Crypto Asset Manager CoinShares Sees Bitcoin and Tokenization Reshaping Finance by 2026
Crypto asset manager CoinShares says digital assets are rapidly shifting from a fringe experiment into a foundational layer of global financial infrastructure, as major institutions increasingly build on public blockchains rather than around them.
In its 2026 Digital Asset Outlook, published Monday, the firm argues that the next phase of crypto’s evolution will be defined less by disruption and more by convergence.
CoinShares labels the transition “hybrid finance” — a model in which crypto-native rails merge with traditional finance to form a new generation of market plumbing.
“Digital assets are no longer operating outside the traditional economy,” CoinShares CEO Jean-Marie Mognetti said in the report. “By 2026, we expect to see consolidation into the real economy rather than parallel systems competing for relevance.”
Stablecoins and Tokenization Lead the Crypto Integration
Much of that predicted convergence is already visible in the rapid expansion of stablecoins and tokenized assets, which the report identifies as the clearest bridge between blockchain technology and the legacy financial system.
Private credit, U.S. Treasuries and money-market-style instruments are emerging as the backbone of today’s tokenization boom, while tokenized funds, tokenized deposits and stablecoin launches from established financial institutions continue to accelerate.
Also read: BlackRock CEO Larry Fink Compares Tokenization’s Impact to the Early Days of the Internet
Rather than replacing traditional finance, these instruments are being woven directly into existing settlement, custody and liquidity frameworks. CoinShares describes this as a structural shift away from speculative experimentation toward operational utility, particularly in cross-border payments, collateral management and real-time settlement.
Bitcoin’s Institutional Phase Deepens
Bitcoin’s transformation into a mainstream financial asset is also accelerating, according to the outlook.
CoinShares points to more than $90 billion in U.S. spot exchange-traded fund inflows and over one million BTC now held by corporate treasuries across roughly 190 publicly listed companies.
Looking into 2026, the firm expects access to broaden significantly through wealth management platforms and retirement accounts, while institutional settlement could increasingly move directly through custody banks using blockchain rails instead of traditional clearing systems.
CoinShares outlined three possible price paths for Bitcoin tied closely to the global macroeconomic environment.
Also read: Larry Fink Reveals State Investors Were Accumulating Bitcoin During the Crash
In a soft-landing scenario driven by productivity gains and easing financial conditions, Bitcoin could rise above $150,000. A steadier growth backdrop implies a range of roughly $110,000 to $140,000.
A more adverse mix of stagflation or recession could pressure prices in the near term before setting the stage for a longer-term rebound as monetary conditions eventually ease.
The Race to Become Hybrid Finance’s Settlement Layer
As hybrid finance takes shape, competition to become its core settlement layer is intensifying.
CoinShares argues that Ethereum remains the institutional anchor given its entrenched developer ecosystem, regulatory familiarity and dominance in tokenized asset issuance. However, rival blockchains continue to gain ground by targeting specialized use cases such as high-throughput payments, real-time trading and enterprise settlement.
Also read: Europe’s $2.3T Asset Giant Amundi Rolls Out Tokenized Fund on Ethereum
“2026 will be defined by a financial system quietly rearchitecting itself around public blockchains and digital settlement layers,” said James Butterfill, CoinShares’ head of research. He added that this transition is likely to unfold incrementally rather than through a single disruptive event, with infrastructure upgrades happening behind the scenes of consumer-facing applications.
Regulatory Divergence Shapes Geography
The report also warns that regulatory divergence will increasingly shape where hybrid finance develops fastest.
Europe’s Markets in Crypto-Assets regime, or MiCA, is providing legal clarity for stablecoins, exchanges and token issuers. In contrast, U.S. policy remains fragmented but is evolving rapidly around stablecoin legislation and custody rules. Across Asia, regulators are taking a more bank-centric, Basel-style approach to digital asset integration.
Beyond markets and regulation, CoinShares highlights several structural shifts poised to influence the crypto sector by 2026. Bitcoin miners are increasingly diversifying into high-performance computing and artificial intelligence infrastructure as energy economics shift. Prediction markets are also gaining mainstream relevance as regulated platforms seek to apply crypto settlement rails to real-world data and event-based trading.
Taken together, the outlook paints a picture of digital assets no longer positioned as a challenger to the financial system, but as a foundational upgrade to it. Rather than overthrowing banks, exchanges and clearing houses, CoinShares argues that public blockchains are being quietly embedded into their core operations — signaling that crypto’s most consequential phase may now be happening out of the spotlight, inside the machinery of global finance.
