Institutional curiosity in crypto is accelerating whilst markets fluctuate, in response to Sui executives at Consensus Hong Kong 2026.
Stephen Waterproof coat, chief funding officer of Sui Group Holdings, referred to as 2025 a “landmark yr for institutional adoption,” pointing to the growth in digital asset treasury (DAT) automobiles and the success of spot bitcoin ETFs.
“Submit the Genius Act, we’ve seen a lot extra institutional demand and consciousness for what the promise of crypto might ship,” he mentioned, notably round tokenization and stablecoins.
Whereas sentiment has fluctuated, Waterproof coat argued the structural shift is evident. “The market, regardless of the entire sentiment being low, has by no means been better,” he mentioned, citing report choices volumes and the doorway of main corporations akin to Citadel and Jane Avenue into crypto markets. He described a long-term pattern wherein “the most important establishments in finance on the earth” are investing in infrastructure and expertise to seize market share.
Mysten Labs CEO Evan Cheng framed the following part as convergence reasonably than competitors between conventional finance and decentralized finance. In his view, TradFi merchandise usually function on “T+1 or T+no matter,” whereas DeFi is “T+0”—a “strictly higher product” in settlement phrases.
The convergence, he recommended, will emerge by tokenization. “You purchase [an asset] and instantly you’ll be able to collateralize and borrow towards it,” Cheng mentioned, enabling DeFi methods layered on conventional publicity.
On whether or not ETFs compete with DeFi, Cheng mentioned merchandise will evolve. Institutional on-ramps might start conservatively however might incorporate yield or different on-chain mechanics over time.
Each executives emphasised infrastructure as Sui’s differentiator. Waterproof coat described Sui as “a differentiated proposition” constructed by former Fb engineers behind Libra, providing low latency and excessive throughput fitted to rising use instances akin to “agentic commerce”, the intersection of AI and onchain transactions.
