Davos 2026 Marks the Institutional Embrace of Digital Assets

The World’s Decision Makers Meeting

The meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) at Davos, Switzerland, is currently ongoing, running from January 19th to January 23rd, 2026. This meeting is attended by most of the world’s leaders in politics, economics, and business (350 government leaders, of which 60 are heads of state). In total, more than 3,000 people are participating, not counting the many journalists covering the event.

Among non-governmental leaders, key tech figures include Jensen Huang of Nvidia, Microsoft’s Satya Nadella, Demis Hassabis of Google DeepMind, and Arthur Mensch of France’s Mistral AI.

The forum comprises more than 200 discussion sessions on subjects ranging from geopolitics and artificial intelligence to climate change.

While the beginning of 2026 has been rich in geopolitical tension (Venezuela, Greenland, Iran), another trend is capturing significant attention: the radical shift in position regarding cryptocurrencies and digital assets.

Crypto at Davos: From Speculation to Infrastructure

Until recently, cryptocurrencies were seen by the world of finance as a curiosity or a speculative risk—something most institutions avoided, fearing reputational risks and the ire of financial regulators.

This has changed fundamentally with the emergence of Bitcoin ETFs, the approval of other crypto asset classes, and the admission by financial institutions that blockchain is a key part of today’s infrastructure.

It goes beyond crypto. For example, the NYSE is preparing for 24/7 trading in tokenized securities, a technology based entirely on blockchain rails.

Similarly, political figures are now much more open to the asset class, illustrated by the creation of the US Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and Texas creating its own state-level Bitcoin reserve.

A clear sign of changing attitudes was the 2025 AI Crypto Summit held at Davos, which set the stage for this year’s institutional embrace.

Davos 2026: Digital Assets Take Center Stage

SWIFT

The global payments network SWIFT, the technological backbone of the global financial system, announced at the meeting that interoperable tokenized assets could significantly improve global trade efficiency.

More precisely, the network is working on tokenized assets with major financial institutions:

• Bridging tokenized assets with existing payment systems with UBS Asset Management and Chainlink.
• Settling payments between fiat and digital currencies with Citi.
• Exchanging digital asset transactions via a commercial bank account with Northern Trust and the Reserve Bank of Australia.
• Enabling ISO 20022-based blockchain interoperability with HSBC and Ant International.

SWIFT is now adding a blockchain-based ledger to its technology infrastructure. The ledger will initially focus on enabling real-time, 24/7 cross-border payments, designed in collaboration with over 30 banks worldwide.

“By proving that Swift can orchestrate multi-platform tokenized asset transactions, we’re paving the way for our members to adopt digital assets with confidence, and at scale.“

– Tomas Dugauquier, Tokenised Assets Products Lead at SWIFT

WEF Declarations

In preparation for the Davos 2026 Summit, the WEF released a series of whitepapers regarding digital assets.

The first, in August 2025, titled “How will asset tokenization transform the future of finance?”, explained how tokenization democratizes financial market access, makes transactions cheaper, and ensures faster settlement times.

Another, released on January 7th, 2026, discussed stablecoins and how “trust is the currency of the future”: “Stablecoins as a bridge not a threat”.

“We are witnessing a fundamental shift in how the world works, but how the world pays is struggling to keep up. By treating stablecoins as a modern rail for value transfer, we can build a financial system not only faster and cheaper, but more resilient and inclusive.”

This was followed by “A digital economy at an inflection point” and “The new foundation of global finance”.

Key takeaways from these publications reveal that the WEF is making a major shift in 2026 to fully embrace digital assets:

• Regulatory clarity is facilitating increased adoption and scalability.
• Blockchain is increasingly becoming “boring” infrastructure as adoption shifts from experimentation to enterprise-grade deployment.
• A convergence is taking shape as banks adopt blockchain infrastructure, and blockchains evolve to meet the needs of regulated institutions.

Some participants directly supported this role. For example, Hong Kong’s Financial Secretary Paul Chan highlighted digital assets as a prime example of financial innovation that enhances transparency and risk management.

This matches Hong Kong’s policy, as the city government has issued three batches of tokenized green bonds totaling approximately $2.1B. Meanwhile, the government of Bermuda revealed plans to become the world’s first fully on-chain national economy.

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong and Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire also attended alongside senior public-sector figures, including the Governor of the Central Bank of France and the CEO of Euroclear.

Broader Implications

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Considering the members of the WEF, this is not just panel discussions at a think tank, but a radical shift in the attitude of the world’s leaders toward digital assets.

The WEF documents say as much:

“In 2026, there will be an increased convergence between the TradFi and DeFi world. In the next year, several jurisdictions are expected to roll out more regulatory guidance for digital assets.”

This evolution will happen in tandem with new regulations, successful pilot experiments, and the embracing of blockchain by financial institutions, which are now certain that adopting digital assets implies less regulatory risk than before.

In that respect, the prominent position given to digital assets at Davos 2026 is both a strong signal and a confirmation that this is the direction desired from traditionally conservative banks, insurance, and investment funds.

“We’re moving into a “systems phase,” where core financial infrastructure is being rewired in real time. Infrastructure companies became the connective tissue: custody, liquidity, on-chain transfers, compliance, and settlement brought into a form that banks can deploy securely and programmatically.”

The WEF also recognized that 55 million Americans hold crypto today, and that the number is still climbing, making this technology impossible to ignore any longer for the financial establishment.

As an “elite” meeting, Davos was likely influenced by other facts: 61% of affluent individuals already hold digital assets, but only 25% transact via their advisors. Worse, 51% of high-net-worth investors have already moved assets away from advisors who don’t offer digital assets.

How Does The WEF See Digital Assets?

It seems that the world’s leaders in both finance and politics have a clear view of where to steer the direction of the blockchain revolution.

Stablecoins

The first part is about stablecoins, which are being widely praised by central banks and the WEF for making cryptos “acceptable”.

“Stablecoins have become the first truly universal blockchain use case, turning a technical breakthrough into something deeply practical. You can already see that shift in how customers behave: lower-cost cross-border payments, real-time brokerage funding, and faster merchant settlement are becoming increasingly normal features of day-to-day finance.”

Companies like Tether are becoming large holders of US treasuries, with Tether ranking higher than entire countries as it became the #17th largest U.S. debt holder in October 2025, ahead of South Korea, with more than $135B in Treasury exposure.

Tokenization

Another trend the WEF is enthusiastically embracing is tokenization. The promise of instant transfer and programmability is a radical improvement over legacy systems.

“Inside banks and fintechs, tokenization isn’t seen as an experiment anymore. It’s no surprise that BlackRock CEO Larry Fink recently penned an entire byline to The Economist on this very topic.”

The idea is to turn blockchain into an invisible, but crucial, background infrastructure.

“If you zoom out, the most transformative technologies are the ones that eventually disappear. No one thinks about TCP/IP when they open a browser. They just expect pages to load. No one thinks about GPS protocols when their ride share shows up.”

The WEF also correctly assesses that, from the consumer side, the interaction with blockchain needs to become almost invisible for the broader public, allowing mass adoption beyond the early crypto enthusiasts.

Why Davos 2026 Marks a Structural Shift for Digital Assets

Davos 2026 is the year where digital assets go truly mainstream, with a multi-front recognition of blockchain’s potential by the highest level of mainstream institutions, from government heads to SWIFT to financial regulators.

This is not to say that the day after the summit, the world will suddenly switch to blockchain for every transaction. But it is a decisive step in making crypto the core of the future financial infrastructure.

Of course, some crypto enthusiasts will see this as a departure from the original ethos of the technology. But being recognized as essential by “the establishment” is perhaps the greatest compliment the world’s elites could give it.

Compliance-First Crypto Winners

Gemini

As cryptocurrencies become mainstream and accepted by financial institutions, the ‘rebel aura’ of the sector is slowly fading away. In that context, crypto exchanges are better positioned than others if they focus on compliance with financial regulations.

A strong example is Gemini Space Station, a crypto exchange which describes itself in fitting terms:

“As a trusted bridge between the traditional financial system and the emerging cryptoeconomy, we are providing access for individuals and institutions to a decentralized future that is more open, fair, and secure.”

The approach of Gemini toward regulators (“Ask for permission, not forgiveness”) has paid off. Following its successful IPO in September 2025, Gemini has leveraged its new public capital to deepen partnerships with major banks and investment funds.

Gemini offers not only access to cryptos, but also Tokenized Stocks, On-Chain Equities, a credit card, the stablecoin Gemini dollar (GUSD), and perpetual contracts.

The company also recently received a CFTC license to enter the prediction markets. This puts it alongside other giants of the sector like Kalshi and Polymarket.

Overall, the embracing of blockchain by groups like the WEF is likely going to benefit companies like Gemini, which have embraced the idea of “compliance-first crypto” even when it was not a popular position among crypto enthusiasts.

(You can read more about Gemini in our investment report dedicated to the company.)

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