financialization

The founder of Strategy, Michael Saylor, stated that Bitcoin is gradually transitioning from an early "peer-to-peer electronic cash" experiment to a global digital capital infrastructure. As Bitcoin is widely adopted by individuals, funds, publicly listed companies, banks, custodians, trading platforms, and governments, some of the early Bitcoin culture has evolved from a risk defense mechanism into a form of "orthodoxy," which includes viewing self-custody as the only legitimate way to hold Bitcoin and categorizing financial products related to Bitcoin, such as ETFs, bonds, preferred stocks, and derivatives, as "paper Bitcoin." These views played an important role in the early development of Bitcoin, but are now insufficient to explain its expanding economic ecosystem.The more important role of Bitcoin in the future may not be to replace fiat currency as a daily payment tool, but rather to become a scarce, globally liquid, programmable "digital capital" that does not rely on an issuer. Fiat currency will still play a core role in taxes, wages, contracts, and everyday business, while Bitcoin can form a new layered financial system with banks, securities, credit, insurance, and corporations. Self-custody should be viewed as a right rather than an obligation, and professional custody, multi-signature, institutional custody, and trading platform products can all play a role based on different users' risk tolerance and actual needs. What truly needs to be vigilant is not all counterparties, but those counterparties lacking transparency, isolation mechanisms, governance capabilities, and risk control; "do not trust any institution" should shift to risk identification of different institutions.The next phase of the Bitcoin ecosystem will be the expansion of the "digital capital market," rather than a return to a closed pure Bitcoin economy. With the continuous development of spot Bitcoin ETFs, publicly listed companies' Bitcoin reserves, bonds, preferred stocks, and other financial products, Bitcoin is becoming a new underlying asset that connects stocks, debt, credit, currency, derivatives, and even the machine economy. This trend can be termed the "Bitcoin Reformation," with core principles including "protocol minimalism, economic maximization," "replacing founder worship with first principles," "self-custody as a right rather than a ritual," "judging security by evidence rather than brand," "replacing counterparty nihilism with counterparty identification," and allowing fiat currency and Bitcoin to coexist in the long term. Bitcoin is not abandoning its early core principles but is breaking free from its cultural limitations: it is transitioning from electronic cash to digital gold and further becoming a digital capital network that encompasses capital, credit, equity, debt, currency, and the machine economy.

According to The Information, informed sources reveal that Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan are exploring trading methods based on the cost of computing power, including futures contracts related to GPU leasing prices.As one of the scarcest resources in the AI boom, related futures are expected to be listed by exchanges later this year. Industry insiders say this initiative demonstrates that hundreds of billions of dollars flowing into data centers and the chip sector are reshaping the financial market landscape. For banks providing financing for AI infrastructure construction, such innovative tools may become new means of managing risk.

Chief Economist Fu Peng of New Fire Group delivered a speech at the 2026 Hong Kong Institutional Digital Wealth Management Summit, stating that the integration of traditional financial institutions and the cryptocurrency market will herald the arrival of a new era in the market. The participants who will truly succeed in the future are those who can quickly complete their transformation at critical turning points.Fu Peng cited the Cold War, oil crisis, and the simultaneous rise of computer and semiconductor technology in the 1970s and 1980s as examples, pointing out that technological advancements and global order turmoil often go hand in hand, with risks and opportunities always accompanying each other. He believes that AI and data computing power are now widely recognized as the core productive forces of the next era, indicating that the first half of the cryptocurrency industry has essentially ended, and the industry is at a critical stage of reconstruction and rebirth.Looking ahead, Fu Peng predicts that stablecoins will take on payment functions, Bitcoin will evolve into a core asset with both value storage and financial transaction attributes, and a brand new chapter of the era is about to begin.

Bitwise Chief Investment Officer Matt Hougan stated in the ETF Edge program that the recent decline in Bitcoin is not caused by a single factor, with the four-year cycle being a major downward catalyst. Matt Hougan pointed out that investors have recently favored assets like gold and AI stocks over cryptocurrencies. Additionally, the market is also affected by quantum risks and concerns regarding Kevin Warsh.Despite Bitcoin's price briefly falling below $61,000, reaching a nearly 16-month low, Matt Hougan believes that the financialization process of Bitcoin has not changed its supply scarcity. Currently, Bitwise manages over $15 billion in assets, and its Bitwise Solana Staking ETF has dropped about 57% since its launch last October.

ChainCatcher news, Matrixport released daily charts, indicating that the current actual volatility of Bitcoin is relatively low compared to the bull markets of 2020/2021. This may be due to the rise of high-volatility alternative assets (such as meme coins) or the gradual replacement of more volatile retail traders by institutional investors, who are becoming the dominant force in the market.Currently, Bitcoin spot ETF options have officially launched, providing a new window for observing market dynamics. Against the backdrop of Bitcoin's 30-day actual volatility being at a moderate level, traders may push up implied volatility by buying call options or profit from attractive volatility premiums by selling options.The addition of an active options market is another important milestone for Bitcoin's financialization, expected to enhance market liquidity and attract more participation from professional investors.

Chain Catcher news, at the 2022 Service Trade Fair "World Frontier Technology Conference - Metaverse and Digital Economy Forum", the "Digital Collectibles Compliance Evaluation Standards" (group standard) was officially released. This "Standard" regulates the definition, compliant issuance, and circulation of digital collectibles from the source. At the same time, the "Standard" also clearly states that the circulation of digital collectibles is limited to intended purposes and cannot engage in speculation, money laundering, tokenization, financialization, securitization, or illegal trading in public or private.In addition, this "Standard" provides an accurate definition of digital collectibles based on existing national laws and regulations, and states that domestically issued digital collectibles generally refer to a type of limited edition virtual cultural goods, including digital forms of images, music, videos, 3D models, etc. It records the processes of issuance, purchase, and use through blockchain technology, giving it characteristics of uniqueness, non-replicability, non-tampering, and permanent proof, also known as "digital artworks" or "virtual digital goods". At this stage, a more accurate definition of digital collectibles is "digital collectibles are a new form of digital publications." (source link)