Digital Asset Summit Update

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Casey, Felix, and I are at the Digital Asset Summit (as promised). We hope you’ve been following along via the livestream or our X accounts.

If not, here’s the update. We received mixed vibes from the initial speakers, along with some forecasts.

Key Observations

Blockworks co-founder Michael Ippolito kicked off the New York event, remarking that it’s a “tale of two cities” in the crypto space. He noted that while new institutions are entering the space, many coins have not surpassed previous all-time highs, and there seems to be little recent “zero-to-one innovation.”

Crucible founder Meltem Demirors followed, discussing the US government’s planned strategic bitcoin reserve and the prevalence of crypto strategies among major financial institutions. She expressed skepticism, saying, “Yet here we are, and we have no idea what to believe in.” Demirors presented a chart showing market cap and trading volumes over the last five years (excluding BTC and ETH), arguing that increasing bitcoin dominance indicates stagnation. She characterized institutions purchasing MSTR and bitcoin ETFs as mercenaries rather than missionaries, claiming, “They don’t have the same mission as us; they’re here to make money.”

Optimistic Predictions

LMAX Group CEO David Mercer shared a more optimistic view in the next session, predicting that digital assets could grow to between $20 trillion and $30 trillion by the decade’s end, roughly 15% of all assets. He projected that by 2040, they will comprise 80% of assets. Mercer stated that half of the 40 large global banks he interacts with—none of which currently trade spot bitcoin directly with LMAX—will engage with digital assets by the end of 2026.