Traditional finance accelerates crypto push as Kraken flags 2026 tokenization theme
Axios said Wall Street’s shift toward crypto is widening to tokenized equities and round-the-clock trading, while Coinbase says institutions are still buying Bitcoin amid the market slump.
Traditional financial institutions are moving more quickly into crypto assets, tokenized products and extended-hours trading, signaling a deeper convergence between Wall Street and digital-asset markets. Axios reported that shift as Kraken co-CEO David Ripley said nearly all traditional financial services firms will offer clients crypto assets including Bitcoin and Ethereum, calling it a major 2026 theme. Ripley linked that shift to the rise of stablecoins, tokenization, AI and around-the-clock markets, and said public equities are likely to be the next major area for tokenized assets. Kraken recently announced plans to offer tokenized IPO shares to retail investors, which Ripley said could give ordinary Americans earlier access to high-growth companies. The report also tied the trend to a broader push by traditional exchanges into longer trading hours, with Nasdaq expanding extended-hours trading. Separately, Coinbase head of institutional strategy John D’Agostino said sovereign wealth funds, family offices and other large investors are buying Bitcoin’s decline even as the token trades near $60,000 and remains about 50% below its all-time high. He pointed to Mubadala’s increased exposure to BlackRock’s Bitcoin ETF for a fourth straight quarter, while U.S. Bitcoin ETFs still hold roughly $100 billion in assets despite the downturn.
- tokenization: The process of representing traditional assets as digital tokens that can be traded on blockchain-based systems.
- stablecoins: Digital tokens designed to track the value of traditional assets, typically fiat currencies.
- tokenized IPO shares: Digital tokens that represent shares linked to a company going public.