Crypto rides the Trump optimism 

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With a new administration in the White House, 2025 is shaping up to be a big year for institutional interest in crypto. 

“It’s here to stay,” Roger Bayston, head of digital assets at Franklin Templeton, said of digital assets during a Blockworks Roundtable discussion on Thursday. 

Crypto, which has now surpassed the high-yield bond market, will only start to act as a more robust and mature capital market over time, Bayston added.  

His enthusiasm is something Liat Shetret, director of policy at Elliptic, has observed in other institutional players as well. 

“In the past, we’ve talked a lot about how the global finance system is kind of made up of an assortment of band aids, like ‘stop the bleeding here,’ and we have almost this opportunity to rebuild with vision,” she added, noting that crypto infrastructure has the potential to disrupt capital markets. 

The excitement comes as the industry continues to clock small “wins” from the Trump administration and federal agencies. 

The SEC has started to back off Gensler-era lawsuits against Binance and Coinbase, and while neither has been dismissed, it’s a level of industry-agency cooperation that we’ve never seen before. 

Binance, in response to the SEC’s new leadership, announced yesterday that it would be restoring its fiat rails. 

“In the past two weeks, we’ve seen very strong signals, some tangible evidence of the sea change that’s ongoing,” Christopher Blodgett, president of Binance.US, said. 

We’re not quite through the first quarter yet, but we’ll be watching to see if this Optimism continues throughout the year, and if federal regulations do start to shift in favor of the industry.