From returns to derivatives: at the heart of the institutionalisation of cryptocurrencies

Speakers

• Marc Jennings - CEO Europe, Gemini
• Simon Letort - Head of Strategy, Digital Asset / Canton
• Guillaume Chatin - Head of Institutional Sales, Keyrock
• James Maxfield - Head of Trading EU, Gemini
• Raphaël Bloch - Head of News and Co-founder, The Big Whale

The shift towards an institutional market is now clear

• All the speakers confirmed it: the European crypto market has moved from B2C to B2B. Individuals have faded into the background, with banks, asset managers and hedge funds taking centre stage.
• This shift can be explained by two factors:
  
  • 1) regulatory maturity,
  • 2) the now "mainstream" understanding of Bitcoin and digital assets as a standard portfolio building block.
• Institutional demand is no longer exploratory but operational, with specific needs: reliable custody, API integration, liquidity, 24/7 trading, hedging tools.

The new language of institutions: collateral, financing, on-chain repo

• The dominant topic on the panel: collateral management.
• Institutions want to finance, lend, optimise their inventory, hedge their positions and transfer assets without friction.
• On-chain repo is exploding: tokenised Treasuries (notably on blockchains like Canton) are being used as "off-market" collateral by Citadel, DRW or prime brokers; unthinkable two years ago.
• This adoption is happening because blockchain is responding to a real problem: 24/7 financing, where TradFi remains limited by market hours.

Stablecoins: the first crypto product truly integrated into banking workflows

• In cross-border payments, stablecoins are already used massively: BRL→USDT, MXN→USDT, USDT→HKD.
• Payment companies and fintechs are using them because they immediately gain in efficiency, cost and speed.
• Banks are seeing their customers move significant volumes to Coinbase, Revolut and Gemini, and are starting to prepare to integrate stablecoin rails internally to stop this flow slipping away.
• The panel was unanimous: stablecoins are now the most natural entry point for institutions into crypto.

RWA: tokenisation is no longer a concept, it is an active infrastructure

• In contrast to other crypto narratives, this one is already real, measurable and used by global players.
• Tokenised US Treasuries totally dominate flows: they are used as collateral in repo, PB and intraday funding.
• Banks are tokenising their own bonds: SocGen is already issuing its bonds on Canton to use them as client margin.
• The movement is structuring: it is not crypto that is imitating TradFi, it is TradFi that is adopting blockchain rails to reduce the cost of financing, settlement and transfer of securities.

A market that's still inefficient... so incredibly profitable for sophisticated players

• The speakers reiterated it in no uncertain terms: crypto remains fragmented, immature, poorly integrated.
• This inefficiency creates huge opportunities: multi-platform arbitrage, options strategies, spreads on derivatives, inefficient fixings (example of 10 October).
• 80% of institutional flow in options = covered calls, the simplest strategy, a sign that the crypto derivative market is still in its infancy.
• The conclusion is clear: for properly equipped desks, crypto remains a high-margin market, far from the crushed efficiency of traditional markets.

Corporate treasuries: the silent but profound new wave of adoption

• Some corporates are buying Bitcoin via options strategies allowing them to:
  • deploy cash gradually,
  • capture yield via premiums,
  • avoid buying "at the market" all at once.
• Multinationals (e.g. Uber) are exploring stablecoins to manage real-time payments in dozens of countries, at weekends, without the constraints of banking systems.
• This is no longer speculation: it's the operational optimisation of a treasury department.
• For the panel, these corporate use cases will become a major adoption driver in 2026.

Conclusion: crypto is no longer a parallel market, it is becoming the new plumbing of finance

• The Deep Dive showed this: institutional custody, tokenised collateral, cross-border stablecoins, 24/7 repo, tokenised money markets, structured derivatives...
• TradFi and DeFi are no longer opposites: they are merging.
• 2026 will be the year of industrialisation: the players who control collateral, derivatives and tokenised rails will capture most of the value.