Global digital asset markets saw a distinct change in capital behavior throughout 2025. While JPMorgan data tracks nearly $130 billion in inflows for the year, the capital allocation did not follow the pattern of previous bull cycles. Liquidity refused to trickle down into broader speculative markets. Instead, flows remained stubbornly concentrated in major caps like Bitcoin and Ethereum, a trend driven by institutional allocators for whom regulatory clarity is a mandate, not a preference.

We see this maturity in the hard numbers. Binance recorded a 21% year-on-year jump in institutional trading volume in 2025, beating out retail growth trends. Large-scale market participants have moved past simply asking for regulation; they now treat…