Why Wall Street Is Finally Buying Into Crypto
Summary We talk through institutional adoption, recent Bitcoin volatility, and why long-term development in digital assets keeps moving forward...even during sharp pullbacks. Ophelia explains how crypto ETFs are changing access for investors, why distribution still matters, and why we’re still early in the “ETF-ification” of the crypto market. We also dig into the rise of stablecoins, the impact of new US legislation, and what tokenization could mean for payments, investing, and financial infrastructure. It’s a practical, forward-looking conversation about access, regulation, and how digital assets are moving from the fringes to the core of global finance. By Mike Larson At the 2026 MoneyShow Las Vegas, I sat down with Ophelia Snyder, co-founder of 21Shares, and Andrew McCormick, head of eToro US, to break down what’s really happening in crypto — and where the industry is headed next. Transcript Mike Larson: Hi there. I'm Mike Larson, Editor in Chief with MoneyShow, and I'm coming to you from the MoneyShow Las Vegas. Today, I'm speaking with Ophelia Snyder, co-Founder of 21Shares; and Andrew McCormick, Head of eToro U.S. Thank you so much for taking some time out to chat. Andrew McCormick: My pleasure. Ophelia Snyder: Thanks for having us. Mike Larson: Yeah. It's been great. I mean, it was wall-to-wall in here. People were really engaged with the information that you had to share and so where we are in this crypto universe, I guess, for lack of a better word. So, Andrew, why don't we start with you? Talk a little bit about some of the developments you're seeing, some of the volatility we've seen recently, and what thoughts you share with the audience here? Andrew McCormick: Yeah. It's an incredible time. It's an exciting time. There's never any boredom in the world of crypto. This year and last year is all about institutions plowing into the space. And as I shared during a panel earlier, I've been in this space for about nine years, and I was actually on Wall Street talking about crypto, and people thought I was crazy. What are you talking about? We can't touch this space. Is it legal? What does it mean? And now these same firms are investing in the space billions and billions. They're on Capitol Hill trying to develop a framework, and it's exciting. And we've seen about 50% or so decrease in price in Bitcoin ( BTC-USD ) in the past few months, right? But I've lived through quite a few of those drops and if you zoom out and you think, okay, our drop now is to 67,000. A few years ago, the drop was 13. A few years ago, the drop was 3,000. And so, markets go up, markets go down, but trajectory of the space, not just price, but development and real-world applications, it's going up and it's exciting to be on the ride. Mike Larson: Got it. Ophelia, you come from the world of the ETF, ETF-ication, I guess, of the crypto world. How is that progressing? What are your thoughts on what that means for investors in terms of accessing the crypto world these days? Ophelia Snyder: So, I think something people really forget is how broadly inaccessible crypto has been historically and, in large part, still is. So, previously, if you wanted to invest in crypto, you were talking about setting up specialized infrastructure where you needed to do everything from figure out how to pay your taxes to how you were going to do your estate planning to how you were going to actually safely store those assets on your own. And it didn't really intersect in any meaningful way with the rest of your financial life. Mike Larson: Yeah. Ophelia Snyder: The arrival of ETFs in the U.S., which is only a couple of years old, but in Europe, it happened several years earlier, all the way back to 2018, changed that. And it basically made it so that you could hold crypto alongside all your other stocks and bonds using infrastructure that you already had. Now, that all sounds great, except for, in reality, most banks and brokerages still didn't allow you to actually execute those trades. So, forget about whether they were going to give you advice or whether it was going to be in a model portfolio of theirs or whether it was going to be something they would recommend to you, half of the time they wouldn't even let you execute the trade. So, we've come a very long way in terms of access, not just the binary of does an ETF exist, which is important on its own, yes, but that all of the distribution rails and the ability to actually deliver that value to the end investor are working. And we’re still really early in that process. You're mostly still not seeing discretionary mandates. You're seeing very limited inclusion in model portfolios. You're seeing very limited inclusion in multi-asset strategies. You're seeing very little exposure to things like pension plans or the very high-end, the large institutional players. So, we're still quite early in this even though we've come a long way. I think that's sometimes a story that gets lost when you think about the ETF-ication of the crypto market. Mike Larson: Alright. Andrew, I want to ask you about stablecoins and the explosion we've seen there and what that allows for investors to do to stay in the crypto universe and do less transferring in and out. Right? I mean, what is the impact of that on this industry? Andrew McCormick: Well, I think first thing it started with legislation. So, after years of talking about legislations in crypto space, we got the GENIUS Act this summer, and within weeks, you have so many companies jumping into the space from the banks to Western Union to small local credit unions, everyone trying to get into the space. And I think it's a great first start, like, you're essentially tokenizing U.S. dollar. Right? That's something that everyone understands. There's actual use cases there for, especially people outside the U.S. who see their own local currency go through huge booms and busts, and how do you live life and pay bills using that? They want dollars, and to get actual hard dollars are impossible, and to get dollars sent to you through traditional methods can be crazy expensive. So, tokenized dollars in the form of stablecoins helps that. eToro, we have a unique perspective. We operate in 75 countries, and every single day we're moving millions of dollars through different jurisdictions, and those little fees here and there quickly add up. So, even from a corporate perspective, stablecoins offer a tremendous use case. And I think that's why it's so important that we get good legislation for crypto market structure with the Clarity Act or whatever it eventually will be called, and I think we'll see that same investment, same infrastructure building out, and so, I'm optimistic. Mike Larson: Alright. While we're on the subject of tokenization, I mean, we had people talking about tokenized real estate, tokenized art, all kinds of other different asset classes. What impact do you think that'll have? How do you see that evolving? And that's for whomever wants it, I guess. Ophelia Snyder: So, my perspective on the future of tokenization is, maybe a little boring, which is, I think most people will end up using tokenized or otherwise on-chain products, whether it's stablecoins or tokenized real estate, and people are really excited about using that for, like, the management of deeds. I think there's a lot of excitement around things like gold. There's a lot of excitement around putting stocks and bonds on-chain. I think everyone is going to end up using these things. I think most consumers will experience that in two ways. Mostly invisibly. Mike Larson: Okay. Ophelia Snyder: Mostly people will use this stuff and have no idea and will act as if your bank has decided to do a database update and you've gone from one type of database to another in a normal environment. You might not even know that's happening. I think the place where you're going to see more noticeable differences are increases in liquidity and in the ability to transact in certain types of products and speed of that liquidity. So, you're going to see shorter settlement times, which matters quite a bit for larger institutional investors. So, the ability to move capital through systems faster. I think you're going to also see a reduction in cost associated with that, similar to what you were saying about cross-border payments. And I think those are the main areas you're going to see improvements. You're going to see things happening faster and cheaper and largely invisibly. Mike Larson: Okay. Is there anything else that we haven't talked about yet that you're really excited about in this space? I mean, any developments, projects, particular networks, and so on. I guess I'd throw it to you first, Andrew. Andrew McCormick: Yes. I have a lot of friends who are building cool stuff, and so, it's exciting to see what's happening. And I think I'm a true believer in this space. I think this is not just about investing, but this is building a better, more efficient, fair world for us, for future generations. So, I'm constantly excited. I think marrying that with actual rules and infrastructure is going to be important. And I'm a big tent person, so I'm not – when the big banks want to come into the space, like, that's great. Let's build this ecosystem. Most importantly, though, I'm excited about the legislation. So, I hope it happens. I've been telling my peers and co-workers since 2017 that DC is going to pass crypto legislation soon. We've been wrong for, like, eight years. Hopefully, this year is… Ophelia Snyder: This is the year. Andrew McCormick: This is the year. Said that last year and the year before, but this is the year. Mike Larson: This is the year. Ophelia Snyder: I agree with you. I think this is the year. But I'm excited about, you're finally seeing for the first time some of the people who really provide, like, infrastructure and rails for how the global financial system works actually run not just, like, walled garden proof of concepts that are basically just engineering projects, but you're actually starting to see them run real regulatory-approved structured plans to migrate large critical pieces of infrastructure on-chain. And that is the first time we've ever seen anything like that. You've seen little POCs, you've seen little projects, you've seen like consortium plays that people come together and do stuff, maybe with a technology provider who's doing something, but we've never seen this level of consistent rollout of projects and the level of ambition of those projects by such a variety of firms, specifically where it applies to financial infrastructure. And it's like the beginning of that shift towards really bringing crypto and digital assets from being a fringe technology to being core financial infrastructure globally. And I'm really excited about that. I think that's going to be the next five years in this space. Mike Larson: Got it. Well, Ophelia, Andrew, I appreciate you taking some time out here. I know you had a lot of questions from the audience. Great to have you here at MoneyShow and can't wait to see you again. Ophelia Snyder: Thank you. Andrew McCormick: Likewise. Thank you. Mike Larson: Take care. Originally published on MoneyShow.com Editor's Note: The summary bullets for this article were chosen by Seeking Alpha editors.