Institutional interest in cryptocurrency continues to accelerate despite ongoing market volatility, with industry leaders highlighting 2025 as a pivotal year for digital asset adoption. Speaking at Consensus Hong Kong 2026, Stephen Mackintosh, chief investment officer of Sui Group Holdings, described the past year as a turning point driven by the rapid expansion of digital asset treasury (DAT) vehicles and the strong performance of spot Bitcoin ETFs.
According to Mackintosh, regulatory clarity following the Genius Act has fueled greater institutional demand and awareness around blockchain technology, tokenization, and stablecoins. He emphasized that while short-term market sentiment has fluctuated, the broader crypto market has reached unprecedented levels of maturity. Record-breaking crypto options volumes and the entry of major financial firms such as Citadel and Jane Street signal a structural shift in how traditional finance views digital assets. Large institutions are now investing heavily in crypto infrastructure and talent to secure long-term market share.
Mysten Labs CEO Evan Cheng noted that the future of finance lies in the convergence of traditional finance (TradFi) and decentralized finance (DeFi). Traditional financial products often operate on delayed settlement cycles such as T+1, while DeFi enables near-instant settlement, or T+0. This efficiency advantage positions blockchain-based systems as a more streamlined alternative. Cheng explained that tokenization will bridge the gap between these systems, allowing investors to acquire tokenized assets and immediately use them as collateral for borrowing or other DeFi strategies.
While some question whether Bitcoin ETFs compete with DeFi platforms, Cheng suggested institutional products will gradually evolve, potentially integrating on-chain yield and other decentralized mechanisms. Both executives underscored the importance of scalable blockchain infrastructure, with Sui positioning itself as a high-throughput, low-latency network capable of supporting emerging sectors such as AI-driven agentic commerce and advanced on-chain financial applications.
