Wall Street’s view of the digital asset sector has shifted and Goldman Sachs has put specific numbers to that shift. According to the bank, better regulation, more crypto use cases beyond mere trading, are all contributing to a more promising outlook, especially for infrastructure players, which are less correlated to the market’s ups and downs.
The bank’s survey also found that 35% of the institutions it polled identified regulatory uncertainty as the biggest obstacle to crypto adoption, while 32% identified regulatory clarity as the key driver for crypto adoption. Asset managers have so far dedicated about 7% of their assets under management to crypto, but 71% of them expect to boost their allocation in the coming year.
Another near-term milestone cited by the bank is the U.S. market structure reform. Lawmakers are circulating draft legislation that will outline the integration of tokenized assets and decentralized finance into the overall regulatory environment and will also address the roles of the SEC and CFTC in these markets. Goldman Sachs states that these developments are essential to the entry of institutional funds and that passage in the first half of 2026 will represent an important milestone, especially in view of the midterm elections in the second half of the year.
Financial institutions worldwide are stepping up their roll-out of digital asset products and services in 2026, following the bold advance in institutional markets in 2025. Hong Kong, the U.K., and the U.A.E. are pressing ahead, while Australia and South Korea are feeling the pressure to follow suit.
