Viewpoint: By 2026, Digital Assets Will Shift from a Speculative Tool to Financial Infrastructure

BlockBeats News, January 8th, according to CoinDesk's report, investment bank B. Riley stated that as regulations gradually mature and traditional financial institutions begin large-scale deployment of blockchain technology, digital assets are expected to cross a key threshold in 2026, transitioning from a primarily speculative asset class to a utility-based financial infrastructure.

Analysts pointed out that the regulatory rules around stablecoins are becoming increasingly clear, institutional tokenization of real-world assets (RWA) is continuing, governance frameworks are becoming more robust, and the interoperability between bank ledgers and public blockchains is constantly improving. These factors are collectively changing the "use case" of digital assets, rather than just their "medium of exchange." This evolution is prompting digital asset treasury companies to shift from simply hodling tokens to putting digital assets into actual operation to create a business model with sustainable, recurring revenue.

MSCI has decided to temporarily postpone the removal of companies with a high proportion of crypto assets from its index, which in the short term is favorable for the valuation and capital inflow of digital asset-related companies. B. Riley pointed out that companies like BitMine are transitioning from merely hodling tokens to conducting revenue-generating operational businesses, and this transition is expected to spread throughout the entire industry.