Fintech promised to reinvent finance. And on the surface, it delivered.
Apps feel faster. Trading is smoother. Money moves with a swipe. But beneath the sleek interfaces, the financial system still runs on aging rails. Bank settlements still take days. Back-end infrastructure remains largely unchanged. What fintech modernized was the experience — not the machinery underneath.
Crypto, however, broke from that model entirely.
Built natively for a digital world, cryptocurrencies introduced infrastructure designed for direct, near-instant settlement without intermediaries. That architectural leap is exactly what caught Wall Street’s attention — even as regulatory uncertainty continues to cast a long shadow over the sector.
Now, according to a leading Wall Street analyst, the biggest winners of the next crypto phase may not be decentralized protocols at all — but publicly traded companies quietly integrating blockchain into mainstream finance.
Crypto’s Core Promise Still Matters — Even as the Narrative Shifts
Cantor analyst Ramsey El-Assal has been digging deep into the crypto ecosystem, and his conclusion challenges long-held assumptions.
From the beginning, crypto was driven by a radical idea: remove intermediaries, preserve value, and create “pristine collateral” immune to manipulation. That philosophy fueled Bitcoin’s rise — even at the expense of practical financial utility.
“The stunning success of Bitcoin — whose uncompromising design elevates decentralization at the expense of financial usefulness — is a case in point,” El-Assal wrote.
But as crypto matures, he believes the center of gravity is shifting.
Instead of value accruing primarily to private tokens and decentralized protocols, El-Assal argues the next phase favors regulated, public companies that can harness blockchain’s efficiency while remaining compliant with traditional financial systems.
In short: the future of crypto may look a lot more like Wall Street than early adopters ever imagined.
Why Regulation Is the Market’s Biggest Unanswered Question
That transition is happening against a complicated regulatory backdrop.
In the U.S., investors are watching the stalled CLARITY Act, legislation that could finally define how crypto trading and blockchain infrastructure are regulated. Its delay has injected uncertainty into the market — and recently rattled crypto-exposed stocks — but analysts still expect eventual progress.
For El-Assal, regulation isn’t a threat. It’s a gate.
Once clarity arrives, institutional capital can flow more freely — and companies already positioned between traditional finance and blockchain stand to benefit the most.
Three Public Crypto Plays Wall Street Is Watching Closely
El-Assal highlights three publicly traded companies that, in his view, represent the most compelling way to gain exposure to crypto’s evolution — without betting solely on volatile tokens.
Strategy (MSTR): Bitcoin Exposure, Engineered for Institutions
Strategy has transformed itself into the world’s largest corporate holder of Bitcoin, with over 712,000 BTC on its balance sheet — worth roughly $62.5 billion at current prices.
But this isn’t just a buy-and-hold story.
Strategy has engineered multiple financial instruments across equity, credit, and hybrid strategies, giving investors tailored exposure to Bitcoin based on risk appetite. That flexibility, El-Assal argues, lowers capital costs, strengthens the balance sheet, and reduces liquidity risk during market shocks.
In his view, Strategy’s capital framework represents a structural innovation — turning the company into a scalable, institutional-grade Bitcoin vehicle rather than a simple proxy.
Coinbase (COIN): The Regulated Bridge Between DeFi and TradFi
Coinbase remains the front door to crypto for millions of investors worldwide.
By the end of last September, the platform held $516 billion in assets, processed $295 billion in quarterly trading volume, and supported over 245,000 ecosystem partners across more than 100 countries.
Financially, momentum is accelerating. Coinbase’s latest quarterly results showed 55% year-over-year revenue growth and sharply higher earnings.
El-Assal sees Coinbase as far more than an exchange.
He describes it as a critical on-ramp — a regulated bridge connecting decentralized finance with traditional capital markets. As blockchain infrastructure becomes embedded in global finance, Coinbase’s positioning could allow it to benefit not just from trading cycles, but from long-term structural adoption.
Robinhood (HOOD): Where Crypto Meets the Next Generation of Investors
Robinhood’s story is one of access.
Built to democratize finance, the platform now serves nearly 27 million funded customers with $325 billion in assets — many of them younger investors encountering crypto for the first time.
Crypto now accounts for a growing share of Robinhood’s revenue, with crypto transaction revenue surging 339% year-over-year and representing more than a third of transaction-based income.
While regulatory delays — including uncertainty around the CLARITY Act — have pressured the stock recently, Robinhood shares are still up 111% over the past year, far outpacing the broader Nasdaq.
El-Assal believes the recent pullback reflects temporary uncertainty, not structural weakness — and that Robinhood’s valuation could benefit as crypto sentiment recovers and regulatory clarity improves.
The Bigger Shift Most Investors Are Missing
The real story isn’t just about Bitcoin prices or crypto cycles.
It’s about who captures the value as blockchain moves from rebellion to infrastructure.
Decentralization lit the spark. But compliance, scalability, and integration may decide who wins the long game.
If El-Assal is right, the next chapter of crypto won’t be dominated solely by tokens — but by public companies that quietly embed blockchain into the financial system itself.
And by the time that shift becomes obvious, Wall Street may already be positioned.