Crypto made a comeback in 2025 – this time with banks testing the waters
- Crypto’s resurgence and regulatory clarity in 2025 prompted a handful of banks to experiment in the space rather than sit on the sidelines.
- This piece looks at what that early engagement may foreshadow for institutional money movement in 2026.
On a cold Monday evening in December 2025, a corporate treasurer walked into a standing meeting with a request: “Can we settle this cross-border payment tonight instead of tomorrow?”
In any other year preceding 2025, the answer would’ve been a polite laugh. Settlement calendars have been carved into the industry’s muscle memory for decades: markets open, markets close, and money moves when the banking system says so. But in 2025, something structurally significant had changed.
The treasurer wasn’t asking for a miracle. She was asking for a stablecoin settlement.
And the response wasn’t a laugh. It was a yes.
In the blur of AI news cycles and political discourse throughout 2025, crypto staged a comeback; not in meme tokens or speculative blow-ups, but as experimental infrastructure for treasury, payments, and cash flow.
In this piece, we examine how a small but growing group of banks began engaging more actively with crypto following its resurgence – and what that shift may signal for the future of institutional money movement.
By the end of 2025, three narratives had come together:
- Banks are issuing deposit tokens and have begun settling on public blockchains
- Stablecoins have a regulatory framework under the GENIUS Act
- Treasurers began using tokenized instruments for real settlement, liquidity management, and global payments
These developments signal crypto maturation toward a more controlled, mainstream, institution-friendly phase, even if adoption remains uneven and early.
