Wall Street’s long-awaited migration to crypto is no longer theoretical, according to executives from Ondo Finance, Robinhood-owned Bitstamp and Babylon Labs. However, institutional adoption is still slower and more fragmented than many in the industry once expected.
The executives described a financial industry that is increasingly embracing blockchain rails, tokenized securities and crypto-native yield products on “Will Wall Street Herd STILL?” panel at Consensus Miami 2026.
“I think it’s very clear that Wall Street is coming to crypto,” said Ondo president Ian De Bode, pointing to recent partnerships with Broadridge and the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) aimed at tokenizing securities and enabling blockchain-based shareholder voting.
Robinhood’s Nicola White said the conversation with banks has changed dramatically over the past two years. “We no longer have conversations about what blockchain is,” she said. “Now it’s about how do we help them build?”
The panelists emphasized that the crypto infrastructure is already improving on traditional finance in terms of settlement speed and market accessibility. De Bode noted that Ondo’s tokenized treasury products allow investors to mint and redeem positions over the weekend while earning a daily return, capabilities still largely unavailable in traditional money markets.
“That in itself as a value prop is overwhelming to many in TradFi,” he said.
Still, speakers acknowledged that institutional adoption remains limited by legacy financial infrastructure and regulation. White said banks are continuing to build crypto products cautiously as they wait for clearer regulatory guidance.
“There’s not a traditional financial firm on Wall Street that we’ve talked to that has said it’s not something they’re thinking about,” she said.
Babylon Labs’ Boris Alergant argued that institutions are increasingly focusing on capital efficiency rather than simply bitcoin price appreciation. He said Babylon’s bitcoin-backed lending products are designed to let investors borrow against native bitcoin holdings without giving up custody through packaged assets or centralized intermediaries.
The panel also highlighted a growing gap between regulated US markets and offshore crypto ecosystems. De Bode said permissionless innovation in decentralized finance is likely to continue to flourish outside the US, even as banks adopt more controlled blockchain-based systems domestically.
“I don’t see a world where everything that happens offshore finds a home in the United States,” he said.
Despite the bifurcation, panelists largely agreed that the two systems will eventually converge as institutional capital and crypto-native liquidity deepen.
