As Wall Street and global financial institutions step deeper into digital assets, the line between traditional finance and decentralized finance is getting harder to draw. Executives cited in a CoinDesk report say the old “long Bitcoin, short bankers” trade no longer captures what is happening in the market.
Bitwise says large institutions are now helping expand access
Bitwise CEO Hunter Horsley said the era of betting on Bitcoin against bankers has ended, with financial institutions now moving to the other side of the crypto industry and helping push adoption forward.
Horsley said that this summer, two financial institutions with more than $1 trillion in assets under management each approved crypto products despite the bear-market backdrop. In his view, that shows large firms are broadening the ways clients can access digital assets.
“This year everyone put on the crypto jersey. Now, everyone is working for crypto,” Horsley said.
He added that institutions overseeing more than $1 trillion in client assets would not have opened such services during the 2022 crypto downturn, but are now actively embracing the sector.
Sygnum points to demand and regulatory clarity
Sygnum chief investment officer Fabian Dori said the relationship between banks and crypto has changed in a structural way.
According to Dori, the old “long Bitcoin, short bankers” trade is over. Banks have shifted from resisting digital assets to building, supporting, and distributing them through custody, tokenization, and compliant trading.
He said the change is being driven mainly by stronger client demand and rules that are becoming clearer, rather than by a short-term market cycle.
Anchorage sees deeper convergence between TradFi and crypto
Anchorage Digital CEO Nathan McCauley said the company’s client mix over the past two years has increasingly reflected a convergence between traditional finance and crypto finance.
He said large financial institutions usually prefer to work with specialized crypto infrastructure providers instead of building the technology stack themselves.
More banks and financial firms are entering the sector
The report said a growing number of financial institutions have entered crypto in recent years, including Swissquote, DBS, BBVA, BNY Mellon, Credit Suisse-related entities, Morgan Stanley, and Charles Schwab.
Taken together, the comments suggest that the relationship between banks and the crypto sector is moving away from resistance and toward cooperation, with that change showing up in product approvals, custody, tokenization, and compliant trading services.