💼 Big money buy-in

While crypto companies like Kraken and Coinbase are very interested in tokenized equities, Citadel’s on the fence. 

The Wall Street firm asked the SEC to tread carefully when mulling what tokenized equities could look like, and cautioned that they could take liquidity away from equity markets, which makes sense as a point of concern for a market maker. 

The firm wrote: “Tokenized securities must achieve success by delivering real innovation and efficiency to market participants, rather than through self-serving regulatory arbitrage.”

Now to see what the Crypto Task Force thinks.

👀 Checking in

84% of general partners and limited partners are feeling pretty good about crypto, a survey from Barnes & Thornburg found. 

It’s also one of three areas highlighted by general and limited partners as being a part of the market that thrives in volatility. 

In a similar vein, a whopping 85% of respondents said that they’re looking to invest in crypto this year, many of whom — 61% — noted that it’s thanks to the regulatory clarity. Woo-hoo!

But both the market growth and the innovative investment products offered are big draws for them as well. 

Here’s the chart, just in case you need to see the year-over-year change for yourself. I know we’ve become slightly desensitized to the growth that this industry’s experienced in the last year, but these numbers are pretty wild. 

This gives you a better idea of what’s driving investments. Outside the top three motivators, institutional adoption is relatively high, which is understandable, given that general economic conditions are not as significant a driver. 

Unfortunately, there’s not a clear reason given as to why investment professionals don’t see economic conditions as a big factor driving interest here. However, across the larger landscape, “nearly 75% of respondents say that the current economic outlook presents an investment opportunity.”

I’m going to put on my guessing hat here and say that I think this is probably tied to the fact that crypto has not proven that it’s a safe haven play in times of market uncertainty. If you need a solid example, take a look at the leg down bitcoin took in February after we started receiving the tariff headlines. 

Mind you, that’s not to say that bitcoin hasn’t shown its resilience, especially since, according to Coinbase, it’s up 81% at the time I’m writing this newsletter. 

If we zoom out, Barnes & Thornburg noted that the survey finds “ample room for optimism” across a number of sectors — from crypto to hedge funds. All of this is based on survey data collected in April and March from investment professionals, including GPs and LPs. 

All in all, I think the data shows a pretty decent appetite for crypto, especially since a lot of the momentum for the industry is tied to regulatory clarity and the overall crypto market growth. Those are both big positives for the space.

Check out the Digital Asset Summit early speaker lineup. Join attendees from BlackRock, Citi, Credit Suisse, Bank of England, Jane Street and more. 

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📅 October 13-15 | London

• Remember when the Trump family empire was just focused on real estate? These days, it seems to be focused on bitcoin instead. 

• Coinbase is opening the doors for regulated perpetual futures trading in the US.

• Polymarket is reportedly mulling its own stablecoin offering, just days after it announced it’ll be re-entering the US market.