Traditional financial institutions are abandoning their skepticism about crypto, and this trend is accelerating in 2026.
Banks, brokerages, and exchanges are rushing to offer crypto products as demand for retailers, institutions, and wealthy customers reaches its peak.
David Ripley, co-CEO of crypto exchange Kraken, he said Axios that “almost all financial services companies will offer crypto, bitcoin, ethereum to their customers” – a development that they called “the big story of 2026.”
The change reflects a major collision of mega-trends reshaping financial markets. Stablecoins, tokenization, AI, and overtime trading are evolving to create a financial system that is digital, global, and exponentially growing around the clock.
Ripley said the rise of stablecoins – Blockchain-based financial models – have helped investors in the next step: tokenized public equities.
“The most important place where we see tokenized equity or tokenized assets will be the public,” he said.
The stakes are high. Kraken which has recently been announced to offer IPO shares to retail investors, targeting ordinary Americans who Ripley says are “locked up” in large companies that generate wealth until late in their growth.
The IPO market itself is shaping up to be a historic one. SpaceX is direct debut on the Nasdaq this week, seeking to raise about $75 billion at a valuation of $1.7 trillion — which would make it the largest IPO in history.
Nasdaq CFO Sarah Youngwood told Axios that the US market has a pipeline depth of trillions, including OpenAI and Anthropic, without any structural change.
Nasdaq is to push in after-hours trading, in line with crypto markets that do not close.
Coinbase Executive: Organizations are buying
These comments to Axios come as bitcoin fights near $60,000, but its 50% decline from all-time highs has not deterred big investors, according to to Coinbase’s head of institutional policy, John D’Agostino, who says that financial assets, family offices, and other large funds are quickly buying dips.
Abu Dhabi Treasury, Mubadala, increase its relationship with BlackRock’s Bitcoin ETF for the fourth quarter in a row, while Bitcoin ETFs together still hold about $100 billion in assets despite the market collapse.
D’Agostino said the sale was due to high economic uncertainty, high interest rates, regulatory delays, political disputes, and concerns raised by the sale of 32 BTC to Strategy. Despite this, he said that organizations remain confident in the value of Bitcoin for a long time, a view encouraged by the next Strategy to buy 1,550 BTC for $101 million.
