Insight: The core narrative of the crypto industry is shifting from volatile trading to financial infrastructure layer

BlockBeats News, December 29th, WeFi Co-founder and CEO Maksym Sakharov stated that the core narrative of the crypto industry is shifting from price volatility and trading volume to corporate balance sheets and financial infrastructure. Real adoption comes not from retail investors, but when CFOs and risk management teams start approving stablecoin settlements and asset tokenization.

Sakharov pointed out that the key changes in the past 12–18 months have been: matured compliant custody, clearer accounting and regulatory frameworks. Stablecoin regulations (such as the GENIUS Act, MiCA), a shift in the SEC's stance towards "participatory regulation," and the Basel Committee reevaluating bank capital requirements for digital assets have enabled enterprises to have the first conditions for "compliance-on-chain."

On the application layer, the tokenization of government bonds and money market funds has crossed a threshold. JPMorgan Chase settles transactions on Solana, Goldman Sachs and BNY Mellon jointly promote tokenized funds, and BlackRock's BUIDL fund is already operational. Sakharov believes that tokenization is not about disrupting the market but upgrading the settlement system—reducing settlement time from days to minutes, lowering costs, and connecting global capital.

As for stablecoins, their payment scale this year has exceeded $9 trillion, with a market cap of about $309 billion. Sakharov bluntly stated that stablecoins are now a financial stability issue rather than "crypto sideshow," with regulation shifting from "blocking" to "standardizing," fundamentally recognizing their undeniable systemic impact.