Lao Wang, a "veteran" who has been working in the A-share market for nearly 20 years, always talks about price-earnings ratio, moat, and value investment. Three years ago, if you mentioned Bitcoin to him, he would shake his head like a rattle and blurt out two words: "scam". At the dinner table, he will tell you earnestly in the tone of an elder teaching a younger generation that the thing has no "fundamentals", is a pure greater fool game, and will definitely end in a mess. However, at a recent party, after three rounds of drinks, Lao Wang took out his mobile phone and mysteriously studied the purchase of coins: "What is the code of BlackRock's Bitcoin ETF? And what is that Meme they are talking about?"

As BTC hits new highs and ETH breaks through, the "cryptocurrency speculators" and "stock speculators" who were originally operating independently begin to infiltrate each other. People in the cryptocurrency circle are busy breaking out of the circle and talking about consensus and value with people outside the circle more frequently. They may feel that this matter is finally worthy of being understood by more people. On the stock market side, many people have quietly set their sights on BTC and ETH. While they say "just take a look", they have actually already allocated a little bit.

This trend did not come suddenly. On one hand, the White House, Wall Street, and regulatory agencies began to get involved; on the other hand, crypto companies took the initiative to discuss compliance and cooperation. After BTC hit a new high, the invisible barrier between crypto and traditional markets loosened visibly - a two-way wall was broken. So who is influencing whom now? Is the cryptocurrency industry trying to bring crypto narratives into the mainstream? Or is the traditional industry beginning to re-understand Web3?

1. People outside the circle want to come in: Wall Street, the White House, and institutions all get involved

The changes this year are a bit obvious. It's not the insiders who are hyping it up, but the outsiders who are reaching out. Capital is betting, policies are loosening, and votes are leaning in - this round of "outsiders" are obviously not here to watch, but to participate. And they were not so anxious before, but are now suddenly accelerating.

You may not have bought coins, but the stocks you bought may have been following the "coin circle". On July 16, during the night trading session of the US stock market, cryptocurrency concept stocks collectively surged, with GAME soaring 40%, BTCS up more than 17%, SBET up more than 16%, BMNR up more than 12%, UPXI up more than 8%, BTBT up nearly 7%, and BTCM up more than 5%; these companies either directly hold encrypted assets such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, or their businesses involve blockchain mining, trading platforms, etc. They were originally marginal players, but now they have become the "leading big brother".

Politics is no exception. Trump has a positive attitude towards cryptocurrencies during his campaign and administration. He not only publicly stated that he wanted to make the United States the "crypto capital", but also signed an executive order immediately after winning the election to replace many senior regulatory officials who "sang the pessimism of cryptocurrencies". This series of operations made him the "first crypto president" by the media. It seems to be a gimmick, but in fact, there is a real policy shift behind it. At the same time, Congress is not idle. Recently, Washington ushered in "Crypto Week"-Congress has intensively promoted a number of crypto legislations, including the "GENIUS Act", a regulatory framework for stablecoins, the "CLARITY Act", a general framework for regulating crypto assets, and the "Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act", a bill prohibiting the United States from creating a central bank digital currency. Although these bills have not yet been implemented, they have at least entered the formal process, which means that the crypto industry is no longer repeatedly pulled by the "gray area", and everything is moving in a clearer direction.

It's not that traditional finance doesn't understand the value of encryption, but it lacks a sufficiently stable policy expectation before. Once this uncertainty is weakened, their end will be much faster than you think. For example, Internet brokerages familiar to Chinese people, such as Tiger Securities, Guotai Junan International, and Futu, have already tried out encrypted asset trading services; and Standard Chartered Bank announced in July that it would launch a digital asset platform for institutional clients, not derivatives, but physical delivery of Bitcoin and Ethereum. It is the first large bank in the world to dare to do so. If you think this is just a single point breakthrough for some institutions, then you underestimate the power of the trend. In addition, Citi's CEO confirmed at the second quarter earnings conference that it is studying the launch of a "stablecoin" for internal settlement and customer transactions; JPMorgan Chase launched JPM Coin for inter-institutional payments as early as 2020, and this year cooperated with Coinbase to develop a "quasi-stablecoin" token called JPMD, which is convenient for large institutions to hold the bank's deposits directly on the chain, and JD.com has also publicly entered the game.

Even more fierce, listed companies have also become Fomo and have allocated a large amount of crypto assets. The most typical example is MicroStrategy, the world's largest independent BI company. Since 2020, it has been "sweeping" all the way, and now the total amount of Bitcoin on the account has exceeded 600,000, which is about 73 billion US dollars at the current price, with amazing profitability. MicroStrategy's CEO Michael Saylor has spared no effort to promote Bitcoin on various occasions, regarding it as the best tool to fight inflation and store value. Driven by MicroStrategy, more and more listed companies have begun to follow suit: for example, the US game SharpLink Gaming announced that it would use Ethereum as its main reserve asset, and bought about 74,600 ETH between June and July 2025. As of July 17, 2025, its total holdings have reached about 321,000 ETH, making it the listed company with the most Ethereum in the world. SharpLink even raised $413 million in funds through additional stock issuance, almost all of which was invested in Ethereum, and 99.7% of its holdings were used for staking to obtain returns.

Traditional funds began to come in. For many traditional users, there are still barriers and concerns about directly purchasing and hosting cryptocurrencies. ETFs solve this problem and allow traditional funds to enter the crypto market in compliance with regulations. In early 2024, the US SEC approved the first batch of Bitcoin spot ETFs. A number of Wall Street giants, including BlackRock and Fidelity, lined up to issue their own Bitcoin ETFs. These ETFs allow users to trade Bitcoin and other crypto assets in their securities accounts like buying and selling stocks. In July 2025, the United States welcomed the listing of the first batch of Ethereum spot ETFs, which is equivalent to directly turning on the "faucet" of traditional finance.

2. People in the circle want to break out of the circle: Crypto giants cross over and open up the U.S. stock market through RWA

Corresponding to the active entry of forces outside the circle into the crypto field, the crypto industry is also working hard to break the circle and try to expand its influence from the currency circle to the broader mainstream world. This is mainly reflected in two aspects: first, cross-border cooperation between brands and ecosystems, allowing crypto elements to appear in traditional sports, entertainment and other scenes; second, global compliance layout, obtaining licenses and qualifications in various places, and integrating into the mainstream financial system.

Crypto companies are trying to get out of their small circle, and the most direct way is to appear on the international stage with the help of mainstream entertainment and sports events. F1, Premier League, Hollywood movies, NBA home courts... Wherever there are many people and large traffic, the pioneers of the cryptocurrency circle will go there. For example, OKX sponsored the McLaren F1 team while printing its logo on the jerseys of Manchester City players; even in the F1-themed movie starring Brad Pitt, the racing suit he wore and the car he drove were all their logos. Coinbase once spent a lot of money on advertising at the Super Bowl, and Crypto.com directly won the naming rights of the Lakers home court... Behind these cross-border marketing, the intention is very clear: to let the "cryptocurrency circle brand" get rid of the self-entertainment of the circle and enter the mainstream cognitive system.

To truly break the circle, it is not enough to rely on brand exposure alone. What is more important is to gain mainstream trust and regulatory recognition. Therefore, major crypto giants have invested resources in recent years to apply for compliance licenses in major global markets and build a legal operating framework. In this matter, Coinbase is a veteran pacesetter on the road to compliance. In 2021, it was listed on Nasdaq and became the first publicly listed crypto exchange. Behind this is its solid compliance investment for many years - MSB licenses in many states in the United States, BitLicense in New York State, MiCA licenses in Europe, and FCA registration in the United Kingdom. The compliance network has long been woven. In addition, OKX is also one of the most aggressive exchanges. At the beginning of 2025, it first reached a settlement with the US Department of Justice to clear the historical baggage and lay a foundation for its subsequent return to the US market. It has successively obtained "high-value" licenses such as the Dubai VARA license, the Singapore MPI license, and the EU MiCA license, basically opening up the compliance entrances to the mainstream markets in Asia Pacific, Europe and the United States.

There are also many exchanges that started with the Web3 wave, and now they are also starting to make up for their compliance shortcomings. Although they are not the first batch of supporters of compliance, their attitude has changed and their direction has become clearer. This is not just for the sake of legal operation, but also a new watershed: the platforms that can really go far are not based on marketing methods, but on whether they can survive under supervision. Those with licenses can enter the traditional financial table; those without licenses can only mix in the circle.

In addition to relying on brands and licenses to add points, the crypto industry itself is also not idle. Products such as OKX Wallet are working hard to open up the Web3 entrance, so that ordinary users can not only listen to the concept, but can really use blockchain services easily. But the most typical thing is that more and more crypto protocols are beginning to promote the development of RWA, allowing you to buy and sell Tesla, Nvidia stocks, or traditional financial assets such as bonds on the chain. This is not only an innovation in gameplay, but also opens the door for more users around the world to participate in traditional finance fairly. In the past, buying U.S. stocks required going through the process and complicated procedures. Now with on-chain tokens, many crypto users can easily enter the market.

The crypto industry is taking the initiative to break out of the circle: enhancing brand influence through cross-border cooperation, winning mainstream trust through compliant operations, and connecting reality and virtuality through product innovation. These efforts have already yielded initial results. Now you can see advertisements of crypto companies walking in Times Square in New York and the streets of London; ordinary people can also easily access decentralized financial services through mobile wallets.

3. When the cryptocurrency world meets the U.S. stock market, who will change whom?

When the cryptocurrency world meets the U.S. stock market, a question quietly becomes important: Is the cryptocurrency world trying to bring the crypto narrative into the mainstream? Or is the traditional industry beginning to re-understand Web3?

The crypto industry talks about the native transaction logic, asset liquidity, and the possibility of open finance on the chain, thereby reshaping the financial infrastructure. For example, the rise of DeFi allows anyone to borrow, trade, and manage finances without a bank, which poses a direct challenge to traditional banking. For another example, stablecoins, as the "digital cash" of the crypto world, have emerged in cross-border payments and trade settlements. All of this shows the breakthrough of crypto technology in traditional financial infrastructure: transactions can be carried out 24/7, settlements can be completed in seconds, and anyone can participate as long as they have a network, and are no longer subject to the business hours and entry barriers of traditional institutions. It can be foreseen that the underlying architecture of the future financial system may gradually become blockchain-based.

While crypto is trying to change tradition, traditional forces are also profoundly changing crypto. The most obvious is the intervention of regulation: governments and financial regulators are stepping up the formulation of regulations for cryptocurrencies and incorporating them into the existing regulatory framework. In addition, the large-scale entry of traditional capital may also change the power structure in the crypto field. When Wall Street giants become the largest holders of Bitcoin, and when the boards of directors of listed companies decide to include Ethereum in their balance sheets, the pricing power and discourse power of the crypto market have been transferred to traditional institutions to a certain extent. This is somewhat ironic for the crypto idealists who originally advocated decentralization and anti-authoritarianism, but it is a process that the industry must go through to move towards the mainstream.

For the crypto industry, gaining traditional recognition means a larger user base and capital pool; for traditional finance, absorbing crypto innovation can improve efficiency and expand business boundaries. Therefore, rather than saying who is breaking through whom, it is better to say that it is a new stage of two-way integration. In this integration process, there are two key words throughout - innovation and compliance. Only by insisting on innovation can we continuously create new value and growth points and attract attention from outside the circle; only by embracing compliance can we gain the trust and support of the mainstream and integrate into the existing system. The two complement each other and are indispensable.

On the one hand, innovation is the fundamental driving force for breaking through. Since its birth, the crypto industry has been driven by continuous technological and model innovation. From Bitcoin's decentralized ledger to Ethereum's smart contracts, to the endless emergence of new concepts such as DeFi, NFT, DAO, etc., each innovation has expanded the boundaries of the industry and attracted new participants. At the current stage, what the industry needs is a truly disruptive killer application. This may be a brand-new financial service model that makes traditional finance pale in comparison; it may also be a platform that connects the real world and makes ordinary people's daily lives more convenient because of blockchain. For example, ordinary people can easily use stablecoins to complete cross-border payments of digital assets through crypto applications, and the payment arrives in seconds with almost zero fees. Then traditional remittance business needs innovation, and a large number of non-circle users will naturally flock to the crypto ecosystem. Or, when blockchain-based identity authentication and data sharing mechanisms are widely used, people no longer need to repeatedly submit cumbersome proof materials, and the efficiency of doing things is greatly improved. Then even if these users do not speculate in coins, they have become part of the blockchain world.

On the other hand, compliance is a necessary condition for breaking through. If the crypto industry wants to truly break through the circle, it must solve the trust problem, and compliance is the key to building trust. In the past few years, we have seen too many chaos caused by lack of supervision: exchanges running away, Ponzi scheme fraud, hacker attack losses, and so on. These incidents not only hurt investors, but also gave traditional society a negative impression of cryptocurrencies. Therefore, the industry must actively embrace supervision and improve transparency and responsibility. Fortunately, more and more crypto companies have realized this. They actively apply for licenses, improve risk control systems, and cooperate with regulators to crack down on illegal activities. This shift has gradually eliminated doubts among mainstream institutions and the general public, and they are willing to try to contact crypto services. Compliance has restrained some "wildness" and allowed the currency circle to run more steadily and farther.

When Wall Street banks are no longer standing by and watching, when listed companies treat ETH as cash flow, and when regulation begins to "lay the track" for the industry, you can no longer look at the crypto world of 2025 with the eyes of 2020. The bubble may still be there, but the consensus has been written by a different person: traditional banks have begun to provide crypto custody and trading services, and crypto exchanges have obtained banking licenses to carry out deposit and loan business; assets such as stocks and bonds are issued and traded on the blockchain, and cryptocurrency ETFs and futures have become part of the mainstream investment portfolio. Users can freely switch configurations between crypto assets and traditional assets, and technology will ensure that all transactions and settlements are carried out in a transparent and secure environment. These scenarios have begun to emerge today, and will become more common in the future.