Aside from liquidity, what do institutions bring to crypto? What precisely is their value added? This is an instructive question to ponder, because there is little consensus on what deeper institutional participation means for an industry that is riven with contradictions.
The long-running wait for Bitcoin ETF approval, giving pensions and funds exposure to BTC, may well prove to be a positive catalyst for industry growth. But in focusing on price action, observers are missing out on the real benefit of broadscale institutional adoption. The greatest benefit of deepening institutional adoption may be the regulatory certainty it ushers in.
Tax and Compliance
There are a number of areas where institutional involvement is forcing regulators to give straight answers. Chief among these are taxation and compliance. What trades can a business legally make, how should they be disclosed on its balance sheet, and what steps must it take to report these activities?
Determining what constitutes a taxable event in crypto depends on your dominion. While U.S. traders are required to calculate profit and loss (PnL) on every trade on a decentralized exchange (DEX), perps position, and on-chain event, other countries take a less rigorous approach, while a few don’t bother to tax it at all.
#Bitcoin ETFs will be Delayed until the Final Deadline
The SEC is trying to show that they are not interested and attempting to push the dates until the final deadline, even though both the SEC and BlackRock know the inevitable outcome.
Regardless of where you reside, determining your obligations when buying, selling, and storing digital assets can be a headache. But it could be worse: imagine how much more is at stake for businesses, whose public accounts must be scrutinized, and which typically require permission to even list Bitcoin (BTC) on their balance sheet.
There are good reasons why a higher bar is set for enterprises in terms of compliance, disclosure, reporting, and taxation compared to consumers. It’s a primary reason why it’s taken so long for serious institutional adoption to manifest. But as the trickle of financial firms gaining a foothold in the space turns into a flow, the retinue of lawyers and lobbyists in tow has begun to yield dividends. When BlackRock starts beating the drum for a Bitcoin ETF, even the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has to sit up and take notice.
Grayscale’s favorable court ruling against the SEC on Aug. 29 has shown the power institutions can muster in forcing regulators to renegotiate. The precedent this appeals decision sets will further increase the confidence of institutions in their ability to reframe legislation in their favor.
Seeking regulatory clarity
For those who already have skin in the game — sole traders, trading firms, family funds, venture capitalists — greater institutional involvement can only be a good thing. When the largest institutions decide they want in, it forces regulators to play ball. Not every provision that’s consequently pushed through the statute books will aid the industry — some will be asinine — but collectively they provide something that’s been missing for years: clarity.
Is Bitcoin a security? What about Ether (ETH) or Solana (SOL)? The answer, at present, depends on who you ask. Some agencies seem intent on declaring everything bar Bitcoin a security; others take a more measured approach, focusing their enforcement efforts on the most egregious token sales and shills.
Institutions can’t trade assets that lie in regulatory no man’s land: they need black and white, not shades of gray. Their increasing participation in the market is bound to provide clearer answers in terms of crypto classification, which will benefit the entire industry.
In addition, greater institutional involvement is legitimizing digital assets by making them less exotic to those tasked with regulating them. Crypto opponents can’t justifiably claim the industry to be a hotbed of money laundering and wash trading when its most active participants include the world’s leading trading firms.
Signs of institutional adoption
Today, businesses and governments are pressing ahead with blockchain-based initiatives such as CBDC pilots. In Asia alone, Hong Kong and the Bank of Japan are exploring programs involving digital currencies.
Meanwhile, banks from the U.S. to Europe are introducing crypto custody and trading services for their clients. And in August, Europe’s first spot Bitcoin ETF listed in Amsterdam, proving that institutional willpower eventually gets things done.
Regulators and institutional players are still catching up in terms of expertise to those who helped build the industry from the ground up in its early days through hands-on participation. No one has complete mastery. But as a rising tide lifts all ships, greater institutional involvement will bring benefit to all players, from the humblest yield farmer to the richest whale. Rather than assume any one group has it all figured out, an open and collaborative dialogue is most likely to lead to positive outcomes. Regulators, institutions and early adopters each offer unique insights.
You don’t have to thank them, but big institutions are a net positive for the industry. Bigger players produce better rules — and better outcomes for everyone.
Gracy Chen is the managing director of the crypto derivatives exchange Bitget, where she oversees market expansion, business strategy, and corporate development. Before joining Bitget, she held executive positions at the Fortune 500 unicorn company Accumulus and venture-backed VR startups XRSPACE and ReigVR. She was also an early investor in BitKeep, Asia’s leading decentralized wallet. She was honored in 2015 as a Global Shaper by the World Economic Forum. She graduated from the National University of Singapore and is currently pursuing an MBA degree at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
This article is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and should not be taken as legal or investment advice. The views, thoughts and opinions expressed here are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.
SEC Commissioner and head of the crypto task force, Hester Peirce, says US financial firms are navigating crypto in a way that’s similar to playing the children’s game “the floor is lava,” but in the dark.
“It is time that we find a way to end this game. We need to turn on the lights and build some walkways over the lava pit,” Peirce said at the SEC “Know Your Custodian” roundtable event on April 25.
The lava is crypto, says Peirce
Peirce explained that SEC registrants are forced to approach crypto-related activities like “the floor is lava,” where the aim is to jump from one piece of furniture to the next without touching the ground, except here, touching crypto directly is the lava.
“A D.C. version of this game is our regulatory approach to crypto assets, and crypto asset custody in particular,” she said.
Peirce said that, much like in the game, firms wanting to engage with crypto must avoid directly holding it due to unclear regulatory rules. “To engage in crypto-related activities, SEC-registrants have had to hop from one poorly illuminated regulatory space to the next, all while ensuring that they never touch any crypto asset,” Peirce said.
Peirce said that investment advisers are often unsure which crypto assets qualify as securities, what entities count as qualified custodians, and whether “exercising staking or voting rights” could trigger custody violations.
“The twist in the regulatory version is that it is largely played in the dark: burning legal lava and no lamps to illuminate the way.”
Peirce also said that a broker or ATS that cannot custody or manage crypto assets will struggle to facilitate trading, making it unlikely for a “robust market” to develop.
Echoing a similar sentiment, SEC Commissioner Mark Uyeda said at the event that as more SEC registrants work with crypto assets, it’s essential that they have access to custodial options that meet legal and regulatory requirements.
Uyeda said the agency should consider letting advisers use “state-chartered limited-purpose trust companies” with the authority to hold crypto assets as qualified custodians.
Meanwhile, the recently sworn-in chair of the SEC, Paul Atkins, said that he expected “huge benefits” from blockchain technology through efficiency, risk mitigation, transparency, and cutting costs.
He reiterated that among his goals at the SEC would be to facilitate “clear regulatory rules of the road” for digital assets, hinting that the agency under former chair Gary Gensler had contributed to market and regulatory uncertainty.
“I look forward to engaging with market participants and working with colleagues in President Trump’s administration and Congress to establish a rational fit-for-purpose framework for crypto assets,” said Atkins.
On the banks of the Mersey, Runcorn and Helsby is a more complicated political picture than the apparent Labour heartland that first presents itself.
Yes, there are industrial and manufacturing areas – an old town that’s fallen victim to out-of-town shopping, and an out-of-town shopping centre that’s fallen victim to Amazon.
But there are also more middle-class new town developments, as well as Tory-facing rural swathes.
Image: Space Cafe director Marie Moss says a sense of community has faded
One thing this area does mirror with many across the country, though, is a fed-up electorate with little confidence that politics can work for them.
In the Space Cafe in Runcorn Old Town, its director Marie Moss says many in the region remember a time when a sense of community was more acute.
“People were very proud of their town… and that’s why people get upset and emotional as they remember that,” she says.
It’s this feeling of disenfranchisement and nostalgia-tinged yearning for the past that Reform UK is trading off in its targeting of traditional Labour voters here.
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Party leader Nigel Farage features heavily on leaflets in these parts, alongside spikey messaging around migration, law and order, and Labour’s record in government so far.
Image: Runcorn 2024 result
Taxi driver Mike Holland hears frequent worries about that record from those riding in the back of his cab.
A Labour voter for decades, he says locals were “made up” at last year’s election result but have been “astonished” since then, with benefit changes a common topic of concern.
“Getting a taxi is two things, it’s either a luxury or a necessity… the necessity people are the disabled people… and a lot of the old dears are so stressed and worried about their disability allowance and whether they are going to get it or not get it,” he says.
But will that mean straight switchers to Reform UK?
Image: Taxi driver Mike Holland has voted for Labour for decades, but is now looking at the Lib Dems and Greens – or may not vote at all
Mike says he agrees with some of what the party is offering but thinks a lot of people are put off by Mr Farage.
He’s now looking at the Liberal Democrats and Greens, both of whom have put up local politicians as candidates.
Or, Mike says, he may just not vote at all.
It’s in places like Runcorn town that some of the political contradictions within Reform UK reveal themselves more clearly.
Many here say they were brought up being told to never vote Tory.
And yet, Reform, chasing their support, has chosen a former Conservative councillor as its candidate.
It’s no surprise Labour has been trialling attack lines in this campaign, painting Mr Farage’s party as “failed Tories”.
As a response to this, look no further than Reform’s recent nod to the left on industrialisation and public ownership.
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But head 15 minutes south from Runcorn docks, and this by-election campaign changes.
Rural areas like Frodsham and Helsby have, in the past, tended towards the Tories.
The Conservatives, of course, have a candidate in this vote, one who stood in a neighbouring constituency last year.
But Reform is now making a hard play for their supporters in these parts, with a softer message compared to the one being put out in urban areas – an attempt to reassure those anxious about too much political revolution coming to their privet-lined streets.
Labour, meanwhile, is actively trying to mobilise the anti-Farage vote by presenting their candidate – another local councillor – as the only person who can stop Reform.
Image: Makeup artist Nadine Tan is concerned about division and anger in the community
The pitch here is aimed at voters like Frodsham makeup artist Nadine Tan, who are worried about division and anger in the community.
“I think they need to kind of come together and stop trying to divide everyone,” she says.
But like Mike the taxi driver five miles north, disillusionment could be the eventual winner as Nadine says, despite the “thousands of leaflets” through her door, she still thinks “they all say the same thing”.
One factor that doesn’t seem to be swinging too many votes, though, is the insalubrious circumstances in which the area’s former Labour MP left office.
Image: Labour MP Mike Amesbury was convicted of punching a man in the street. Pic: Reuters
But across the patch, many praise their ex-MP’s local efforts, while also saying he was “very silly” to have acted in the way he did.
That may be putting it mildly.
But it’s hard to find much more agreement ahead of Thursday’s vote.
A constituency still hungry for change, but unsure as to who can deliver it.
Full list of candidates, Runcorn and Helsby by-election:
Catherine Anne Blaiklock – English Democrats Dan Clarke – Liberal Party Chris Copeman – Green Party Paul Duffy – Liberal Democrats Peter Ford – Workers Party Howling Laud Hope – Monster Raving Loony Party Sean Houlston – Conservatives Jason Philip Hughes – Volt UK Alan McKie – Independent Graham Harry Moore – English Constitution Party Paul Andrew Murphy – Social Democratic Party Sarah Pochin – Reform UK Karen Shore – Labour John Stevens – Rejoin EU Michael Williams – Independent
Solana decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol Loopscale has temporarily halted its lending markets after suffering an approximately $5.8 million exploit.
On April 26, a hacker siphoned approximately 5.7 million USDC (USDC) and 1200 Solana (SOL) from the lending protocol after taking out a “series of undercollateralized loans”, Loopscale co-founder Mary Gooneratne said in an X post.
The exploit only impacted Loopscale’s USDC and SOL vaults and the losses represent around 12% of Loopscale’s total value locked (TVL), Gooneratne added.
Loopscale is “working to resume repayment functionality as soon as possible to mitigate unforeseen liquidations,” its said in an X post.
“Our team is fully mobilized to investigate, recover funds, and ensure users are protected,” Gooneratne said.
In the first quarter of 2025, hackers stole more than $1.6 billion worth of crypto from exchanges and on-chain smart contracts, blockchain security firm PeckShield said in an April report.
More than 90% of those losses are attributable to a $1.5 billion attack on ByBit, a centralized cryptocurrency exchange, by North Korean hacking outfit Lazarus Group.
Launched on April 10 after a six-month closed beta, Loopscale is a DeFi lending protocol designed to enhance capital efficiency by directly matching lenders and borrowers.
It also supports specialized lending markets, such as “structured credit, receivables financing, and undercollateralized lending,” Loopscale said in an April announcement shared with Cointelegraph.
Loopscale’s order book model distinguishes it from DeFi lending peers such as Aave that aggregate cryptocurrency deposits into liquidity pools.
Loopscale’s main USDC and SOL vaults yield APRs exceeding 5% and 10%, respectively. It also supports lending markets for tokens such as JitoSOL and BONK (BONK) and looping strategies for upwards of 40 different token pairs.
The DeFi protocol has approximately $40 million in TVL and has attracted upwards of 7,000 lenders, according to researcher OurNetwork.