CoinSpotMarket Update
Institutional Adoption Accelerates As Crypto Enters 'New Era'
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JPMorgan plans to let certain institutional clients pledge Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) as collateral for loans by year-end, according to reports. The programme would use third-party custody and extend the bank’s earlier move to accept spot crypto ETF shares as collateral, signalling deeper integration of digital assets into mainstream lending.
To date, the use of cryptocurrency as collateral for lending has been extremely limited. With banks as large as JPMorgan now looking to get involved, it serves as yet another reminder of how rapidly institutional adoption is growing in 2025, with other leading firms such as Morgan Stanley and Fidelity also reportedly looking to deepen their crypto offerings.
a16z published its annual State of Crypto report, contending that crypto has moved beyond speculation towards utility. In particular, the investment firm covered how stablecoins are scaling payments. Among the other talking points in the report, a16z highlighted accelerating institutional crypto adoption, improving policy clarity, and increased mainstream distribution via fintechs and exchange-traded funds (ETFs).
In terms of stablecoin adoption, a16z highlighted SEC filings mentioning stablecoins have exploded from 25–50 per month to over 300 in the past three months, indicating that announcements are likely to continue for some time.
Stablecoin-related mentions in SEC filings over time (Source: a16z)
The Bitwise Solana Staking ETF (BSOL), the first of its kind, launched this week. What made this launch particularly notable is that the ETF is the first in the U.S. to offer direct exposure to SOL with built-in staking rewards of approximately 7%.
According to Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas, Bitwise’s ETF achieved $85M ($56M USD) in trading volume on its debut day, surpassing around 850 other ETF launches this year, including notable ones like the REX Osprey XRP ETF, which did $53M ($35M USD) in day-one volume.
Speaking of Solana, Western Union, the world’s largest money transfer business, announced plans “to launch U.S. Dollar Payment Token (USDPT), its new stablecoin, and an innovative Digital Asset Network designed to bridge the digital and fiat worlds, enabling real-world utility for digital assets.”
This decision to build USDPT, which is expected to go live in the first half of next year, is largely motivated by the goal of reducing remittance costs, speeding up transfers, and improving settlement efficiency and transparency.
The announcement marks the latest of several recent stablecoin-related announcements by household names in traditional finance and payments.
Outlined in a new report, Visa proposes providing the data, custody and compliance layers for banks to originate and service onchain credit. The company positions lending as the natural next phase after payments, as tokenised collateral and stablecoin liquidity deepen.
Visa argues institutional adoption depends on permissioned interfaces, robust KYC and enterprise-grade risk tooling. It highlights maturing protocol design and sees room for banks to plug into public chains with stronger fraud controls, recourse and underwriting data to scale responsibly.
Additionally, on Wednesday, Visa CEO Ryan McInerney confirmed the company is working on adding support for four stablecoins across four different blockchains, enabling conversions to over 25 fiat currencies. Speaking on Visa’s quarterly earnings call, McInerney also highlighted that "in Q4, stablecoin-linked Visa card spend quadrupled versus a year ago."
