The 2026 World Economic Forum in Davos has just concluded. Unlike previous years, cryptocurrency and blockchain technology have completely shed the "novelty" label that once kept them on the fringes of discussions, becoming central topics that global financial leaders and policymakers cannot ignore.
From the strategic transformation of banking giants to the firm declarations of asset management behemoths, a narrative centered on "tokenization" is spreading from the small town at the foot of the Alps to the entire world. This is no longer just a preaching ground for crypto enthusiasts, but a milestone where traditional financial power structures actively embrace change.
1. From "Marginal Topic" to "Matter of Life and Death": The Strategic Shift of Financial Institutions
● The most significant signal comes from a complete reversal in the attitude of the traditional financial elite. The details revealed by Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong during the conference are highly symbolic: an executive from a global top ten bank candidly stated that cryptocurrency has become the bank's "number one priority," even a "matter of life and death."
The weight of this statement far exceeds any technical analyst's forecast report. It reveals deep-seated industry anxieties and perceptions of opportunity.
● In the current environment of changing interest rates and intense competition, traditional banking is facing growth bottlenecks and model challenges.
● Cryptocurrency and the blockchain technology behind it are no longer seen merely as speculative tools or technical experiments, but are redefined as key variables that will determine customer bases, business models, and even market shares over the next decade.
● Armstrong observed that many financial leaders present were not only open-minded but were also "actively seeking entry paths." This shift from "defensive research" to "proactive deployment" is the most substantial progress made at this year's Davos.
Driving this shift are multiple overlapping factors:
Customer Demand Pressure: Especially the allocation needs of high-net-worth clients and a new generation of investors for digital assets have become an undeniable reality.
Efficiency and Cost Pressures: The expensive and sluggish processes of traditional cross-border settlements and securities clearing seem out of place in the digital age.
Evolving Competitive Landscape: Emerging crypto-native institutions and fintech companies are encroaching on the territory of traditional finance.
Clearer Regulatory Pathways: Although global approaches vary, major financial centers are forming clearer regulatory frameworks, reducing policy uncertainty for institutional entry.
2. Tokenization: The Hottest Term and Core Consensus at This Year's Davos
● If "cryptocurrency" is a broad term, then "tokenization" has become the focal point of specific discussions at this forum. It transcends the price volatility of Bitcoin, pointing to the grand vision of issuing, trading, and settling real-world assets (RWA) such as bonds, stocks, fund shares, real estate, and artworks in the form of digital tokens on the blockchain.
● Larry Fink, Chairman and CEO of BlackRock, made the most representative remarks. He repeatedly emphasized that "the future of assets is tokenization" and called for "putting all financial assets on a single blockchain."
The leader of the world's largest asset management firm attributes the benefits of tokenization to two core aspects: reducing intermediaries and enhancing transparency to curb corruption. In his envisioned future, tokenization could cover a wide range from money market funds to real estate, creating a more efficient, inclusive, and trustworthy financial market infrastructure.
● Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse views stablecoins as a "typical representative" of successful tokenization. In fact, stablecoins, as a reflection of fiat currency value on the blockchain, have become the core "pipeline" connecting traditional finance and the crypto world, demonstrating significant efficiency advantages in cross-border payments, remittances, and trade settlements.
Executives from companies like Circle also emphasized this role. The maturity and popularity of stablecoins pave the way for broader asset tokenization in terms of trust and liquidity.
The enthusiasm of industry leaders for tokenization is based on several realistic judgments:
● Liquidity Release: Fragmenting and tokenizing non-standard or illiquid assets (such as private equity and real estate) can greatly enhance their trading efficiency and accessibility.
● Process Automation: Automating operations such as dividend distribution, interest payments, and settlements through smart contracts reduces manual operation costs and error rates.
● 24/7 Market: Blockchain-based trading systems are expected to operate 24/7, breaking the time constraints of traditional markets.
● Innovative Combinations: Tokenized assets are easy to split and combine, giving rise to entirely new financial products and investment strategies.
3. From "Wait-and-See" to "Deployment": Focus and Pathways for Institutional Entry
Discussions in Davos clearly show that mainstream institutions have shifted their focus from "whether to enter" to "how to enter." In this process, several key focus areas have been repeatedly mentioned:
Regulatory Clarity is a Prerequisite: The proposed "GENIUS Act" and "CLARITY Act" being discussed in the U.S. aim to provide clear regulatory classifications and rules for the digital asset market. This is a prerequisite for large institutions, especially strictly regulated banks and asset management companies, to deploy capital and technology on a large scale. As CZ stated, the U.S. attitude has "symbolic significance" and will influence regulatory trends in the Western world and even globally.
Infrastructure and Interoperability: Institutions need not a "playground," but a "highway." They are concerned with enterprise-level blockchain platforms, compliant custody solutions, institutional-grade exchanges, and interoperability between different blockchain networks and stablecoins. Only with solid infrastructure and unified standards can tokenization achieve scalability.
Integration with Artificial Intelligence (AI): The combination of AI with blockchain/crypto technology is another cutting-edge topic. AI can be used for smart contract auditing, market risk prediction, anti-money laundering monitoring, etc., while blockchain can provide trustworthy data sources and computational resource trading markets for AI. The combination of the two may give rise to the next generation of fintech paradigms.
Talent and Organizational Change: Traditional financial institutions are establishing dedicated digital asset departments, recruiting talent with knowledge of both finance and blockchain, and adjusting internal risk control, compliance, and technical architectures to adapt to new business models.
4. The Evolving Role of Bitcoin: From "Digital Gold" to "Cycle Flag"
In the heated discussions about pragmatic infrastructure (tokenization, stablecoins), Bitcoin has not been forgotten, but the context of its discussion has subtly changed. Binance founder CZ admitted he cannot predict short-term price fluctuations but believes it is "easy to predict long-term performance," strongly sensing that 2026 will enter a "super cycle."
The "super cycle" here is typically understood as a long-term bull market driven by large-scale institutional adoption, changes in global liquidity, halving cycles, and its narrative as "digital gold" for value storage. In the context of Davos, Bitcoin plays two roles:
● Market Confidence Barometer: Its price trends and cycle predictions remain core indicators for observing the attractiveness of the entire crypto asset category and the flow of funds.
● Cornerstone of Decentralized Value: Unlike asset tokenization, which focuses on efficiency improvements, Bitcoin represents a non-sovereign, censorship-resistant asset paradigm, which is its unique value proposition distinguishing it from other crypto assets.
However, the mainstream financial discussion's "focus" indeed leans more towards "pragmatic" infrastructures outside of Bitcoin that can transform existing financial processes. This indicates that the industry is forming a layered understanding: Bitcoin is a strategic reserve asset and a value storage layer; while other public chains like Ethereum and various consortium chains serve as the application layer for asset tokenization, DeFi, and other financial innovations.
5. Looking Ahead to 2026: Super Cycle or Rational Prosperity?
The voices from Davos set an expectant tone for 2026. Ripple's CEO predicts the market will "reach historic highs," and CZ senses the arrival of a "super cycle." However, the true "super cycle" should not merely reflect soaring asset prices but should embody a fundamental leap in technology adoption and the creation of real economic value.
Key points of interest for 2026 may include:
● Can tokenization pilots be transformed into large-scale production-level applications? Especially the tokenized issuance and trading of core financial assets like sovereign bonds and large corporate credits.
● Will the regulatory frameworks of major economies ultimately be implemented? Providing clear action guidelines for global institutions.
● Can traditional finance and crypto-native ecosystems achieve deep integration? Resulting in phenomenal hybrid financial products serving millions of users.
● Will the dominant narrative of the next bull market shift from a purely monetary narrative (anti-inflation, gold alternative) to a more powerful productivity narrative (enhancing the efficiency of global capital and asset allocation)?
The 2026 Davos meeting concluded with Larry Fink quoting Elon Musk: "Being an optimistic loser is better than being a pessimistic winner." This aptly summarizes the current collective mindset of financial elites towards crypto and blockchain technology: at the crossroads of change, choosing to embrace the immense opportunities brought by uncertainty is better than clinging to old paradigms and missing out on the future.
The crypto narrative has successfully integrated into the core agenda of upgrading global financial infrastructure. Tokenization, as the most prominent practical path in this agenda, is attracting capital and wisdom from Wall Street to Lujiazui. There are still technological challenges, regulatory gaps, and market volatility ahead, but the direction is clear. The discussions in Davos indicate that the future of finance is being rewritten by lines of code and tokens. The year 2026 may be a key year for this profound transformation to accelerate from blueprint to reality.
Join our community to discuss and grow stronger together!
Official Telegram community: https://t.me/aicoincn
AiCoin Chinese Twitter: https://x.com/AiCoinzh
OKX benefits group: https://aicoin.com/link/chat?cid=l61eM4owQ
Binance benefits group: https://aicoin.com/link/chat?cid=ynr7d1P6Z
免责声明：本文章仅代表作者个人观点，不代表本平台的立场和观点。本文章仅供信息分享，不构成对任何人的任何投资建议。用户与作者之间的任何争议，与本平台无关。如网页中刊载的文章或图片涉及侵权，请提供相关的权利证明和身份证明发送邮件到support@aicoin.com，本平台相关工作人员将会进行核查。
