Cryptocurrency captured the imagination of the financial world. This means that most focus upon price.
For this reason, it is no surprise that a publication like Forbes is concentrating on the market dynamics. This is an extension of Wall Street which sets it sights on trading volumes and portfolio expansion based upon market moves.
According to a leaked report, Forbes is claiming that Wall Street is gearing up for a price run by crypto.
This means the establishment of trading platforms along with the adding of crypto to the holdings.
Image generated by Ideogram
Wall Street Gearing Up For Crypto Price Run
It is safe to say that Wall Street does not operate in the dark. Even without resorting to outright market manipulation, firms have an idea of what is taking place.
Think of along the lines of any industry. For example, farmers have an idea of what the state of the market is for corn. Word is passed around how production is, what the yields are looking like. They also have their finger on the pulse of demand.
Wall Street is not much different. People within the industry are aware of the line of questioning from clients. They track the money flow. Hiring practices tend to be revealed as companies try to pilfer the best talent.
All that leads to the logical conclusion that something is happening with crypto.
Naturally, one only has to look at the headlines, especially in the United States, to see the shift. The Trump administration has a favorable position on this. Some regulation was provided although there is still a lot of uncertainty. These firms are betting on the idea that clarity is eventually provided.
High-speed trading giant Tower Research Capital has joined Citadel Securities in "bulking up its bets on cryptocurrencies," it was reported by Bloomberg, citing a leak from an anonymous source.
One of Tower Research Capital’s trading groups has “increased capital allocation to its crypto trading book,” and upgraded its crypto market making infrastructure, the source told the financial newswire.
At the core of this is big money. We are looking at numbers that make what crypto experienced seem small.
Last week, Wall Street giants that manage a combined $10 trillion on behalf of clients are predicted to "open for business" on bitcoin this year, allowing advisors to recommend bitcoin ETFs to clients for the first time.
I take this to mean the fun is just getting started.
Hybrid System
It is hard to chart the eventual outcome. This translates into difficulty in determining where the opportunity resides.
My expectation is that trading volume will be absorbed by Wall Street firms. In the U.S., there is little doubt the banks will be heavily involved with crypto. It will be both commercial and investment that enter.
Ultimately, we are going to see full blown financial services based upon crypto. The question is where this is constructed. Does Wall Street monopolize it all or will DeFi expand at a rate fast enough to keep pace?
Wall Street has the advantage in funding. There are no issues with a major firm building a crypto platform. The resources are there, coming from existing operations. We cannot say the same thing about crypto.
Price runs do help with more than excitement. It does provide the industry with more resources. Whether this has any impact is always the issue, since cost of development tends to increase also.
As the major institutions gear up, we can expect a strong second half of 2025 with regards to price. The capital flow is simply getting too great. Bitcoin is getting a lot of attention yet it is likely that we will see it lifting most assets.
Has the industry lost its focus?
This is something to ponder, perhaps in another article. In the meantime, we are dealing with market focus, and not much else. There is a contingent of dedicated people who seek to uphold the values of crypto. They are small in number.
Market price is only thing that matters to 90% of the "crypto industry". We can see this by where the attention is regarding industry discussion and articles.
That said, Wall Street will make the early adopters rich. I never dispute price speculation because I have seen enough to know anything can happen in markets. When big money flows in, it pushed the early people out (with a nice profit).
From a VC, technology standpoint, this is what will likely happen.
We now have some idea of how Wall Street is gearing up.