Last year, cryptos regained their institutional footing. This year, according to Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), is when it becomes more integrated into the financial system.
Regulatory clarity improved in 2025, institutional engagement accelerated and capital markets reopened. Now the focus is shifting from price cycles to infrastructure as digital assets become more deeply embedded in payments, custody, treasury management and capital markets.
“No matter how tangible or visible, all the forces shaping crypto today share a common thread: Crypto is moving from expectations to production. Pilot programs are scaling and capital is consolidating,” Anthony Vassallo, senior vice president of crypto at SVB, told CoinDesk in an interview.
The bank, which maintains more than 500 relationships with crypto companies and venture firms investing in the sector, says institutional capital, consolidation, stablecoins, tokenization and AI are converging to reshape how money moves.
After its 2023 collapse, SVB was bought by North Carolina-based First Citizens Bank and now operates in a top-20 U.S. bank with $230 billion in assets. By 2025, it added 2,100 clients and ended the year with $108 billion in total client funds and $44 billion in loans.
Fewer experiments, more conviction
“The suits and ties have arrived,” according to the bank’s 2026 outlook report.
Venture funding in US crypto companies rose 44% last year to $7.9 billion, according to PitchBook data cited by SVB. While the number of deals declined, the average check size increased to $5 million as investors concentrated capital in stronger teams. Seed ratings rose 70% from 2023 levels.
The bank warns that the demand for institutional-grade crypto companies may exceed the number of investable companies.
“In 2026, conditions are ripe for continued growth in VC investment in crypto. As institutional adoption accelerates, leading to larger venture capital checks, we expect continued capital concentration in fewer companies with investors prioritizing higher-quality projects and succession to proven teams,” said Vassallo.
“For end users, the result will be a more seamless experience across everyday financial interactions, from sending cross-border payments to managing an investment portfolio.”
The companies’ balance sheets reinforce the shift. At least 172 public companies held bitcoin in the third quarter of 2025, a 40% increase over the other, which collectively control about 5% of circulating supply, according to data referenced by SVB.
A new class of digital asset finance companies, firms that treat crypto accumulation as a core strategy, has emerged. The bank expects consolidation as standards tighten and volatility tests business models.
Meanwhile, traditional banks are moving deeper into the sector. JPMorgan, the largest US bank by assets, plans to accept bitcoin and ether as collateral, Bloomberg reported last year. SoFi Technologies offers direct trading of digital assets. US Bank provides custody through NYDIG. SVB expects that more institutions will roll out lending, custody and settlement products as the compliance protection solidifies.
M&A and the race for full stack crypto
Why build when you can buy?
More than 140 venture capital-backed crypto companies were acquired in the four quarters ending in September, a 59% year-over-year increase, according to the bank’s analysis of PitchBook data. Coinbase’s purchase of Deribit for $2.9 billion and Kraken’s purchase of NinjaTrader for $1.5 billion underscored the scale.
The trend extends to bank charters. By 2025, 18 companies applied for charters from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), most of them blockchain-enabled companies. The OCC gave conditional approval to digital-asset-focused trust banks, including custody provider BitGo (BTGO), Circle Internet (CRCL), the company behind the second-largest stablecoin, trading platform Fidelity Digital Assets, stablecoin issuer Paxos, and payment network Ripple.
For SVB, it marks a turning point: stablecoin and custody infrastructure are moving within the federal banking perimeter. The bank expects traditional financial institutions to accelerate dealmaking rather than risk being disrupted by vertically integrated crypto-native rivals.
“We expect M&A to set a record again in 2026. As digital asset capabilities
becomes a tabletop game for financial services, companies will focus on acquisition strategies rather than building products from scratch,” says Vassallo.
“To meet market demands ranging from stablecoin capabilities to full-stack cryptobanks, exchanges, custodians, infrastructure providers and brokerages will consolidate into multi-product companies,” he said.
Stablecoins become the ‘dollar of the internet’
Stablecoins, SVB said, are evolving from trading tools to digital cash.
With near-instant settlement and lower transaction costs than interbank transfer system ACH or card networks, dollar-backed tokens are attractive for treasury operations, cross-border payments and business-to-business settlement.
Regular clarity accelerates adoption. The US GENIUS Act, passed in July, established federal standards for stablecoin issuance, including 1:1 reserve backing and monthly disclosures. Similar frameworks are in place in the EU, the UK, Singapore and the UAE.
Starting in 2027, only permitted entities such as banks or approved non-banks will be allowed to issue compatible stablecoins in the United States. SVB expects that issuers will spend 2026 adapting products with federal supervision.
The banks are already experimenting. Société Générale introduced a stable euro coin. JPMorgan extended JPM Coin to public blockchains. A group including PNC, Citi and Wells Fargo is exploring a joint token initiative.
Venture dollars will follow. Investments in stablecoin-focused companies rose to more than $1.5 billion in 2025, up from less than $50 million in 2019, according to SVB.
By 2026, the bank expects tokenized dollars to move into core business systems, embedded in treasury workflows, collateral and programmable payments.
Tokenization and AI
Real-world asset tokenization scales. Onchain representations of cash, government bonds and money market instruments exceeded $36 billion by 2025, according to data cited by the bank.
Funds from BlackRock (BLK) and Franklin Templeton have amassed hundreds of millions in assets and settled flows directly on the chain. ETF issuers and asset managers are testing blockchain-based wrappers to reduce transfer costs and enable intraday settlement. Robinhood (HOOD) now has tokenized equity exposure for European users and plans to expand in the US.
SVB sees private and public markets converging on common settlement rails, with tokenization expanding beyond the treasury to private markets and consumer-facing applications.
Then there is the convergence with AI. By 2025, 40 cents of every venture dollar invested in crypto went to companies that also build AI products, up from 18 cents the year before, according to SVB’s analysis. Startups are building agent-to-agent trading protocols, and major blockchains are integrating AI into wallets.
Autonomous agents capable of trading stablecoins could enable machines to negotiate and settle payments without human intervention. Blockchain-based provenance and verification tools are being developed to address AI’s trust deficit.
The consumer impact can be subtle. SVB predicts that next year’s breakout apps won’t label themselves as crypto. They will look like fintech products with stablecoin settlement, tokenized assets and AI agents working quietly in the background.
From expectation to infrastructure
Silicon Valley Bank’s overall message is to treat crypto as infrastructure.
Pilot programs are scaled. Capital concentrates. The banks are coming in. Regulators define the perimeter. Blockchain technology is poised to support treasury operations, security flows, cross-border payments and parts of the capital markets.
Volatility will remain and headlines will continue to move prices. But the deeper story, the bank claims, is about plumbing.
“By 2025, momentum in onchain representations of cash, government bonds and money market instruments brought real assets into the financial mainstream,” Vassallo said. “This year, cryptocurrency will be treated as infrastructure.”
Read more: R3 bets on Solana to bring institutional returns to the chain
