CoinShares 2026 Outlook: Hybrid Finance Takes Hold as Public Blockchains Plug Into Wall Street

Overview

• CoinShares dubs the convergence of crypto rails and traditional finance “hybrid finance,” citing tokenised funds, tokenised deposits and new stablecoins from incumbents such as BlackRock, J.P. Morgan and PayPal.
• The report highlights measurable scale, noting stablecoin transaction volumes rival Visa and Mastercard combined and projecting a potential US$3 trillion stablecoin market by 2030, attributed to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.
• Bitcoin’s mainstreaming is quantified with over US$90 billion in U.S. spot ETF inflows and more than one million BTC held across 190 public companies, with the report also noting a U.S. strategic Bitcoin reserve and broader access expected via wirehouses and retirement plans in 2026.
• Platform competition is intensifying as Ethereum remains the institutional anchor (including roughly US$13 billion in ether ETF net inflows), Solana’s stablecoin float has grown from US$1.8 billion to US$12 billion since January 2024, and Hyperliquid reports nearly US$3 trillion in cumulative volume.
• Regulatory paths are diverging, with the EU’s MiCA now providing legal certainty, a proposed U.S. GENIUS Act classifying payment stablecoins as non‑securities with Treasury‑backing requirements, and Asia—led by Hong Kong—moving to Basel‑style prudential rules effective January 2026, while miners pivot to HPC/AI and ICE invests up to US$2 billion in Polymarket.