In answering a question on the significance of institutional involvement in the crypto market, Long contrasted the early days of crypto, when retail investors and grassroots participants worked to expand decentralization and secure networks like Bitcoin and Ethereum, with today’s landscape dominated by institutional finance. According to the Custodia founder, the cycle is now largely driven by Wall Street titans who are building financial wrappers, derivatives, and corporate treasuries around digital assets.
While this influx has undoubtedly brought credibility and capital to the sector, Long warned that the traditional playbooks of these institutions are not suited to assets with finite supply, e.g, Bitcoin. The former Morgan Stanley executive and Custodia CEO said:
….They (TradFi) are perfectly comfortable taking more leverage than you would take with an asset of finite supply because they have all these mechanisms to bail them out in the event that supply for an asset becomes too tight. They have discount window. They have fault tolerances built into the securities system so that if the books don’t balance, it’s okay. They can always go the next day and get the shares from the market the next day.
At the time of writing, the total market crypto cap is valued at $3.95 trillion, following a minor 0.94% decline in the past day.
