Mamas Community and New Territories LLC, wrote that she recently ran an informal survey among crypto-holding members of the Real Mamas of Crypto community. She described the group as a global network of more than 220 senior professionals in tech who are also mothers. She added that every member is crypto-native, a decision-maker in household finances, and closely positioned to see what their children want next.
Lai said the pattern in the responses was clear, and that traditional wealth advisors should pay attention.
Respondents described bitcoin, ether and solana as long-term core holdings
According to Lai, nearly every respondent identified bitcoin, ether or solana as a core long-term position. When asked what they do when capital rotates into AI stocks or IPOs, the dominant answer was: 「I notice but hold」. She contrasted that with the mainstream-media image of crypto as short-term speculative trading and said the behavior looked more like buy-and-hold investing applied to a new asset class.
Crypto has already entered estate and inheritance planning
Lai wrote that roughly half of respondents said crypto is part of their estate or inheritance planning, and many had considered gifting digital assets to their children. Her conclusion was blunt: whether or not an advisor participates, the asset has already entered the family balance sheet.
Very few respondents use an advisor to manage crypto
Exactly one respondent said an advisor manages their crypto. Everyone else fell into other buckets: the advisor knows about the holdings but will not touch them, the advisor does not know, or there is no advisor in place at all.
When respondents were asked what would be required before they would trust an advisor with those assets, the answers were specific. They wanted demonstrated industry expertise, an understanding of privacy concerns, tax and custody competence, security and credibility. Lai quoted one response directly: 「crypto native, not a Trad-Fi advisor who read a whitepaper」.
Younger adults first turn to AI tools and parents
Lai also cited a companion informal poll of people aged 18 to 23. She said almost none would default to an advisor for money advice. Instead, they named AI tools and parents first, pointing to cost, trust and accessibility.
Asked what a genuinely good advisor looks like, the repeated answer was collaboration: someone 「doing it with me」 rather than speaking at them.
Three takeaways for advisors from the survey responses
The newsletter says the responses effectively wrote the playbook for how advisors can earn attention from this segment.
- Competence comes before conversation. Crypto tax treatment, custody options and estate mechanics for digital assets are table stakes, not differentiators.
- A family-office-style offering matters. Estate planning, tax preparation, tax planning and accounting should be presented as one cohesive service, especially for clients who are already comfortable managing their own portfolios.
- Collaboration works better than lectures. That applies both to the mother running the household plan and to the child who will inherit it. The essay also says advisors should embrace AI as a value-add component of advice and as a research starting point. People still want a human advisor to work with, but the next generation of beneficiaries expects an AI component and is comfortable with it.
Lai added one more sign. Within the same community, several members who have held through multiple market cycles are now building advisory practices aimed directly at this underserved segment. Her point was simple: the market is not waiting.
The essay is signed by Joyce Lai, founder of Real Mamas Community and New Territories LLC.
DAiM CEO Bryan Courchesne answers three common advisor questions
In the same newsletter’s 「Ask an Expert」 section, Bryan Courchesne, CEO of DAiM, responded to questions on market sentiment and investment trends.
Why investors increasingly want professional help with digital assets
Courchesne said that as digital assets mature, investors are becoming more deliberate about separating speculation from wealth building. He noted that the market now offers more products that provide tradable exposure, ranging from bitcoin ETFs to pre-IPO companies, but said exposure and ownership are not always the same thing.
He said many investors want direct ownership of their assets without taking on the operational risks of self-custody. As portfolios grow, their focus shifts away from simply making the next trade and toward custody, estate planning, reporting and long-term financial goals. In his view, speculation has historically created more losers than winners, while wealth is more often built through disciplined ownership, proper planning and a long-term investment approach. That, he said, is why more investors are looking for professional guidance that can integrate digital assets into a broader financial plan.
How he views negative headlines
On the question of bad news flow, Courchesne pointed to March 2020 and the late-2022 market capitulation. In both periods, bitcoin saw significant volatility, but the underlying network continued to function exactly as designed.
He said that distinction matters for both advisors and investors because headlines often capture short-term sentiment, while long-term outcomes are usually driven by fundamentals. Bitcoin was not broken then, he said, and it is not broken now. He also said periods of peak pessimism have historically lined up with some of the most attractive opportunities for long-term investors. Even so, he cautioned that past performance is never a guarantee of future results. His broader point was that negative news and sharp pullbacks have been recurring features of bitcoin’s market cycle since inception.
For investors, he said, the key question is why they own the asset in the first place. If the investment thesis remains intact, temporary volatility and negative headlines should be viewed in context, not in isolation.
What advisors should be telling clients now
Courchesne said some of bitcoin’s best opportunities have appeared when investor sentiment was weakest. He added that several market indicators are now approaching levels that historically coincided with periods of extreme pessimism, including March 2020 and late 2022.
History never repeats perfectly, he said, but it often rhymes. Advisors should help clients separate short-term fear from long-term fundamentals. For investors working with a multi-year time horizon, he said, stressed markets have often rewarded patience and disciplined allocation far more than attempts to trade headlines.
This section is signed by Bryan Courchesne, CEO of DAiM.
Three policy and institutional items highlighted in the newsletter
Beyond the feature and Q&A, the newsletter also flagged three brief developments:
- The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission scheduled an Aug. 14 meeting to propose 「Regulation Crypto」, a formal rule that would create a legal path for crypto firms to raise capital without triggering SEC registration requirements.
- The Bank of England moved testing for its Digital Pound Lab into Phase 2, with stablecoin and CBDC interoperability in trade finance using Polygon for settlement infrastructure.
- The U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency said crypto companies should be able to apply for U.S. bank charters, which could open a path for digital-asset firms to access the national banking system.
Other headlines listed on the CoinDesk page
The page also displayed a list of other recent headlines:
- Tether said it completed a long-promised 「Big Four」 audit of the finances behind its $180 billion USDT stablecoin.
- Trezor warned 14,000 customers after a fulfillment partner suffered a data breach.
- B2C2 hired a Schroders veteran to pursue Asia’s growing crypto-wealth segment.
- Kalshi was in talks with Sequoia and Wellington for a $750 million fundraise at a $40 billion valuation.
- Swissquote cut full-year guidance as first-half crypto income plunged and its shares fell.
- A crypto platform operator in South Korea received a 15-year prison sentence over a $50 million scam.
- Figure’s revenue doubled as volumes rose on its blockchain loan marketplace.
- Bullish shares climbed 14% as subscription revenue offset a slowdown in digital assets.
- Unrealized bitcoin losses at Strategy and Metaplanet highlighted the risk of concentrating on a single token.
- Bitcoin held near $64,000 while monero and hyperliquid outperformed.
The page also carried a teaser titled Building the Zcash Machine: Tachyon and Quantum Readiness, which said Zcash’s Tachyon upgrade is intended to scale shielded payments, improve quantum readiness, and test whether its funding, security and governance can hold.