SVB Says 2026 Marks Crypto’s Shift From Hype to Financial Infrastructure

Despite cryptocurrency prices being down and retail sentiment hitting historic lows, Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) believes 2026 is the year that crypto finally gets fully integrated into financial institutions and the broader mainstream economy.

Speaking to CoinDesk, SVB’s Senior Vice President of Crypto, Anthony Vassallo, said improved regulatory clarity is seeing blockchain tech become more deeply embedded into existing financial infrastructure such as payment rails and custody.

Regardless of how tangible or visible, all the forces shaping crypto today share a common thread: Crypto is moving from expectations to production. Pilot programs are scaling and capital is consolidating.

Anthony Vassallo, Silicon Valley Bank senior vice president of crypto

In December, SVB published a report suggesting institutions are increasing their efforts to invest in, or fully acquire crypto start-ups that align with their business goals, suggesting startups are starting to find a better “product-market fit, driven by enterprise and retail demand rather than fragile speculation.”

And the figures support this narrative. According to data from Pitchbook cited in SVB’s report, 2025 saw investors stump up US$7.9 billion (AU$11.2b) to fund crypto startups, an increase of 44% over the previous year. Over the same period, the number of deals actually fell by 33%, but the median investment size grew by 150% to around US$5 million (AU$7.1m).

SVB warned in its report that there may actually be a shortfall of suitable start-ups for institutions to invest in within the next 12 months.

According to Vassallo, financial institutions are also increasingly looking to fully acquire crypto firms outright in an effort to rapidly implement blockchain-based tech and remain competitive.

“We expect M&A to set a record again in 2026. As digital asset capabilities become table stakes for financial services, companies will focus on acquisition strategies instead of building products from scratch,” he said.

Related: White House Pushes Crypto and Banks Toward Stablecoin Compromise

Stablecoins, Tokenisation and AI Underpin Crypto Institutional Adoption, Says SVB

SVB expects 2026 to see stablecoins become embedded financial institutions’ core systems and become the “internet’s dollar,” driven by the passage in the US of the GENIUS Act in 2025 and similar stablecoin frameworks expected to be implemented in several other jurisdictions, including Singapore, UK, EU and UAE.

Already, several major banks are experimenting with stablecoins, including JPMorgan, Citigroup and Wells Fargo. SVB said investment in stablecoin companies exceeded US$1.5 billion (AU$.21b) in 2025, up from just US$50 million (AU$70.5m) in 2019.

Tokenisation is also driving significant institutional adoption of crypto, according to SVB, with several large institutional players, including BlackRock and Franklin Templeton, having already hundreds of millions of dollars worth of real-world assets on-chain.

Related: US Bank Lobby Urges OCC to Pause Crypto Trust Charters Amid Stablecoin Uncertainty

AI too is contributing to institutional adoption with an increase in the share of funding going to crypto startups leveraging AI in their products, increasing from 18% to 40% over the course of 2025. 

While the impact of this institutional adoption may appear subtle to end-users, with much of the technology abstracted away behind slick user interfaces, SVB believes it nonetheless marks significant progress for the adoption of crypto as it continues its transition from speculative asset to true financial infrastructure. 

“In 2025, momentum in onchain representations of cash, treasuries and money market instruments carried real-world assets into the financial mainstream,” Vassallo said. “This year, cryptocurrency will be treated as infrastructure.”