Q2 2026 Digital Asset Review

This summary was created based on CoinDesk Research’s latest report; Digital Assets: Quarterly Review and Outlook, Featuring CoinDesk 5 and CoinDesk 20.

– Joshua de Vos, Research Lead, CoinDesk

Ask an Expert

Q: Is Asia advancing via tokenization and stablecoins rather than spot bitcoin ETFs?

Institutional adoption in Asia is shifting from exploratory pilots to targeted deployment, with tokenization of real-world asset and regulatory stablecoin acting as key entry points for bank and asset managers. Jurisdictions like Hong Kong have introduced comprehensive legislation such as the Stablecoins Ordinance. Requiring full reserve backing, redemption rights and risk controls to make tokenization activity compatible with existing prudential frameworks. Against that backdrop, pure bitcoin ETF plays a smaller strategic role than in North America and Europe.

Q: Are bitcoin ETFs adding income features like other non-traditional ETFs?

The growth of deep, liquid options markets on regulated bitcoin ETFs gives structured product issuers a reliable exchange-traded tool for income and hedging strategies. This is why covered call, buffered and other derivatives-based approaches are being used to generate income from bitcoin ETFs, which do not pay cash distributions or dividends.

Q: How much more capital could flow into bitcoin ETPs from institutions?

The more capital an asset can reasonably attract, the bigger its pool of potential buyers who follow fixed rules like pension plans, retirement accounts and institutional allocators. Right now, retirement systems are the largest pool of this kind of money that still has not meaningfully slowed into bitcoin ETFs. Just a 1% allocation from the $22 trillion US 401(k) and Defined Contribution system would generate $90-$130 billion of inflows, roughly matching the size of the current bitcoin ETF market size.