In the Crypto world, a familiar and powerful force is emerging.
On June 18 at dawn Beijing time, the U.S. Senate passed the GENIUS Act, hailed as a milestone in cryptocurrency payment legislation, with 68 votes in favor and 30 against. This not only means that stablecoins are officially incorporated into the financial regulatory system for the first time through federal law, but also symbolizes that the crypto industry is accelerating towards institutionalization and mainstreaming.
Simultaneously, traditional financial giants and listed companies are moving from "exploratory testing" to "deep embrace": some are publicly incorporating on-chain assets into their financial statements, some are diving into the stablecoin battlefield, and others are building their own on-chain payment channels and financial account systems.
This article will inventory the recent actions of TradFi giants and traditional institutional players in the crypto field, outlining a comprehensive Web3 landscape of the institutional entry era from three perspectives: asset allocation, stablecoin competition, and policy turning points.
01 "MicroStrategy" Trend: Crypto Flowing into Balance Sheets
When it comes to "institutional entry", Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) is almost an unavoidable classic example.
As a super fan of Bitcoin, Strategy first announced purchasing Bitcoin in August 2020 and has since continued to increase its holdings.
As of June 15, 2025, Strategy has purchased 59.21 million Bitcoins at approximately $42 billion, with an average price of around $70,666, leading not only among U.S. listed companies but also ranking among the top Bitcoin holders globally.
This strategy has made Strategy's stock price almost completely tied to Bitcoin, dubbed by the market as a "BTC U.S. stock ETF alternative". More notably, a group of emerging companies are replicating this path, sparking a "Strategy-like model" wave:
SBET (SharpLink Gaming): Transformed from an iGaming marketing platform to an Ethereum native asset allocation platform, receiving investments from top crypto VCs like ParaFi and Pantera, and announcing the "Ethereum Treasury Strategy";
EYEN, DFDV, SRM, etc.: Respectively establishing financial exposure around HYPE, SOL, TRX, becoming "crypto-mapped stocks" sought after by retail markets;
These "Crypto mapped stocks" along with Circle and Coinbase are sparking a "Crypto × TradFi" concept speculation boom in U.S. stocks, reflecting a trend of crypto assets transforming from "speculative assets" to "a part of listed companies' balance sheets".
This also signifies a structural change: digital assets are transitioning from speculative targets to important components of institutional balance sheets, truly beginning to possess "allocation-level" status.
02 New Stablecoin Battlefield: Who Will Print the "Next Dollar"
Another noteworthy institutional trend is traditional financial giants and emerging players crowding to issue stablecoins.
Whether it's USD1 associated with Trump or Circle (USDC) recently listed, as the stablecoin compliance process accelerates, financial and tech giants are competing for the dominance of the "new dollar".
The most direct manifestation is multiple traditional giants entering the field to issue or custody stablecoins in different ways:
As early as 2023, PayPal launched the PYUSD stablecoin and gradually integrated it into its wallet and checkout process;
Recently, JPMorgan Chase, previously hostile to Crypto, officially submitted a trademark registration for "JPMD" stablecoin, revealing intentions to expand settlement capabilities from its private chain to public chains and even international clearing systems;
Visa and Mastercard have been intensively advancing a stablecoin full-process layout from "wallet to merchant" in the past two months, exploring embedding stablecoins into credit card payment systems and constructing a complete on-chain payment path from wallet to merchant settlement;
This naturally takes advantage of the loosening and even encouraging policy environment for compliant stablecoins. It can be said that the stablecoin competition has shifted from native crypto projects to the traditional financial giants' table.
Moreover, benefiting from the inherent advantages of stablecoins in cross-border trade and settlement, some non-financial giants are also exploring stablecoins. For example,retail giants Walmart and Amazon are rumored to be researching stablecoin issuance, potentially helping them bypass traditional payment networks and save billions in fees.
And the recently reported JD stablecoin, expected to obtain a license by the end of 2025 and simultaneously launch, with the first batch potentially pegged to both Hong Kong and U.S. dollars, has drawn significant attention as a Chinese e-commerce giant's move in the stablecoin field. This is not just a company-level technical layout, but a deep transformation of international trade and supply chain finance.
From this perspective,in the next few years, stablecoins may replay the rise of credit card networks - first paved by giants, then supported by policies, and finally landing as a standard in payments.
