Wall Street talked far more about AI than crypto during Q2 earnings season. At JPMorgan, Citi and several other large banks, the technology discussion was dominated by automation, productivity and infrastructure spending, while digital assets barely registered.
Crypto Slips Down Wall Street's Agenda as It Moves Deeper into Finance
21 August 2026 - 12:00 UTC
By Matt Neill
That did not mean the institutions were backing away. Across asset managers, payment networks and exchanges, crypto was showing up in a different form, through stablecoins, tokenized funds, custody, settlement and regulated market infrastructure.
A Sandmark review of Q2 earnings reports and executive calls suggests the shift is less about abandonment than absorption. Crypto is losing some of its headline status just as parts of the technology are becoming more embedded in mainstream finance.
Why AI dominated the earnings calls
JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon, a long-time crypto sceptic, pointed to almost 1,000 AI use cases, with roughly 50 important applications spanning risk, fraud, marketing and document analysis.
"We're kind of in the midst of this mini-revolution," he said, presenting AI as an enterprise-wide operating programme with identifiable efficiencies.
Citi CEO Jane Fraser grouped "AI, blockchain, digital commerce" together as opportunities rather than threats, then spent more time on AI's growth potential. Even so, Citi said on 18 Aug that its new Custody+ suite would add digital-asset custody, starting with Bitcoin later this year.
The lack of crypto discussion was also notable at top US banks including Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Bank of America, none of which gave substantive prominence to crypto, stablecoins, tokenization or blockchain in the Q2 discussions reviewed by Sandmark. Goldman focused on dealmaking and AI investment, Morgan Stanley on financing AI infrastructure and Bank of America on AI adoption across the organization.
Their silence says more about current investor-relations priorities than the disappearance of digital-asset activity. AI maps more neatly onto near-term profit through lower costs and faster development, while many blockchain projects sit inside product and infrastructure units where revenue is smaller, more distant or spread across the franchise.
Crypto survives where it can be monetized
BlackRock, the world's largest asset manager, made the commercial case directly. CFO Martin Small said the group had about $110bn of assets under management connected to digital assets and was targeting a $500mn annual revenue business by 2030.
"Tokenized assets are the spear tip into an entirely new distribution channel," he said.
BlackRock also manages about $60bn of reserves for Circle, the issuer of the USDC stablecoin, a figure Small described as roughly a quarter of a $300bn stablecoin market. The asset manager wants established funds to become accessible inside digital wallets, extending its manufacturing and distribution model into an onchain environment.
State Street, the US custody bank, supplied a more cautious view. CEO Ron O'Hanley said early delivery had "underwhelmed" relative to the hype, while adding that "there's real adoption going on" and "real stuff being built out."
His examples included tokenized collateral, money-market funds and real assets. Wells Fargo's 4 Aug plan to introduce tokenized deposits for corporate and commercial clients this autumn pointed in the same direction, as did the tokenized fund relief Franklin Templeton secured from US regulators earlier this month.
Payment networks co-opt the rails
Visa said its stablecoin settlement programme had reached an annualized run rate of about $7bn, up 50% quarter-on-quarter. The company said in June that more than 160 stablecoin-linked card programmes were live or in development globally, with settlement supported across nine blockchains.
"If stablecoins are reshaping the back end of commerce, we see AI as transforming the front end," CEO Ryan McInerney said on Visa's fiscal third-quarter call.
Mastercard is taking a similar approach. CEO Michael Miebach said stablecoins were "additive to our network", while crypto co-brand payment volume had more than tripled over the previous two years.
Both companies are supporting multiple stablecoins and blockchain networks rather than concentrating on one issuer or chain. Their existing businesses in identity, compliance, acceptance, conversion and security give them a way to incorporate new forms of money without surrendering their position in the payments stack.
Exchanges push crypto into infrastructure
Exchange operators offered some of the clearest evidence of institutionalization.
CME Group, the largest US futures exchange, said cryptocurrency futures and options averaged 280,000 contracts a day during Q2, up 44% on the daily average for the first half of 2025. The exchange moved crypto derivatives to 24/7 trading in May and expanded its suite with contracts linked to assets including Avalanche (AVAX) and Sui (SUI).
Tim McCourt, who oversees CME's equity, FX and alternative-products business, said the exchange was handling roughly $4.5bn to $6.5bn a day across its crypto complex. The business increasingly resembles another institutional risk market alongside rates, equity indices and commodities.
Intercontinental Exchange, the owner of the New York Stock Exchange, drew a sharper line around where blockchain may fit. CEO Jeff Sprecher said public blockchains do not currently have the throughput to replace transaction systems underpinning exchanges such as the NYSE, but saw more immediate potential in settlement and collateral.
ICE is working with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on putting NYSE-listed securities onchain within regulated infrastructure, Sprecher said.
"There's real work going on," he told analysts, adding that "later this year and early next year, you'll start to see some significant entities moving on-chain."
That caution about public blockchains sits alongside a substantial bet elsewhere. ICE has invested more than $1.6bn in Polymarket, a blockchain-based prediction market. Sprecher said on 20 Aug that the exchange group would consider taking part in a further funding round.
The exchange groups are not betting that blockchain simply replaces existing market infrastructure. Their focus is on using tokenization to improve collateral, ownership and settlement while regulated exchanges, clearing houses and market-data businesses remain central to the process.
Prediction markets take some spotlight
At Robinhood, event-contract revenue reached $156mn in Q2, up more than tenfold, while cryptocurrency transaction revenue fell 38% to $100mn. Prediction markets now earn the broker more than crypto trading does.
That shift gives brokers a newer retail growth story at a time when crypto trading has weakened, and it is drawing the incumbents in too: Kalshi took the slower voluntary approval route for a perpetual futures contract tied to a US large-cap stock index rather than self-certifying it. Across the wider group of firms reviewed, blockchain activity is still expanding through custody, funds, payments, collateral and exchange infrastructure.
Crypto is getting less airtime on earnings calls than AI and, increasingly, prediction markets. The spending and product launches suggest Wall Street is nevertheless continuing to build around the parts of digital assets that fit existing financial businesses.
