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The Digital Asset Inflection Point: What Comes Next

Market Movers: The Opening Bell

December 8, 2025

Video Transcript

Mm.

2025 is emerging as a defining year for digital assets regulatory clarity, including the Genius Act and new ETF approvals setting the stage for mainstream adoption.

Now major financial institutions and state governments are now deploying sample coins and tokenization strategies, moving digital assets from pilots to permanent platforms.

Now tokenization has surpassed $30 billion in value with Treasury's private credit and real estate now on the blockchain, and staple coins are gaining.

Legal as well as regulatory legitimacy while public markets embrace digital assets through strong debut listings, as well as new digital asset treasury companies.

Joining me live here at the New York Stock Exchange is Devin Ryan, head of financial technology research for Citizens.

Devin, great to have you here.

Thank you so much for joining me.

Great to be here, Rey.

Thanks for having me.

Well, I understand that you've said we are at an inflection point, so how close are we to actual mass adoption?

So I think we're getting very close to that and really the pieces have to come together here you know we're still working in a kind of a regulated world where the rules of the road need to be formed for crypto, and they haven't been there for the past, and that's been challenging for real institutions to come to the space.

But what we've seen this year is kind of pivotal moments.

You have the Genius Act pass which kind of opened the door for stablecoins to be able to be in the regulated world in a real way, and we're seeing really nice scaling there.

But the bigger piece that's coming in our opinion is around tokenization and tokenization is going to come together with the Clarity Act, which is sitting in the Senate now, but we think we'll get passed over the next few months.

And once that happens, that's going to start this kind of big surge of traditional financial institutions coming in to the space, and that's going to drive the mass adoption that we think is coming.

So you know, 2026 is going to be a huge year.

I don't think we'll necessarily get to full mass adoption, but the pieces are coming together where it's kind of right on the horizon here.

Yeah, and you brought up the regulatory part of the equation here.

So 2025 we have seen progress, especially with the new administration coming into the White House.

But what do you expect in terms of actual timeline as we head into 2026?

Sure, well, you know, you have the SEC chair Paul Atkins is very aggressively, you know, I think out talking about wanting to bring assets on chain and that this is good for the capital markets and so you have I think a motivated regulatory body that's the primary regulator and then you have Congress, which is really, I think in a bipartisan way coming together which is which is actually something that's unique right now in the world where you actually have legislation that both parties want to push through and so it's looking like probably early 2026 is when you'll see the Clarity Act passed, but that's going to then you push this, you know, I think aggressive agenda from the industry.

I to to move forward.

So we are getting to that, I think very soon here and then that will set off the chain.

A lot of companies are already preparing behind the scenes.

You had BlackRock, you know, $10 trillion asset manager, Larry Fink and Rob Goldstein, the COO, write a piece in The Economist just last week talking about how they believe that virtually all assets are coming on chains.

You've got the largest asset managers.

You have the regulators and you have Wall Street coming together, so the incentives are aligning to really accelerate this mass adoption theme.

And speaking of which last week SEC Chair Paul Atkins was here at the New York Stock Exchange talking about capital markets for the next 250 years here in America as well as crypto innovation.

But as we head into the new year, give us a better understanding of your expectations when it comes to deal making and digital assets as well as ey.

Yeah, so I think great question.

There's a lot of M&A in this space and really if you think about it, you've got the incumbent firms that all see that this is a technology that's real and they need to integrate into their systems and so you can't just go out and hire a handful of engineers and get into crypto.

You need to buy firms to get there at scale at the speed that they need to get there.

So I think there's a lot of M&A coming from traditional firms trying to get the capabilities and then the digital asset native firms are looking for scaled partners. are looking for the regulatory know-how trusted brands, and so I think there's going to be a lot of selling from those companies as well.

So I think there's there's been a fair amount of M&A and rumors of M&A just even in 2025 as the world's opened up to that.

2026.

I expect there's gonna be a pretty material acceleration and also IPOs and just more capital raising and capital markets given if firms want to take advantage of this moment and with the window being open move forward quickly.

And Devin, while I have you here, I do want to ask you about prediction markets.

So where does that fit into finance, especially since we're hearing some key names getting involved with financial institutions.

Yeah, so I think prediction markets are going to be one of the biggest themes of the next few years.

It's still very small and it's kind of in the speculative shadows primarily in sports, but if you look at the scaling that we're seeing right now, right now there's about $10 billion of Volumes on prediction markets every month compared to over $10 trillion in the equities market.

Firms like Robinhood that we cover are doing about 25% of all volumes in the space.

They're buying an exchange because they're getting product market fit, and it's the fastest growing business within Robinhood ever.

We think that the next phase here is institutions are going to be coming, and prediction markets are just a way to express risk but in a very binary way, whereas you buy an option today and you may think you know.

What the outcome is going to be off of, you know, say the Fed's going to lower rates and the option of the stock, the stock should go down, but it goes up.

And so there's a lot of cross factor risk in other derivatives markets.

I think prediction markets are going to change the game directly, but then also institutions are going to embed them into their processes.

So it's going to be a really big deal.

I think we're going to see scaling of many multiples also once we get some more of the regulatory clarity that's going to be I needed for that space as well.

And finally, before I let you go, you just. the Federal Reserve and of course we're all anticipating the rate announcement on Wednesday afternoon as well as the plot and Fed Chair Powell's comments.

But when it comes to prediction markets, what is your time horizon?

What do you expect to see?

And when it comes to the regulatory aspect, what are you paying attention to and why?

Yes, so I think there's a lot from a regulatory perspective.

There's similar issues to regular markets, so insider trading and rules.

Around making sure that the markets are not incentivizing bad behavior and so I think that there's going to be some regulatory rules that come together, but the challenges aren't that great because there's a lot of parallels to traditional markets that can be applied here.

So I think those are just the technologies are a little bit ahead of the regulatory backdrop, but that's OK because there's a demand for this technology, there's demand for these markets.

So the markets are really the signal and you saw it in elections, you've seen it in other places.

Where you have media or others that are saying one thing's gonna happen, the prediction markets are where the money is forming, and that's driving both the outcome of the prediction.

But then there's so many other signals you can get from that.

So if a company, you're predicting the company's going to miss earnings and the market's saying that, well then you would potentially bet on that prediction.

But then there's many other trades that you would put into your book resulting from that outcome.

So it's really going to drive these signals for institutional investors, whereas You know that's going to be where the big liquidity comes in over the next couple of years.

So I think we are early days, but it's scaling at many multiples.

Robin Hood's volumes have doubled every month, every quarter for the last 3 quarters, and then in October alone we're bigger than all 3 cus.

So it tells you the, the pace of scaling right now is like something we haven't seen in a very long time.

Well, separating the signal from the noise is key here.

So thank you so much for joining me here at the New York Stock Exchange today and thank you so much for sharing all of your insights.

Great to see you, Roy.

Thank you.

Thank you.

As digital assets continue to seek regulatory clarity, 2025 is shaping up to be a pivotal year in the evolution of the cryptocurrency landscape. Key developments such as the GENIUS Act and new exchange-traded fund (ETF) approvals are laying the foundation for broader mainstream adoption. Major financial institutions and state governments are increasingly implementing sample coins and tokenization strategies, transitioning these digital assets from pilot concepts to permanent financial platforms.

The tokenization market now exceeds $30 billion in value, with sectors like private credit and real estate beginning to establish themselves on the blockchain. Stablecoins are gaining a clearer legal and regulatory framework, while public markets continue to welcome digital assets through strong listings and new digital asset treasury firms.

In a recent conversation at the New York Stock Exchange, Devin Ryan, head of financial technology research at Citizens, discussed the inflection point unfolding in the market. Ryan explained that we are close to achieving mass adoption of digital assets, but critical infrastructure still needs completion as regulatory frameworks remain unfinished. “The rules of the road need to be formed for crypto, and they haven’t been there in the past,” he said, calling attention to the primary barrier preventing large institutional players from fully entering the space.

This year has delivered several major milestones. The GENIUS Act has enabled stablecoins to operate within a regulated environment, a shift that may accelerate adoption. Ryan also pointed to the Clarity Act, currently under consideration in the Senate, as another crucial component that could bring major traditional financial institutions into the digital asset ecosystem. According to Ryan, if these frameworks take shape, 2026 could become the year where mass adoption becomes unmistakable.

On the regulatory timeline, Ryan pointed to rising momentum from a newly engaged SEC under Chair Paul Atkins. He noted the possibility of bipartisan cooperation within Congress to advance pro-crypto regulation. Such collaboration increases the likelihood that the Clarity Act could be finalized by early 2026, potentially creating a strong environment for asset managers and technology firms. With influential institutions like BlackRock supporting blockchain adoption and acknowledging that “virtually all assets are coming on-chain,” the alignment between Wall Street, regulators, and financial institutions appears closer than ever.

Ryan also highlighted the growing trend of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) within the digital asset industry. Traditional financial firms recognize that acquiring companies may be a faster path to competitiveness than merely hiring engineers. At the same time, digital-native firms are seeking partnerships with established regulatory expertise and well-known brands.

When discussing prediction markets, Ryan described them as a key area of future financial innovation. Although these markets currently generate about $10 billion in monthly volume across speculative sectors like sports, this figure remains small compared to the $10 trillion in equity volume. Companies like Robinhood are rapidly gaining market share and working toward regulatory acceptance. Ryan believes that once institutions enter prediction markets, their full potential will become evident, offering new forms of liquidity and valuable market insights.

As digital assets mature, regulators face mounting pressure to create frameworks that can support this rapid technological innovation. The demand for regulatory clarity is clear, and momentum is building toward more sophisticated structures that institutions can adopt. Ryan’s analysis illustrates a future in which digital assets are not simply adopted but fully integrated into the strategies of major financial institutions.

In summary, as cryptocurrency and blockchain technology continue interacting with traditional financial systems, the potential for disruption remains enormous. Clearer regulation, expanding tokenization, and the rise of prediction markets may reshape the way investors, entrepreneurs, and financial institutions operate. Looking toward 2025 and beyond, the foundations being built today are likely to define the financial industry for decades.

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