Hunter Horsley, CEO of Bitwise, stated that two financial institutions managing more than $1 trillion in investor savings and wealth approved crypto‑related products this summer. This shows large‑scale institutional players are expanding client access to crypto‑assets even amid a bear market. In an interview, he remarked: “This year everyone just put on the crypto jersey. Now everyone is working for crypto.”
According to Horsley, after reviewing the market this summer, the two institutions decided to offer relevant products to their clients. Bitwise has not disclosed the names of these institutions, the exact scope of the approvals, or when clients will gain access. He stressed that financial institutions of this scale would not have opened such access during the market downturn in 2022.
Reversed Relationship Between Banks and Crypto
Horsley pointed out that the crypto industry once summed up its adversarial stance toward traditional finance (TradFi) with the catchphrase “long bitcoin, short the bankers”. That phase has now ended. Financial institutions have moved over to “the other side of the table”. Instead of debating whether this asset class ought to exist, they are helping drive broader adoption.
Fabian Dori, Chief Investment Officer at Sygnum, shares this view. He said the old “long bitcoin, short the bankers” trade is finished. Banks are shifting from resisting digital assets toward building and distributing digital‑asset services via custody, tokenization and regulated trading.
Dori believes this change stems from client demand and clearer regulatory rules. It represents a structural shift rather than a cyclical swing. In other words, traditional‑finance institutions’ changing attitude toward crypto‑assets is more than just improved short‑term market sentiment; it is driven jointly by business models and client requirements.
From Pilot Trials to Full‑Scale Participation
The article outlines a timeline for banks and financial institutions entering crypto: Swissquote pioneered Bitcoin trading in 2017; DBS followed in 2020; BBVA rolled out relevant services in 2021. BNY Mellon launched institutional crypto custody in 2022. In that same year, Nubank enabled Bitcoin and Ethereum trading, and LGT added crypto offerings.
St.Galler Kantonalbank and Santander joined in 2023, while Zürcher Kantonalbank introduced retail‑oriented trading in 2024. After that, more major financial players including Standard Chartered, Charles Schwab, SoFi and Morgan Stanley stepped into this space, demonstrating that crypto‑assets have gradually moved from niche fringes into the mainstream financial system.
Nathan McCauley, CEO of Anchorage Digital, said his firm’s client roster over the past two‑plus years increASIngly reflects convergence between traditional finance and decentralized finance. Large financial organisations tend to cooperate with specialised service providers instead of building infrastructure from scratch, he noted.
McCauley also mentioned that real‑world‑asset on‑chaining and crypto‑wrapped products rolled out by big asset managers are bringing these two spheres ever closer. He even thinks the market is rapidly heading toward an era where people will no longer draw distinctions between “traditional finance” and “decentralized finance” — there will simply be “finance”.
Institutional Adoption Has Not Altered Fundamental Market Traits
Still, Dori from Sygnum cautions that institutional expansion has not removed the crypto‑market’s price dependency. Institutionalisation has merely added an infrastructure layer atop crypto markets; it does not eliminate reflexive dynamics or narrative‑driven trading patterns.
This means that even as traditional finance embeds itself deeper within the crypto ecosystem, digital‑asset prices can still be heavily swayed by market sentiment, prevailing narratives and capital flows. For investors, institutional entry may improve liquidity and accessibility, yet it will not erase volatility within crypto markets.
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