“‘Hybrid finance’ is taking hold as traditional institutions tokenize funds and deposits on public blockchains.”, — write: www.coindesk.com
In its 2026 Digital Asset Outlook published Monday, the investment firm argued that the next phase will be defined by convergence, not disruption, dubbing it “hybrid finance” — crypto rails merging with traditional finance to create new market plumbing.
“Digital assets are no longer operating outside the traditional economy,” CoinShares CEO Jean-Marie Mognetti said, adding that 2026 looks set to bring “consolidation into the real economy.”
The report said this integration is increasingly visible in stablecoin usage and the growth of tokenized assets, led by private credit and US Treasuries, alongside more tokenized funds, tokenized deposits and stablecoin launches from incumbents.
Bitcoin’s mainstreaming is also accelerating, the report noted, pointing to more than $90 billion in US spot exchange-traded fund (ETF) inflows and over one million BTC held by corporate treasuries across 190 public companies.
For 2026, the asset management firm expects broader access via wealth platforms and retirement accounts, plus more direct institutional settlement from custody banks.
The firm sees three bitcoin price paths tied to the macro backdrop: a soft landing with productivity gains could lift the crypto above $150,000; steady but muted growth implies $110,000–$140,000; and stagflation or recession could hit prices in the near term before a rebound.
Competition to become the settlement layer for hybrid finance is intensifying, the report argued, with Ethereum still the institutional anchor as rivals gain ground.
“2026 will be defined by a financial system quietly rearchitecting itself around public blockchains and digital settlement layers,” said James Butterfill, CoinShares head of research.
The report also highlighted widening regulatory divergence, from Europe’s MiCA framework to evolving US stablecoin policy and Asia’s Basel-style approach, and flags structural shifts including miners moving into HPC and AI infrastructure and prediction markets gaining mainstream relevance.
Read more: Diversification, Not Hype, Now Drives Digital Asset Investing: Sygnum
- As of October 2025, GoPlus has generated $4.7M in total revenue across its product lines. The GoPlus App is the primary revenue driver, contributing $2.5M (approx. 53%), followed by the SafeToken Protocol at $1.7M.
- GoPlus Intelligence’s Token Security API averaged 717 million monthly calls year-to-date in 2025, with a peak of nearly 1 billion calls in February 2025. Total blockchain-level requests, including transaction simulations, averaged an additional 350 million per month.
- Since its January 2025 launch, the $GPS token has registered over $5B in total spot volume and $10B in derivatives volume in 2025. Monthly spot volume peaked in March 2025 at over $1.1B, while derivatives volume peaked the same month at over $4B.
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QCP notes participation has collapsed while Polymarket sees a shallow easing path, putting the focus on guidance and cross central bank signals.
- Bitcoin remains around $90,000 as thin year-end liquidity leads to volatility and range-bound trading.
- Traders expect a shallow easing path from the Fed, with more focus on guidance than the anticipated rate cut.
- Global market movements are influenced by diverging central bank policies and macroeconomic signals.
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