CRYPTOCURRENCY DIGITAL BANKING

The introduction of spot Bitcoin exchangetraded funds has created new pathways for traditional capital to enter the cryptocurrency market .

Standard Chartered ’ s Head of Digital Assets Research , Geoffrey Kendrick , notes that even a modest allocation from the US $ 40tn in US retirement funds could substantially impact Bitcoin prices .

This institutional interest is reflected in corporate investment trends , with Bernstein analysis projecting Bitcoin holdings to exceed US $ 50bn in 2025 , up significantly from US $ 24bn in 2024 .

Galaxy Digital , a cryptocurrency-focused asset manager , expects US spot Bitcoin ETF assets under management to surpass US $ 250bn .

Sid Powell , Co-founder of Maple Finance , draws parallels with traditional market development : “ If you look historically when we saw gold ETFs come in , the inflows in the first year increased dramatically in subsequent years – and I think we can expect to see that with the bitcoin ETFs ,” Powell tells CNBC ’ s Squawk Box Europe .

The Trump organisation ’ s World Liberty Financial launched in September 2024 , introducing a proprietary cryptocurrency through a decentralised finance platform developed with his sons .

The subsequent $ TRUMP token ’ s market capitalisation soared to US $ 5.5bn within hours of its launch , later peaking at US $ 14bn and breaking into the top 20 cryptocurrencies globally .

The token ’ s price more than tripled to US $ 75 before experiencing a dramatic 60 % crash to US $ 30 , though it later recovered to around US $ 64 .

The launch of $ MELANIA demonstrated both the volatile nature of memecoins and the massive influence certain brands carry in the digital asset space .

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