Market setbacks fail to put the brakes on institutional adoption of crypto Despite the market downturn, institutional adoption of blockchain and digital assets will accelerate as corporations launch pilots and continue to investigate the technology. Banks are no longer questioning whether they require a crypto strategy but are instead asking themselves what their crypto strategy should be. There is a recognition from traditional financial institutions that the technology is here to stay, creating opportunities to bring greater efficiencies, transparency and speed to existing financial infrastructure. While many legacy financial services companies continue to exercise caution around incorporating digital assets across their businesses, particularly in light of recent market turmoil. A significant number of traditional finance and payments institutions such as Barclays, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Mastercard, Morgan Stanley, SBI Holdings and Visa are already pursuing blockchainrelated projects ranging from cryptocurrency custody and trading, to data processing, to payments and trade execution. The investment horizon of banks and other large financial institutions is measured not in days and weeks, but in years, so we see the embrace of digital assets and blockchain continuing throughout 2023 and beyond. Increasing consolidation as the market matures 2023will see increased consolidation in the industry as healthier companies look to acquire those that are struggling to plug gaps in their own capabilities following the collapse of FTX, as well as casualties from earlier in 2022 like Celsius, Voyager and Three Arrows Capital. Valuations across the industry have declined significantly since the highs of late 2021 and early 2022, creating appealing opportunities to acquire capabilities and expertise that would otherwise require significant time and resources to build in-house. We will also see an increasing trend for crypto/ blockchain firms to be acquired by traditional financial services players, as well as established companies from other sectors. “Banks are no longer questioning whether they require a crypto strategy but are instead asking themselves what their crypto strategy should be.” F i nanc i a l Innov a t i on & F i nTech 46 Finance Monthly.
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