The institutional status of cryptocurrencies was restored last year. According to Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), this year is a time for the bank to further integrate into the financial system.
In 2025, regulations are clearer, institutional participation accelerates, and capital markets reopen. Now, as digital assets become more deeply integrated into payments, custody, treasury management and capital markets, the focus is shifting from price cycles to infrastructure.
“Whether tangible or visible, all the forces shaping cryptocurrencies today have one thing in common: Cryptocurrencies are moving from expectation to production. Pilot projects are expanding and capital is consolidating,” Anthony Vassallo, senior vice president of cryptocurrency at SVB, told CoinDesk.
The bank, which maintains more than 500 partnerships with cryptocurrency companies and venture capital firms investing in the industry, said institutional capital, integrations, stablecoins, tokenization and artificial intelligence are converging to reshape how money flows.
After its collapse in 2023, SVB was acquired by North Carolina-based First Citizens Bank and now operates among the top 20 U.S. banks with $230 billion in assets. In 2025, the company added 2,100 customers and ended the year with $108 billion in total customer funds and $44 billion in loans.
Less experimentation, more belief
The bank’s 2026 outlook report says “the suits and ties have arrived”.
PitchBook data cited by SVB showed that venture capital investment in U.S. cryptocurrency companies increased by 44% last year, reaching $7.9 billion. While the number of deals declined, the median check size climbed to $5 million as investors pooled their funds into stronger teams. Seed valuations jumped 70% from 2023 levels.
The bank warned that demand for institutional-grade cryptocurrency companies could exceed the number of investable companies.
Vassallo said: “Conditions are ripe for continued growth in crypto venture capital through 2026. As institutional adoption accelerates, driving greater venture capital scrutiny, we expect capital to continue to be concentrated in fewer companies, with investors prioritizing higher quality projects and following established teams.”
“For end users, daily financial interactions will be a more seamless experience, from sending cross-border payments to managing investment portfolios.”
Corporate balance sheets are reinforcing this shift. At least 172 publicly traded companies hold Bitcoin According to data cited by SVB, by the third quarter of 2025, it will increase by 40% from the second quarter, controlling a total of about 5% of the circulating supply.
A new class of digital asset finance companies, namely companies with cryptocurrency accumulation as their core strategy, has emerged. The bank expects consolidation to emerge as standards tighten and volatility tests business models.
Meanwhile, traditional banks are making deeper inroads into the industry. JPMorgan Chase, the largest U.S. bank by assets, plans to accept Bitcoin and Ethereum as collateral, Bloomberg reported last year. SoFi Technologies provides direct digital asset trading. Bank of America provides custody services through NYDIG. SVB expects more institutions to launch lending, custody and settlement products as compliance guardrails solidify.
M&A and the Full-Stack Crypto Race
Why build when you can buy?
According to the bank’s analysis of PitchBook data, more than 140 venture capital-backed cryptocurrency companies were acquired in the four quarters ended in September, a year-on-year increase of 59%. Coinbase’s $2.9 billion acquisition of Deribit and Kraken’s $1.5 billion acquisition of NinjaTrader underscore this scale.
This trend also extends to banking licenses. In 2025, 18 companies applied for licenses from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), most of which were blockchain-enabled companies. The OCC has conditionally approved digital asset-focused trust banks, including custody provider BitGo (BTGO), the company behind the second-largest stablecoin Circle Internet (CRCL), trading platform Fidelity Digital Assets, stablecoin issuer Paxos and payments network Ripple.
For SVB, this marks a turning point: stablecoins and custody infrastructure are entering the federal banking sphere. The bank expects traditional financial institutions to accelerate transactions rather than risk being disrupted by vertically integrated crypto-native rivals.
“We expect M&A to set another record in 2026. As digital asset capabilities increase
Betting on the financial services industry, companies will focus on acquisition strategies rather than building products from scratch,” Vassallo said.
“Exchanges, custodians, infrastructure providers and brokerage firms will consolidate into multi-product companies to meet market demand from stablecoin functionality to full-stack crypto banking,” he said.
Stablecoins become the “Internet dollar”
SVB said stablecoins are evolving from trading tools to digital cash.
USD-backed tokens offer near-instant settlement capabilities and lower transaction costs than interbank transfer systems ACH or card networks, making them attractive for treasury operations, cross-border payments and business-to-business settlements.
Regulatory clarity is accelerating adoption. The GENIUS Act passed in July established federal standards for stablecoin issuance, including 1:1 reserve backing and monthly disclosures. The EU, UK, Singapore and UAE have similar frameworks.
Starting in 2027, only licensed entities (such as banks or approved non-bank institutions) can issue compliant stablecoins in the United States. SVB expects issuers to bring products into compliance with federal regulations in 2026.
Banks are already experimenting. Société Générale has launched a euro stablecoin. JPMorgan Chase expands JPM Coin to public blockchain. A group including PNC, Citigroup and Wells Fargo are exploring a joint token initiative.
Venture capital is not far behind. According to SVB, investment in stablecoin companies will surge from less than $50 million in 2019 to more than $1.5 billion by 2025.
The bank expects that by 2026, tokenized dollars will enter core enterprise systems, embedded in financial workflows, collateral management and programmable payments.
Tokenization and artificial intelligence
The tokenization of real-world assets is expanding. According to data cited by the bank, on-chain performance in cash, treasuries and money market instruments will exceed $36 billion by 2025.
BlackRock (BLK) and Franklin Templeton’s funds have amassed hundreds of millions in assets, settling fund 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 tokenizes stock exposure for European users, with plans to expand in the U.S.
SVB believes that private and public markets will converge on a shared settlement rail, with tokenization extending from Treasury bonds to private markets and consumer-facing applications.
And then there’s the integration with artificial intelligence. According to SVB’s analysis, by 2025, 40 cents of every venture capital investment invested in cryptocurrencies will go to companies that also develop artificial intelligence products, compared with 18 cents the year before. Startups are building agent-to-agent business protocols, and major blockchains are integrating artificial intelligence into wallets.
Autonomous agents capable of conducting stablecoin transactions could enable machines to negotiate and settle payments without human intervention. Blockchain-based provenance and verification tools are being developed to address the trust shortcomings of AI.
The impact on consumers may be subtle. SVB predicts that next year’s breakthrough applications will not establish themselves as cryptocurrencies. They look like fintech products, with stablecoin settlements, tokenized assets and artificial intelligence agents running quietly in the background.
From expectations to infrastructure
Silicon Valley Bank’s overarching message is to treat cryptocurrencies as infrastructure.
The pilot program is being scaled up. Capital is being concentrated. Banks are coming in. Regulators are defining the boundaries. Blockchain technology is expected to support capital operations, collateral flows, cross-border payments and parts of the capital market.
Volatility will remain and headlines will continue to influence prices. But the bank believes the deeper narrative is about pipelines.
“By 2025, the momentum of on-chain performance in cash, Treasuries, and money market instruments will bring real-world assets into the financial mainstream,” Vassallo said. “This year, cryptocurrencies will be viewed as infrastructure.”
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