Mass Layoffs and Surging M&A: Crypto Market Polarization
The ongoing decline of Bitcoin has triggered a wave of large-scale layoffs across the crypto industry. However, M&A activity has surged in the opposite direction. In the first half of 2026, total M&A deal value in the crypto space reached $9.37 billion, a historic high. This divergence signals that capital is rapidly concentrating into infrastructure sectors with real use cases.
Wall Street Enters: Traditional Financial Giants Acquire Core Infrastructure
Traditional financial institutions such as Mastercard and Franklin Templeton have become the main drivers of this M&A wave. They are focusing on acquiring payment systems, digital asset custody services, and compliance licenses — the core assets of the crypto track. Their goal is to build out stablecoin applications and institutional-grade deployment scenarios. In contrast, purely decentralized projects and public chains without practical applications are being shunned by capital.