WisdomTree CEO Jonathan Steinberg believes that Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies are close to “mainstream” adoption and will achieve that status within the next few years.
Steinberg expressed his confidence in a July 29 interview with CNBC, citing regulatory clarity, the emergence of exchange-traded crypto funds, and the tokenization of real-world assets (RWA) as the main catalysts for this trend.
Regulatory clarification
During the interview, Steinberg emphasized the importance of former President Donald J. Trump's speech at the Bitcoin 2024 conference on July 27 and the ripple effects it will have on the industry in the long term.
According to the WisdomTree CEO, President Trump's ambitious promise to provide regulatory clarity on cryptocurrencies and digital assets marks a pivotal moment for the industry, adding that such a regulatory framework would have a very positive impact on both cryptocurrencies as an asset class and blockchain-powered finance as a whole.
Steinberg said:
“[Trump]couldn’t have spoken more ambitiously about what he would do with cryptocurrencies and Bitcoin as an asset class.”
He also emphasized that Bitcoin has been the best-performing asset class over the past 15 years and will continue to outperform the market and see further adoption as it gains regulatory approval.
Steinberg believes Bitcoin is the natural evolution of money, similar to how smartphones replaced landlines, and predicts that digital assets will eventually dominate transactions.
He added:
“In the world of money, we have gold and then paper money, but we are moving towards programmable money, which will revolutionise financial services in far-reaching ways.”
Real World Assets
Steinberg also emphasized that the discussion around cryptocurrencies has expanded beyond core assets like Bitcoin and Ethereum to a broader range of tokenized real-world assets:
He explained:
“Cryptocurrency is an asset class, and then there's the broader tokenization of all real-world assets. We think all of these are converging.”
Steinberg noted that traditional financial institutions have already entered the RWA market, citing examples such as BlackRock's BUIDL and Franklin Templeton's FOBXX, while Wall Street giant Goldman Sachs is also set to launch three new tokenized products for institutional investors later this year.
The RWA market is projected to reach $2 trillion by 2030, according to McKinsey & Company. But the firm also said the sector faces “cold start” issues, mainly due to liquidity and transaction volume limitations.
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