THE next phase of crypto could look very different from the boom years that made digital assets a mainstream investment story, with institutional money increasingly flowing into a smaller pool of established tokens, stablecoins and blockchain-based financial products rather than the wider crypto market.

At the same time, crypto exchanges are preparing for a tougher trading environment by expanding beyond digital assets, as Wall Street’s growing interest in blockchain infrastructure increasingly takes place alongside weaker liquidity in parts of the token market.