Banks, asset managers, and corporates push crypto and digital currencies into the mainstream amid shifting financial dynamics.
The largest bank in Italy, Intesa Sanpaolo, quietly purchased $1 million worth of bitcoin in early January. The move was not publicly disclosed; it surfaced in an internal bank memo. When pressed by reporters, CEO Carlo Messina described the purchase as merely a “test,” suggesting that Intesa may eventually acquire more bitcoin on behalf of some of its wealthy clients.
It could be a harbinger of things to come.
After years of keeping their distance, movers and shakers in the traditional financial world appear ready to play ball when it comes to cryptocurrencies and stablecoins. (Stablecoins are a type of cryptocurrency designed to maintain a stable value over time; they are typically pegged 1:1 to the value of traditional currencies like the US dollar or the euro.)
“The financial services industry is on the verge of entering the crypto economy,” Fortune reported Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan saying in February. And in March, Fidelity Investments, one of the world’s largest asset managers, was reported to be in advanced testing of its own stablecoin.
Competitive pressure and the need for a fast time to market are key drivers—fueled by rising demand from clients, including corporates, and by a shifting macroeconomic backdrop marked by Trump-era tariff threats and doubts about the global dollar system’s resilience. Together, these forces are pushing banks and asset managers to hedge geopolitical risk and tap new revenue streams through digital assets.
The Intesa purchase was made through Boerse Stuttgart Digital, which recently became Europe’s first regulated exchange for trading digital assets under the EU’s new Markets in Crypto Assets Regulation (MiCA) framework. The exchange is a unit of venerable Boerse Stuttgart Group, Europe’s sixth-largest exchange group.
“Institutional adoption of crypto assets is gaining momentum across Europe,” observes Joaquín Sastre Ibáñez, chief revenue officer at Boerse Stuttgart Digital. He expects other European banks and institutional investors to follow Intesa’s footsteps.
“In Germany, for example, we have recently partnered with DekaBank to offer crypto trading to institutional clients,” Sastre Ibáñez notes. Many financial institutions had been waiting for a clear regulatory framework before introducing crypto offerings to their customers, which MiCA now provides.
It’s not just in Europe that the crypto temperature is rising. In early March, the US established a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, and many individual US states, most notably Texas, could soon have bitcoin reserves of their own. Pension funds, too, are “dipping their toes into buying bitcoin,” The Financial Times reported in January, including funds in the UK and Australia, “a sign that even typically staid corners of finance are finding it hard to ignore the potential outsized returns from cryptocurrencies.”
In the US, stablecoin legislation moved out of a key Senate committee with bipartisan support in mid-March and passage is soon expected. The legislation sets clear rules for stablecoin issuers, requiring full reserve backing and compliance with anti-money laundering laws to safeguard consumers and reinforce the US dollar’s global standing. Stablecoins often act as a bridge between crypto and national currencies; they share the same underlying blockchain technology as tokens like bitcoin and Ethereum.
“The US’s pro-crypto stance is reshaping the global financial landscape by integrating digital assets into the mainstream economic agenda,” says Federico Brokate, head of US Business at 21Shares, a cryptocurrency exchange-traded fund (ETF) provider based in Switzerland.
The creation of the US Strategic Bitcoin Reserve along with the US Digital Asset Stockpile, consisting of tokens other than bitcoin, marks a significant shift in institutional perception, he adds, “positioning cryptocurrencies as essential financial instruments rather than speculative assets. This move not only signals long-term confidence in digital assets but also sets a precedent for other nations.”
“Digital assets are here to stay, as convergence of traditional and digital finance advances.”
Joaquin Sastre Ibanez, Boerse Stuttgart Digital
Two major pension funds in the US have already made significant investments in spot bitcoin ETFs: The State of Michigan Department of the Treasury and the State of Wisconsin Investment Board. The latter has committed more than $300 million to IBIT, BlackRock’s spot bitcoin ETF.
“We expect this trend to continue among pensions as regulatory clarity continues to progress in the US,” says Brokate. Institutional interest extends to other regions as well, he adds; Abu Dhabi’s Sovereign Wealth Fund has invested more than $450 million in IBIT.
The Future Of Money
Simon McLoughlin, CEO of UPHOLD, a cryptocurrency trading platform, sees stablecoins in particular as playing a key role in transforming global finance. “Stablecoins are the future of money,” he says, “so much so, in fact, that in 10 years’ time, we won’t even refer to stablecoins. They will just be money.”
“Stablecoin issuance has grown rapidly in recent years and become a significant part of the financial system,” S&P Global Ratings concluded in a February report. “Stablecoins could enable smoother transactions, faster settlements, and lower costs for cross-border payments—especially in areas that lack access to traditional banking infrastructure.”
Indeed, stablecoin market capitalization reached $230 billion in mid-March, up 56% from a year earlier; analysts at Bernstein predict market cap could exceed $500 billion by yearend.
Fintechs like Tether (USDT) and Circle (USDC) are pioneering the issuance of stablecoins, but other issuers may soon jump in.
“There will be stablecoins run by municipalities, businesses, and other organizations,” McLoughlin predicts. “But most importantly of all, there will be stablecoins issued directly by banks. We will have branded money.”
CFOs may have to adjust their thinking accordingly, he adds.
“CFOs need to start preparing now for a future where some of the functions of corporate treasury and international accounting are fulfilled on the blockchain,” McLoughlin said. When it comes to international payments, for instance, “if one of your rivals is using stablecoins to move money around the world and your business is not, you will be at a distinct disadvantage.”
Are Institutions Making Crypto Safer?
What about cryptocurrencies proper, like bitcoin? Unlike stablecoins, their market prices have always been volatile. But as more traditional financial firms embrace the crypto economy, those wild price gyrations may flatten out, anticipates Geoff Kendrick, global head of digital assets research at Standard Chartered.
“Institutional buyers are less likely to sell on bad days than are leveraged retail buyers,” he says.
Moreover, custody solutions from traditional financial institutions like BNY Mellon or State Street could make storing crypto easier and more secure than current offerings by crypto-focused fintechs. Regulatory clarity in places like the US, too, could lead to less volatility while helping to “remove FTX issues,” says Kendrick, referring to the market-roiling collapse of the Bahamas-based cryptocurrency exchange in November 2022.
More institutions are interested today in both selling crypto to retail clients and diversification for their own corporate treasuries, says Boerse Stuttgart Digital’s Sastre Ibáñez. His group is partnering with Germany’s DZ Bank, for instance, to offer its retail clients direct access to crypto trading and custody.
If cryptocurrencies become less volatile, more pension funds and insurance companies could dive in, too. In December, one of Australia’s largest superannuation fund providers, AMP Limited, made a A$27 million ($16.4 million) investment in bitcoin futures, which CIO Anna Shelley described in a commentary on AMP’s website as a “cautious step” into bitcoin futures for members. Bitcoin could potentially be used as an alternative store of value to gold, she wrote, on the negative side, bitcoin “offers no yield.”
Still, many of Australia’s super funds—a category that includes pension funds—“already invest in many assets that have no yield,” Shelley noted in her commentary, “such as foreign currencies, derivatives and commodities, and even some listed companies [that] make no profit and deliver no dividends.”
Blue-Sky Speculation And Counterparty Risks
Some partisans set crypto’s sights even higher; one day, they say, central banks might invest in cryptocurrencies for diversification.
“Central banks considering investing in bitcoin could be emboldened by the fact the US government is going to at least hold on to the 270,000 bitcoins it currently owns, and potentially buy more at some stage,” Kendrick wrote in a January note, as reported by The Wall Street Journal.
Elsewhere, Aleš Michl, who heads the Czech National Bank, told The Financial Times in January that he would present a plan to his board to invest in bitcoin as a way to diversify the central bank’s reserves.
This proposal drew a flutter of scornful reactions. “Michl is mixing up the role of a central banker with that of a portfolio manager,” Elias Haddad, senior market strategist at Brown Brothers Harriman, told Bloomberg.
Indeed, some of this blue-sky speculation may not be accounting for all the risks.
“Stablecoins, issued by private entities, can fail like banks, risking de-pegging,” says Hanna Halaburda, associate professor at New York University’s Stern School of Business. Then, too, stablecoins are traded on blockchain networks, “offering decentralization and programmability but facing congestion risks and high costs.”
In addition, she notes, stablecoins have limited practical use in the US and some other countries where “traditional banking services are already efficient and reliable.” The largest demand for US-denominated stablecoins is overseas, “particularly in regions with unstable currencies or costly financial infrastructure.”
In many African countries, for example, “stablecoins provide a way to hold digital dollars, preserving purchasing power in economies plagued by inflation,” Halaburda notes. “They are also widely used for cross-border transactions, offering a faster and often cheaper alternative to traditional remittance services.”
But if a US central bank digital currency (CBDC)—a digital dollar—were ever made accessible internationally, that “could potentially serve these roles even more effectively,” she adds.
CBDCs vs Stablecoins
CBDCs are not cryptocurrencies, of course, but they are digital money like stablecoins: and the two may be in competition. Facebook’s Libra stablecoin, announced back in 2019, spurred digital currency awareness among central banks. The project was later abandoned, but as of February 2025, 134 countries and currency unions, representing 98% of global GDP, were exploring a CBDC, according to the Atlantic Council’s Central Bank Digital Currency Tracker.
CBDCs remain controversial, however, particularly in Western countries, where they come freighted with privacy questions. In January, an executive order by President Trump banned research and development for a US CBDC.
Trump’s rejection of a digital dollar, and his embrace of stablecoins, appears to have spurred the EU to speed up implementation of its own CBDC project. European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde said recently that Europe needs to push fast on the digital euro.
“Accelerating its implementation suggests that [EU] policymakers see strategic value in a CBDC, particularly in a rapidly evolving global financial landscape,” says Annabelle Rau, an associate at McDermott Will & Emery in Germany. “However, its success will depend on striking the right balance between innovation, privacy, and financial stability.”
The EU has set a high standard for privacy with its General Data Protection Regulation, Rau notes. “Nonetheless, public trust will be crucial, and addressing concerns around data access, anonymity, and surveillance risks will require clear legal safeguards and transparent communication from policymakers.”
Stablecoins and CBDCs might eventually co-exist, although the importance of their role could vary from country to country, Halaburda suggests.
“China favors state-controlled rails and discourages blockchain-based finance, making the digital yuan likely to prevail,” Halaburda says. “The EU is regulating stablecoins under MiCA while taking a cautious approach to the digital euro, allowing both to coexist. In the US, stablecoins thrive in the absence of a CBDC, though pending regulations could either strengthen their role or constrain them in favor of a digital dollar.”
Here To Stay?
Whether it be cryptocurrencies, stablecoins, or central bank digital currencies, a consensus appears to be forming that “digital assets are here to stay, with mainstream adoption accelerating as the convergence of traditional and digital finance advances every day,” Boerse Stuttgart Digital’s Sastre Ibáñez says. If so, “corporate CFOs should be aware of the growing importance and adapt by integrating digital assets into their financial strategies while ensuring compliance with evolving regulations.”
Fundamental challenges remain, particularly in governance, risk management, and regulatory oversight. “While some convergence is taking place, particularly in areas such as digital securities and asset tokenization, it is likely that elements of both [crypto and traditional currency] systems will continue to coexist rather than fully merge in the near future,” says Rau.
McLoughlin, at UPHOLD, remains buoyant. Consider only the trillions of dollars locked up in banks today to facilitate international transactions, he argues. Indeed, $10 trillion are held in nostro/vostro accounts globally, according to a December report from Bitso Business. “Imagine,” McLoughlin suggests, “what we could do if those funds were available to power growth instead.”
