adoption

During a speech at the Oxford Union, Binance founder Changpeng Zhao mentioned that the adoption process of cryptocurrency is slow but irreversible. He estimates that it may take 5 to 10 years for the cryptocurrency adoption rate to reach 20%, while the middle 60% to 80% may take another 10 to 20 years, and the final 20% could take a long time. The initial phase is filled with skepticism, accelerating after surpassing 20%, and slowing down after exceeding 80%.He pointed out that in the past two years, many governments around the world have shown a significant change in their attitude towards cryptocurrency. The United States has shifted to a crypto-friendly stance, with other countries following suit. However, the upgrade of the financial system is slow, and large institutions exhibit inertia, leading to significant friction for banks to directly access blockchain.Currently, innovation in retail payment and daily use cases is still lacking. Many projects are just getting started and will need another year or two, while on the institutional side, ETFs, tokenized stocks, and stablecoins are on the rise. Different cycles focus on different aspects, shifting from early Bitcoin and ICOs to meme coins, and recently turning towards institutional adoption. He remains optimistic about this and is willing to fund developers.

Blockstream CEO and co-founder Adam Back stated in an interview with Bitcoin Magazine that the "first wave" of Bitcoin adoption came from individual investors, the "second wave" comes from spot ETFs, while the "third wave" of large-scale capital inflows from pensions, managed funds, and model portfolios has yet to arrive. He pointed out that Swiss banks are preparing for this phase.According to the chapter arrangement of the interview, the discussion also covered the demand for quantum-secure Bitcoin custody by Swiss banks, comparisons between tokenized money market funds and stablecoins, tokenized stocks based on the Liquid network and Blockstream AMP, as well as the obstacles that institutions still face when entering the market.In addition, Adam Back discussed whether institutions should build their own custody capabilities or rely on third-party custodians, how regulation shapes the Bitcoin custody landscape, and the impact of Basel rules on the costs of institutions holding Bitcoin. Blockstream recently established an office in Lugano, Switzerland, and began offering consulting services.

According to Cointelegraph, Standard Chartered's Global Head of Digital Assets Research Geoffrey Kendrick stated that the Binance hacking incident may accelerate the shift towards decentralized exchanges (DEX) and benefit Uniswap's UNI. Kendrick also mentioned that his previous target of UNI reaching 100 dollars by 2030 may be too low.

Strategy indicates that its "Bitcoin Banking Adoption Index" rose to 34% in the third quarter of 2026, showing that major banks worldwide are increasingly adopting Bitcoin and digital asset-related services, although the overall situation remains in the early stages. Among them, Fidelity ranks first with 77%, followed by JPMorgan Chase at 47% and BNY at 46%.Strategy states that the increase in the index this quarter was mainly driven by several advancements, including the expansion of Bitcoin ETF/ETP product access, the increase in institutional custody services, and the development of lending services using BTC as collateral.At the same time, progress in the fields of stablecoins and asset tokenization has also impacted the index's increase. As traditional financial institutions gradually explore digital asset infrastructure, Bitcoin-related services are extending from investment products to custody, financing, and financial application scenarios.

Digital Asset co-founder and CEO Yuval Rooz stated at the Token2049 conference in Singapore that the crypto industry should leverage the current regulatory environment to accelerate institutional adoption, believing that the widespread use of blockchain will make it harder for future governments to reverse industry progress. He compared this opportunity to Uber and Airbnb, stating that both companies had established themselves before policymakers effectively restricted them, saying, "By the time people react and decide to legislate against these companies, it will be too late."Rooz indicated that the industry should ensure blockchain is widely used so that no matter what happens in 2028, "there is no turning back." The next U.S. presidential election is scheduled for November 7, 2028, which may bring changes in government and regulatory priorities. This statement comes in the context of the CLARITY Act failing to advance in the Senate procedural vote in September, while the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) have been advancing crypto regulation based on existing authority.In the same Token2049 panel discussion, Binance co-CEO Richard Teng expressed hope that the CLARITY Act could still become law, believing that legislation could prevent regulatory backtracking and encourage institutional entry, calling the possibility of reversing current progress the industry's "greatest fear." Franklin Templeton CEO Jenny Johnson stated that legislation would provide greater certainty, but the industry should not rely on the passage of the CLARITY Act, as the SEC and CFTC are already working to provide regulatory clarity to sustain innovation and institutional adoption.

According to The Block, the Solana Foundation announced the appointment of Rachel Conlan as Chief Strategy Officer and Jamal Raees as General Manager of Payment Business to expand institutional adoption and payment operations. Conlan previously worked at Binance for three years and held senior management positions at companies such as OKX; Raees comes from Polygon Labs and will be responsible for collaborating with payment companies, enterprises, and ecosystem partners to promote Solana as a global payment infrastructure.The Solana Foundation stated that this year, Solana's stablecoin trading volume has exceeded $50 trillion, the on-chain real-world assets (RWA) scale has surpassed $4.5 billion, and the supply of tokenized stocks has exceeded $620 million.

Founder of Strategy Michael Saylor stated: The digital asset industry is better off with supportive rules from the SEC, CFTC, Treasury, and banking regulators than accepting the limitations in the final CLARITY compromise. The safest path is to create products that satisfy customers and deploy them widely, allowing people to have a stake in innovation. Ownership should be protected, honest disclosure required, and fraud punished, then let entrepreneurs compete and grow.Saylor mentioned that the September CLARITY compromise would have restricted covered providers to only paying customers for holding stablecoins while allowing qualified activity rewards, and directed the Treasury to limit certain rewards when a significant harmful deposit transfer to community banks was identified. The GENIUS Act has included restrictions on issuers paying interest and returns on stablecoins. The innovation sandbox of CLARITY would have limited participating companies to 25 employees, with each committee approving 20 projects per year. The SEC provided conditional relief for on-chain trading of certain tokenized stocks on September 17, and the CFTC chairman committed to using existing authority while the bill is stalled.He pointed out that useful products should be scaled by 2027 and 2028, transforming temporary relief into permanent rules. The goal is to have 50 million American voters using digital financial products that improve their lives. The best protection for digital innovation is the public that benefits from it.

American billionaire Kevin O'Leary stated that the adoption of blockchain by large stock exchanges will be a "watershed moment" for the industry.O'Leary mentioned that he is buying new cryptocurrency positions while observing which chains companies across various industries choose, as Ethereum has failed to achieve significant adoption in the past year.

According to Cointelegraph, CoinShares crypto researcher Luke Nolan stated on the Chain Reaction program that cryptocurrency adoption in Germany is making "very good progress" through family offices, wealth management institutions, and younger investors, while the UK is "still very behind," mainly due to regulatory lag. Nolan pointed out that the UK's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) only lifted the ban on crypto exchange-traded products less than a year ago, and its digital asset market is still in the "nascent" stage.In terms of relevant data, Germany currently has 89 licensed crypto asset service providers, accounting for 25.5% of the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) MiCA registered companies; in June this year, Germany also ranked first in the EU with 57 authorized crypto companies.Meanwhile, Deutsche Bank stated on Wednesday that it is awaiting regulatory approval to launch crypto custody services for institutional clients in Europe, expecting to obtain a license in October; Landesbank Baden-Württemberg is also set to provide crypto custody services in April 2024 through a partnership with Bitpanda.In contrast, the FCA released final guidance on Wednesday clarifying when crypto activities need to be authorized and plans to open license applications on September 30, with the new system set to take effect on October 25, 2027.Additionally, the FCA issued stop notices on Thursday to three London locations suspected of assisting illegal peer-to-peer crypto trading; the UK Parliament approved regulations in February to bring digital assets under FCA regulation and finalized a package of rules in June.

David Bailey, CEO and Chairman of Nakamoto Holdings, stated during a discussion hosted by investment bank TD Cowen that artificial intelligence could become the next engine driving Bitcoin adoption. He believes that the barriers to Bitcoin adoption have always been the interface rather than the asset itself; wallets, addresses, private keys, and the overall onboarding process have deterred mainstream users over the past decade, while AI-driven tools can abstract away this complexity, making it easier for ordinary individuals and institutions to use Bitcoin.TD Cowen analyst Lance Vitanza described this viewpoint as speculative but worth noting, suggesting that it shifts the adoption discussion away from traditional topics such as monetary policy, regulation, and institutional capital inflows. Bailey also mentioned that institutional adoption of Bitcoin is just beginning, with the changes brought about by spot ETFs, corporate treasury programs, and sovereign-level interest in the past year exceeding the total of the previous decade, and the opportunities ahead remain far greater than what has already been captured.When asked whether Bitcoin is reshaping traditional finance, Bailey firmly believes the answer is yes, as institutions, governments, and publicly traded companies are participating on a large scale, but the underlying properties of Bitcoin have not changed as a result. Nakamoto positions itself as a comprehensive Bitcoin platform covering media, conferences, education, asset management, consulting, and reserve business, and TD Cowen has given Nakamoto Holdings (NASDAQ: NAKA) a buy rating.

Cornell University in the United States released a Bitcoin Adoption Index report, which surveyed 25,880 people across 25 countries. The report shows that El Salvador, Venezuela, and Nigeria have the highest percentage of respondents who have owned Bitcoin. The report states that in these economies where fiat currencies are unstable and it is difficult to obtain US dollars or reliable banking services, Bitcoin plays more of a role as a "pragmatic workaround" rather than a speculative tool.A Venezuelan respondent stated that Bitcoin is "faster, cleaner, and less risky" than other ways to obtain US dollars; an El Salvadoran mentioned that "no one controls Bitcoin, which means we all own it"; and a Nigerian respondent said that they have visited six African countries and felt no worries because they knew they could spend Bitcoin.The survey also found that 58% of respondents were unaware that the Bitcoin supply cap is 21 million coins. The report was commissioned by Cornell University and conducted by Morning Consult, in collaboration with the university's Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy's Institute for Technology Policy, the Cornell Bitcoin Club, the Human Rights Foundation, and the Reynolds Foundation. The survey was conducted from December 16, 2024, to March 10, 2025, and included 125 questions.

According to CNBC, the cryptocurrency project World Liberty Financial, supported by the Trump family, stated that the rapid growth of its stablecoin USD1 and actual market demand refute external doubts about the project primarily relying on political connections for development. Currently, the circulation scale of USD1 has exceeded 4 billion dollars.World Liberty Financial CEO Zach Witkoff stated that the growth of USD1 comes from the product itself and market adoption, rather than special treatment from the Trump administration. USD1 was previously used in the 2 billion dollar investment transaction by the Abu Dhabi investment firm MGX in Binance, which is also one of the most significant institutional applications of USD1 to date.Recently, World Liberty Financial also received preliminary conditional approval from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) for a national trust bank charter, planning to directly issue and redeem USD1 through World Liberty Trust Company in the future, and manage its reserve assets. Regarding the project's relationship with the Trump family, some Democratic lawmakers in the U.S. continue to raise concerns about conflicts of interest.

According to Criptonoticias, Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino stated on August 23 that developing countries such as Venezuela, Argentina, Bolivia, and Turkey are increasingly using USDT, primarily for domestic and cross-border trade, and as a digital dollar and value storage tool in situations of rapid depreciation of local currencies, cash shortages in dollars, or restricted financial systems.Among them, small and medium-sized enterprises in Venezuela use USDT to settle import and export businesses, Bolivia has used it for commercial transactions including fuel procurement, Argentina's street economy and peer-to-peer markets widely use USDT for value preservation and exchange, and residents in Turkey also use USDT to cope with ongoing inflation.

According to The Block, STS Digital CEO Maxime Seiler stated that there is a divergence between cryptocurrency asset prices and institutional adoption. He said, "From a price perspective, we are still in a crypto winter, but from the institutional side, we have entered a summer."Seiler noted that institutions are more focused on adopting underlying technologies, and funds do not necessarily flow into tokens, so technological adoption has not yet been fully reflected in coin prices. He also pointed out that the Bitcoin futures basis has converged from an annualized 20%-30% during the 2021 cycle to close to the risk-free rate, and it is more stable than in the previous cycle, partly because the channels for dollars entering and exiting the crypto market are deeper.

Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire stated that the new proposed accounting rules will provide a significant strategic boost to the adoption of digital dollars like USDC.He mentioned that, combined with the GENIUS Act, the FASB rules will enable USDC to be widely used by global enterprises and financial institutions, which is of great strategic importance.

Grayscale's research director Zach Pandl released a report stating that despite the recent pressure on Bitcoin's price, Grayscale believes its adoption rate will continue to rise in the medium to long term for three reasons:First, the unsustainable growth of U.S. government debt is raising inflation and currency devaluation risks, which may drive various investors towards scarce assets and value storage tools; second, stablecoins and tokenization will make blockchain ubiquitous in financial services. As technology spreads, more intermediaries will have the infrastructure and regulatory conditions necessary to hold and trade Bitcoin, and Bitcoin will no longer be structurally isolated from the mainstream financial system; third, younger investors show a significantly higher preference for digital assets, and alternative investments have become a standard component of investment portfolios. Institutions, wealth management platforms, and individuals will continue to incorporate Bitcoin into diversified portfolios through tools such as exchange-traded products, a process that is already underway.Grayscale emphasizes that this bear market has not changed its expectations for the continued rise in Bitcoin's adoption rate.

Ethereum ecosystem infrastructure provider EthSystems announced a partnership with the local Korean institution Undefined Labs. The two parties will jointly promote the application of Ethereum technology in the fields of finance and digital assets in Korea.EthSystems will provide technical support in areas such as privacy, tokenization, and financial infrastructure, while Undefined Labs will leverage its deep understanding of the Korean market and local industry resources to assist in education, seminars, technical framework design, and use case development, facilitating the entire process from early exploration to proof of concept and then to production systems. EthSystems stated that Korea is one of the important markets for the next phase of Ethereum adoption, and this collaboration marks the starting point of its expansion in Asia.

According to Jinshi reports, OpenAI has partnered with private equity firm Clearlake Capital to accelerate the adoption of artificial intelligence in the Clearlake portfolio.

Strategy tweeted support for the CLARITY Act, believing that establishing a clear and long-term stable market regulatory framework will help promote the development of the digital asset industry and encourage broader institutional adoption in the United States.

Aave founder Stani stated that the recent gradual contraction of low adoption assets and networks on Aave should not be interpreted as a judgment on any L1 or L2. This move is primarily aimed at reducing Aave's risk exposure in operational, technical, and economic aspects, thereby concentrating resources on more impactful key directions, including expanding existing high-value markets and developing securities financing business.He also emphasized that L2 remains an important component of the Ethereum user experience. For example, the stablecoin vault in the Aave application uses L2 as its accounting layer, with the goal of driving mainstream users into decentralized finance. Meanwhile, networks like Avalanche are also promoting the on-chain of real-world assets through institutional business expansion, which has been a relatively weak area for Ethereum in the past.