Deng Tong, Jinse Finance
By 2025, the cryptocurrency industry will see clearer regulations, deeper penetration by traditional finance, and accelerated technological iteration. Each key juncture will be marked by key figures who will either guide policy direction, lead institutions into the market, tackle technical challenges, or disrupt the market.
What crypto moves will traditional giants like BlackRock, JPMorgan Chase, Visa, and Mastercard make in 2025?
I. BlackRock: Strongly recommends ETFs and is bullish on RWA
BlackRock will strategically advance its crypto asset and tokenization strategy throughout 2025, including expanding its ETF series and researching asset tokenization.
1. Strongly promote ETFs
In early 2025, BlackRock will make Bitcoin one of its core investment themes for the year, emphasizing its "long-term investment value" and continuing to promote the adoption of its iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) ETF among institutional investors.
On February 26, BlackRock transferred approximately 1,800 bitcoins (about $160 million) to Coinbase Prime custody. This on-chain transfer attracted market attention.
In the first half of 2025, BlackRock's portfolio grew by $23.91 billion, from $54.77 billion on January 1 to $78.67 billion on June 30. Of this, Bitcoin contributed $23.3 billion and Ethereum contributed $678.9 million.
According to Finbold's "Cryptocurrency Market Report Q3 2025," BlackRock's cryptocurrency portfolio surged by $22.46 billion in Q3 2025, driven by unprecedented inflows into Ethereum. Finbold's report notes that BlackRock accelerated its aggressive deployment of digital assets in Q3 2025. Between July 1 and September 30, BlackRock's on-chain cryptocurrency holdings increased from $79.63 billion to $102.09 billion, a 28.2% quarter-over-quarter increase. This shift marks the first time Ethereum has surpassed Bitcoin in BlackRock's quarterly portfolio growth.
As of 2025, IBIT ranked sixth among all ETFs with over $25 billion in inflows. Among the top 25 funds by inflow, Vanguard's S&P 500 ETF (VOO) ranked first with $145 billion in inflows, while iShares S&P 100 ETF (OEF) ranked 25th with $10 billion in inflows.
2. Bullish on RWA
BlackRock executives have repeatedly stated publicly that asset tokenization is a key trend in the next financial revolution, reflecting their optimism about incorporating traditional assets into on-chain formats in the medium to long term. BlackRock CEO Larry Fink firmly believes that the next major transformation in global finance will come from the tokenization of traditional assets, including stocks, bonds, and real estate. BlackRock views tokenization as an opportunity to bring new investors into mainstream financial products through digital means.
For more details, please see "BlackRock: How Tokenization Will Change Finance".
II. JPMorgan Chase: Issuing JPMD, Entering the Public Blockchain Market, CEO's Dramatic Reversal of Attitude
The CEO of JPMorgan Chase previously held a strong critical stance on cryptocurrencies, essentially denying their value and attacking their illegal uses. His stance only softened in 2025. JPMorgan Chase itself also made significant strides towards public blockchain development in 2025.
1. Issuance of JPMD
In June, Kinexys, JPMorgan Chase's blockchain business, piloted the issuance of JPMD, bringing institutional finance on-chain and marking a significant step in the development of digital currencies. JPMD is a permissioned USD deposit token used for real-time institutional payments on Base (an Ethereum Layer 2 blockchain built within Coinbase). JPMD aims to support near-real-time peer-to-peer transfers between Base wallets, enabling institutional clients to transfer funds flexibly, securely, and efficiently with minimal latency. By reducing transaction friction, clients will be able to improve operational efficiency and support real-time financial decision-making.
2. Entering the public blockchain market
On July 30, JPMorgan Chase and Coinbase, the largest crypto exchage in the United States, announced a strategic partnership. The partnership includes allowing Chase Bank users to directly link their bank accounts to Coinbase for cryptocurrency transactions, providing users with a more convenient way to buy and trade cryptocurrencies. This represents a significant bridge between JPMorgan Chase's financial services and a mainstream cryptocurrency trading platform.
On November 12, JPMorgan Chase began launching a deposit token called JPM Coin to institutional clients, marking a step in the financial institution's continued expansion of its digital asset business. On December 18, JPMorgan Chase deployed JPM Coin to Coinbase's Base blockchain, signifying the Wall Street giant's first large-scale integration into a public blockchain ecosystem.
On December 15, JPMorgan Chase officially launched its first tokenized money market fund, the "My OnChain Net Yield Fund" (MONY). This private fund will operate on the Ethereum blockchain and is open to accredited investors. JPMorgan Chase will inject $100 million of its own capital into the fund as seed funding.
3. CEO's attitude reversed dramatically.
JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon was once a staunch critic of cryptocurrencies. In September 2017, Dimon publicly called Bitcoin a "fraud," warning company traders that they would be fired if they traded Bitcoin, linking it to a Ponzi scheme and speculative bubble, and deeming investors foolish. However, this October, Dimon publicly acknowledged that cryptocurrencies, blockchain, and stablecoins are "real and will be widely adopted," and plans to allow institutional clients to use Bitcoin and Ethereum as collateral for loans (in third-party custody) by the end of 2025.
III. Visa: Seizing the Stablecoin Opportunity
For Visa, 2025 is a crucial year for seizing the opportunities presented by stablecoins.
Cuy Sheffield, head of Visa's cryptocurrency business, has stated that he is not worried about the rise of stablecoins posing a risk to traditional payment companies, even though stablecoins offer consumers a new payment method without credit cards. The payment giant sees the rise of stablecoins as an opportunity. Sheffield points out that stablecoins don't solve many problems in retail payments because data shows that the majority of stablecoin transaction volume comes from high-value transfers rather than retail transactions. He adds that the opportunity for stablecoins lies primarily in emerging market-centric economies outside the US, where there is demand for US dollars but limited access to them.
On May 1st, Baanx partnered with Visa to launch a stablecoin payment card linked to a self-custodied wallet, initially supporting USDC issued by Circle. This card allows cardholders to spend USDC directly from their crypto wallets. A smart contract transfers the USDC balance to Baanx in real-time upon authorization, where it is then converted into fiat currency to complete the payment.
On October 28, Visa announced plans to support multiple stablecoins. Visa CEO Ryan McInerney stated during the Q4 earnings call, "We are adding support for four new stablecoins that run on four distinct blockchains and correspond to two currencies; we can receive these stablecoins and exchange them for more than 25 traditional fiat currencies."
On November 12, Visa announced the official launch of its stablecoin payment pilot program, allowing creators, freelancers, and businesses to receive payments directly in USDC issued by Circle through Visa Direct, enabling instant cross-border settlements. Visa stated that during the pilot phase, businesses can initiate payments in fiat currency within the United States, while recipients can choose to receive USDC directly, with funds arriving within minutes. This will provide convenience for users in regions with currency volatility or limited bank access.
On December 16, Visa began supporting US financial institutions to use USDC on Solana for transaction settlement, with Cross River Bank and Lead Bank being the first institutions to use the service. As a partner of the Circle Arc blockchain, Visa will also provide support after Arc launches.
Visa believes that stablecoins have the potential to drive traditional financial institutions to migrate a portion of the $40 trillion global credit market to a blockchain-based programmable system, thereby transforming the credit landscape. Banks and financial institutions should understand how programmable money can reshape the credit market in order to seize the potential opportunities.
IV. PayPal: Seizing the Stablecoin Opportunity
On August 7, 2023, PayPal's stablecoin PYUSD was officially launched. For PayPal, 2025 is the year to implement PYUSD in more application scenarios.
In early February, PayPal announced plans to increase adoption of its stablecoin PYUSD by 2025, launching a bill payment product that will allow its more than 20 million small and medium-sized merchants to use PYUSD to pay suppliers. Additionally, PayPal plans to add PYUSD as an option for global payments via Hyperwallet, a business that helps organizations send bulk payments to contractors, freelancers, or sellers around the world. PayPal CEO Alex Chriss stated: "We've been talking about blockchain for a decade—the concepts of these things never become a reality until you actually start consuming them. I think that's what we've achieved."
On April 24, Coinbase expanded its partnership with PayPal to accelerate the adoption, distribution, and use of PayPal's USD stablecoin (PYUSD). Coinbase enhances PYUSD's utility by enabling a 1:1 exchange rate between PYUSD and the US dollar through its custody and trading platform, and will explore new on-chain use cases for PYUSD.
On April 29, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) terminated its investigation into the dollar-denominated stablecoin PYUSD and will not take enforcement action. This removes regulatory uncertainty surrounding PYUSD.
On September 19, PayPal announced that its USD stablecoin PYUSD has been expanded to nine new blockchains via the LayerZero cross-chain protocol: Abstract, Aptos, Avalanche, Ink, Sei, Stable, Tron, and the automatically integrated Berachain and Flow.
On September 22, PayPal made a strategic investment in Stablechain, enabling users to conduct business and financial transactions using PayPal USD (PYUSD) on Stablechain. On December 18, PYUSD officially launched on the Stablechain mainnet.
V. Mastercard: Seizing the Stablecoin Opportunity
2025 will be a pivotal year for Mastercard, marking its transition from the experimental phase to providing practical encryption solutions.
On April 9th, Kraken announced a partnership with Mastercard to launch a crypto debit card. Kraken will launch physical and digital debit cards for everyday transactions using cryptocurrencies and stablecoins. On April 29th, Mastercard partnered with OKX to launch the "OKX Card".
On April 29, Mastercard pushed for allowing consumers to use stablecoins for purchases and merchants to accept stablecoin payments. "Mastercard is providing a comprehensive 360-degree solution that makes stablecoins as easy for consumers and businesses to use as currency in their bank accounts."
On October 19, Mastercard filed a trademark application for "virtual asset payment processing".
On November 5th, Mastercard partnered with Ripple and Gemini to explore the use of the RLUSD stablecoin on the XRPL blockchain to settle traditional card transactions. This collaboration marks one of the first instances of a regulated U.S. bank using a public blockchain and a regulated stablecoin to settle traditional card transactions.
On December 16, Mastercard partnered with the Abu Dhabi ADI Foundation to promote stablecoin settlement, stablecoin payment cards, and asset tokenization in the Middle East. NEO PAY (UAE) and INFINIOS (Bahrain) also joined its stablecoin settlement program.
VI. Goldman Sachs: Deploying Stablecoins and Focusing on ETFs
On April 30th, Mathew McDermott, Head of Digital Assets at Goldman Sachs, stated that clearer regulations will make it easier for large institutions to deploy capital in the cryptocurrency space, driving its scaling. Goldman Sachs will expand its digital asset trading activities, explore crypto lending, and heavily invest in tokenization. With a growing number of Goldman Sachs clients eager to participate more actively in digital asset trading, Goldman Sachs will focus on business implementation and hopes to obtain various regulatory approvals.
1. Deploying stablecoins
On October 10, Reuters reported that several global banks are collaborating on a joint stablecoin initiative, including Santander, Bank of America, Barclays, BNP Paribas, Citi, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, TD Bank, and UBS.
On October 11, a group of banks, including Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank, and Citigroup, explored issuing stablecoins pegged to major G7 currencies (US dollar, euro, Japanese yen, etc.). The project aims to issue a 1:1 reserve-backed digital currency, providing stable payment assets on a public blockchain while adhering to regulatory requirements and best risk management practices. This move seeks to explore the competitive advantages of digital assets in the market.
2. Focus on ETFs
On December 2, Goldman Sachs agreed to acquire Innovator Capital Management for approximately $2 billion, adding the firm, which issues "defined income" exchange-traded funds (ETFs), to its asset management portfolio, including a Bitcoin structured fund. The transaction is expected to close in the second quarter of 2026, adding approximately $28 billion in regulated assets to Goldman Sachs' asset management division.
7. Citibank: Developing stablecoins and exploring crypto custody
In its 2025 Digital Asset Report, Citigroup stated that the size of tokenized assets could reach $4-5 trillion by 2030, with stablecoins and tokenized deposits becoming the core drivers. Citigroup believes that blockchain will not replace banks, but rather become a new "settlement layer" for banks.
1. Deploying stablecoins
On July 16, Citigroup CEO Jane Fraser stated that Citigroup is exploring the possibility of issuing stablecoins.
On October 11, Citigroup joined a group of European banks working to develop a stablecoin for the euro.
On October 27, Citigroup and Coinbase announced a partnership to explore stablecoin payment solutions for institutional clients. The collaboration reportedly aims to leverage stablecoins to enhance cross-border and corporate payment systems and improve transaction efficiency.
2. Explore encrypted hosting
In February of this year, Bloomberg reported that Citigroup would explore cryptocurrency custody services.
On October 14th, a report indicated that Citibank is planning to launch a crypto asset custody service in 2026, according to a senior executive in an interview. As Wall Street giants continue to expand their presence in the digital currency field, Citibank's move demonstrates that traditional financial institutions are accelerating their entry into this sector. Biswarup Chatterjee, Global Head of Partnerships and Innovation at Citibank Services, stated that the bank has been developing a crypto custody service for the past two to three years and has made substantial progress. "We are exploring multiple avenues. We hope to launch a trusted custody solution for our asset management clients and other institutional clients in the coming quarters."
8. Google: Blockchain as the cornerstone of AI, enhancing stablecoin compatibility
AI + blockchain and traditional payments + stablecoins are Google's two major focuses in the crypto space in 2025.
1. Blockchain becomes the cornerstone of artificial intelligence agents
On August 31, Ethereum and Google developers jointly proposed a new initiative to make blockchain the cornerstone of an AI-driven agent economy. While tech giants like Google and Amazon are betting on AI agents, Ethereum developers believe their blockchain has unique advantages in supporting this new machine economy. Ethereum core developer Davide Crapis has proposed the ERC-8004 standard, designed to enable mutual discovery, verification, and transactions between AI agents. Supporters argue that Ethereum's payment channels, digital identity tools, and scalable multi-tiered architecture make it the most efficient infrastructure for an AI-driven economy.
2. Enhance stablecoin compatibility
On September 16, Google released a new open-source payment protocol. This solution aims to make it easier for various AI applications to send and receive funds. It supports not only more traditional payment methods such as credit and debit cards, but also stablecoins. To enhance compatibility with stablecoins, Google partnered with cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, which has built its own AI and cryptocurrency payment solution. In addition, Google has also partnered with other cryptocurrency companies, including the Ethereum Foundation. It is reported that Google also consulted with more than 60 organizations, including Salesforce, American Express, and Etsy, to develop other elements of the new payment protocol.
9. SBI: Entering the stablecoin and tokenized stock markets
1. Entering the stablecoin market
On March 4, SBI VC Trade announced that it had completed its first registration for trading Japanese stablecoins. Following approval, it began processing USDC transactions on March 12. The company will be able to offer USDC buying, selling, and deposit/withdrawal services to individual and corporate clients, and will be required to safeguard USD collateral equivalent to or exceeding the amount of USDC deposited by clients. SBI Group's Shinsei Trust Bank will act as the trust guarantor.
On August 22, Ripple partnered with Japan's SBI Group to launch its stablecoin RLUSD in Japan in the first quarter of 2026.
On December 16, Japanese blockchain infrastructure company Startale Group and Japanese financial group SBI Holdings announced plans to launch a fully regulated, yen-pegged stablecoin by the second quarter of 2026 to support global settlements. The two companies will collaborate on the development of this digital currency under a new agreement.
2. Tokenized Stocks
On August 22, SBI announced a strategic partnership with crypto infrastructure company Startale Group to jointly launch an on-chain tokenized stock trading platform. This platform will combine SBI's financial ecosystem with Startale's blockchain infrastructure to support 24/7 trading of tokenized stocks, providing faster cross-border settlement and fractional ownership capabilities. The platform will also integrate decentralized finance protocols and feature account abstraction, institutional custody, and real-time compliance monitoring.
10. Samsung: Terminal Encryption Service
On October 3rd, Samsung and Coinbase announced a partnership to provide Coinbase One service to 75 million Galaxy device users in the US. This marks Coinbase's largest consumer-facing distribution to date and Galaxy's biggest move in the crypto space. Users can access Coinbase directly through Samsung Wallet, enjoying zero transaction fees and higher staking rewards without needing to download an additional app or transfer funds. Samsung Pay will also be integrated with Coinbase accounts, supporting payments using linked crypto assets. The plan is expected to expand internationally in the future.
