Macro-financial risk
2026-04-26
9 minute read
10 sources
Crypto in 2026: ETFs, the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, and the Institutional Rewrite
Spot ETF plumbing, a presidential reserve order, fair-value accounting, and a permissive SEC have moved bitcoin and ether from the alt allocation column into the boundary of conventional treasury and capital markets practice.
Bitcoin and crypto institutional adoption crossed a structural threshold between 2024 and 2026. Spot bitcoin ETFs cleared roughly USD 145 billion in cumulative assets under management by the end of the first quarter of 2026, with BlackRock's IBIT alone above USD 64 billion. Ethereum spot ETFs ramped slowly after July 2024 approval and fin...