Looking back at 2025: A review of the crypto moves made by traditional giants like BlackRock this year.

Deng Tong, Jinse Finance

In 2025, the regulation of the crypto industry will gradually become clearer, traditional finance will deeply penetrate the market, and technological iteration will accelerate. Each key juncture is inseparable from key figures who either guide policy direction, lead institutional entry, tackle technical challenges, or disrupt the market.

What crypto moves will traditional giants like BlackRock, JPMorgan Chase, Visa, and Mastercard make in 2025?

I. BlackRock: Pushing ETFs, Bullish on RWA

Throughout 2025, BlackRock will strategically promote its crypto asset and tokenization strategy, including expanding its ETF series and researching asset tokenization.

1. Pushing ETFs

At the beginning of 2025, BlackRock will make Bitcoin one of its core investment themes for the year, emphasizing its "long-term investment value," and will continue to promote the adoption of its iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) ETF among institutional investors.

On February 26, BlackRock transferred approximately 1,800 bitcoins (about $160 million) to Coinbase Prime custody. This on-chain transfer attracted market attention. In the first half of 2025, BlackRock's portfolio grew by $23.91 billion, from $54.77 billion on January 1 to $78.67 billion on June 30. Of this, Bitcoin contributed $23.3 billion and Ethereum contributed $678.9 million. According to Finbold's "Cryptocurrency Market Report Q3 2025," driven by unprecedented inflows into Ethereum, BlackRock's cryptocurrency portfolio surged by $22.46 billion in the third quarter of 2025. Finbold's report indicates that BlackRock accelerated its aggressive deployment of digital assets in the third quarter of 2025. From July 1 to September 30, BlackRock's on-chain cryptocurrency holdings increased from $79.63 billion to $102.09 billion, a 28.2% quarter-over-quarter increase. This shift marks the first time Ethereum has surpassed Bitcoin in BlackRock's quarterly portfolio growth. As of 2025, IBIT ranks sixth among all ETFs with inflows exceeding $25 billion. Among the top 25 funds by inflow, Vanguard's S&P 500 ETF (VOO) ranks first with $145 billion, and iShares S&P 100 ETF (OEF) ranks 25th with $10 billion. 2. Bullish on RWA BlackRock executives have repeatedly stated publicly that asset tokenization is a key trend in the next financial revolution, reflecting their bullish outlook on incorporating traditional assets into on-chain formats in the medium to long term. BlackRock CEO Larry Fink firmly believes that the next major transformation in global finance will come from the tokenization of traditional assets, including stocks, bonds, and real estate. BlackRock views tokenization as an opportunity to bring new investors into mainstream financial products through digital means. For details, please see "BlackRock: How Tokenization Will Change Finance"

"BlackRock CEO's 2025 Investor Letter: BTC Erodes the Dollar's Reserve Status, Tokenization Revolutionizes the Capital Markets"

II. JPMorgan Chase: Issuing JPMD, Entering Public Chains, CEO's Major Reversal

JPMorgan Chase's CEO previously held a strong critical stance on cryptocurrencies, essentially denying their value and criticizing their illegal uses. His attitude only softened in 2025. JPMorgan Chase itself is also making significant strides towards public chains in 2025.

1. Issuance of JPMD In June, Kinexys, JPMorgan Chase's blockchain business unit, piloted the issuance of JPMD, bringing institutional finance on-chain, marking a significant step in the development of digital currencies. JPMD is a permissioned USD deposit token used for real-time institutional payments on Base (an Ethereum Layer 2 blockchain built internally by Coinbase). JPMD aims to support near real-time peer-to-peer transfers between Base wallets, enabling institutional clients to transfer funds flexibly, securely, and efficiently, with minimal latency. By reducing transaction friction, clients will be able to improve operational efficiency and support real-time financial decision-making. 2. Entering the Public Blockchain On July 30, JPMorgan Chase reached a strategic partnership with Coinbase, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the United States. The partnership includes allowing Chase Bank users to directly link their bank accounts to Coinbase for cryptocurrency transactions; and providing users with a more convenient way to buy/trade cryptocurrencies. This is an important bridge between JPMorgan Chase's financial services and mainstream cryptocurrency trading platforms. On November 12, JPMorgan Chase began launching a deposit token called JPM Coin to institutional clients, marking a step in the financial institution's continued expansion of its digital asset business. On December 18, JPMorgan Chase deployed JPM Coin to Coinbase's Base blockchain, signifying the Wall Street giant's first large-scale integration into a public blockchain ecosystem. On December 15, JPMorgan Chase officially launched its first tokenized money market fund, "My OnChain Net Yield Fund" (MONY). This private fund will operate on the Ethereum blockchain and is open to accredited investors. JPMorgan Chase will inject $100 million of its own capital into the fund as seed funding. 3. CEO's Dramatic Reversal JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon was once a strong critic of cryptocurrencies. In September 2017, Dimon publicly called Bitcoin a "fraud," warning company traders that they would be fired if they traded Bitcoin, linking it to Ponzi schemes and speculative bubbles, and believing investors to be foolish. In October of this year, Dimon publicly acknowledged that crypto, blockchain, and stablecoins are "real and will be widely adopted," and plans to allow institutional clients to use Bitcoin and Ethereum as loan collateral (third-party custody) by the end of 2025.

III. Visa: Seizing the Stablecoin Opportunity

For Visa, 2025 is a crucial timeframe for seizing the stablecoin opportunity.

Cuy Sheffield, head of Visa's cryptocurrency business, has stated that he is not worried about the rise of stablecoins posing a risk to traditional payment companies, even though stablecoins provide consumers with a new payment method without credit cards. The payment giant sees the rise of stablecoins as an opportunity. Cuy Sheffield pointed out that stablecoins do not solve many problems in retail payments because data shows that most stablecoin transaction volume comes from high-value transfers rather than retail transactions. He added that the opportunity for stablecoins lies primarily in emerging market-centric economies outside the United States, where there is a demand for US dollars but limited access to them.

On May 1st, Baanx partnered with Visa to launch a stablecoin payment card linked to a self-custodied wallet, initially supporting USDC issued by Circle. This card "allows cardholders to spend USDC directly from their crypto wallets," with a smart contract transferring the USDC balance to Baanx in real-time upon authorization, where it is then converted into fiat currency to complete the payment. On October 28th, Visa planned to support multiple stablecoins. Visa CEO Ryan McInerney stated during the Q4 earnings call, "We are adding support for four stablecoins that run on four distinct blockchains, corresponding to two currencies; we can receive these stablecoins and convert them into more than 25 traditional fiat currencies." On November 12th, Visa announced the official launch of its stablecoin payment pilot program, allowing creators, freelancers, and businesses to receive payments directly in USDC issued by Circle through Visa Direct, enabling instant cross-border settlements. Visa stated that during the pilot phase, businesses can initiate payments in the US using fiat currency, while recipients can choose to receive USDC directly, with funds arriving almost within minutes. This will bring convenience to users in regions with currency volatility or limited bank access. On December 16th, Visa began supporting US financial institutions using USDC on Solana for transaction settlement, with Cross River Bank and Lead Bank being the first institutions to use the service. As a partner of the Circle Arc blockchain, Visa will also provide support after Arc's launch. Visa believes that stablecoins have the potential to drive traditional financial institutions to migrate part of the global $40 trillion credit market to a blockchain programmable system, thereby changing the credit landscape. Banks and financial institutions should understand how programmable money can reshape the credit market to seize potential opportunities. IV. PayPal: Seizing the Stablecoin Opportunity On August 7, 2023, PayPal's stablecoin PYUSD was officially launched. For PayPal, 2025 is the year it will implement PYUSD in more application scenarios. In early February, PayPal announced plans to increase adoption of its stablecoin PYUSD by 2025, launching a bill payment product that would allow its more than 20 million small and medium-sized merchants to use PYUSD to pay suppliers. Additionally, PayPal plans to add PYUSD as an option for global payments via Hyperwallet, a business that helps organizations send bulk payments to contractors, freelancers, or sellers around the world. PayPal CEO Alex Chriss stated, "We've been talking about blockchain for a decade—the concepts of these things never become a reality until you actually start consuming them. I think that's what we've achieved." On April 24th, Coinbase expanded its partnership with PayPal to accelerate the adoption, distribution, and use of PayPal's USD stablecoin (PYUSD). Coinbase, through its custody and trading platform, supports a 1:1 exchange rate between PYUSD and the US dollar, enhancing PYUSD's utility and exploring new on-chain use cases for PYUSD. On April 29, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) terminated its investigation into PYUSD, a stablecoin issued in the U.S. dollar, and will not take enforcement action. This eliminated regulatory uncertainty for PYUSD. On September 19, PayPal announced that its stablecoin PYUSD would be extended to nine new blockchains via the LayerZero cross-chain protocol: Abstract, Aptos, Avalanche, Ink, Sei, Stable, Tron, and the automatically integrated Berachain and Flow. On September 22, PayPal made a strategic investment in Stablechain, enabling users to conduct business and financial transactions using PayPal USD (PYUSD) on Stablechain. On December 18, PYUSD officially launched on the Stable mainnet. V. Mastercard: Seizing the Stablecoin Opportunity 2025 will be a crucial year for Mastercard, marking its transition from the experimental phase to providing practical crypto solutions. On April 9th, Kraken announced a partnership with Mastercard to launch a crypto debit card. Kraken will launch physical and digital debit cards for everyday transactions using cryptocurrencies and stablecoins. On April 29th, Mastercard partnered with OKX to launch the "OKX Card." Also on April 29th, Mastercard is pushing to allow consumers to use stablecoins for purchases and merchants to accept stablecoin payments. "Mastercard is providing a comprehensive 360-degree solution that makes stablecoins as easy for consumers and businesses to use as currency in their bank accounts." On October 19th, Mastercard filed a trademark application for "virtual asset payment processing." On November 5th, Mastercard partnered with Ripple and Gemini to explore using the RLUSD stablecoin on the XRPL blockchain to settle cryptocurrency card transactions. This partnership is one of the first cases of a regulated U.S. bank using a public blockchain and a regulated stablecoin to settle traditional card transactions. On December 16th, Mastercard partnered with the Abu Dhabi ADI Foundation to promote stablecoin settlement, stablecoin payment cards, and asset tokenization applications in the Middle East. Meanwhile, NEO PAY (UAE) and INFINIOS (Bahrain) joined its stablecoin settlement program. VI. Goldman Sachs: Deploying Stablecoins and Focusing on ETFs On April 30th, Mathew McDermott, Head of Digital Assets at Goldman Sachs, stated that clear regulations will make it easier for large institutions to deploy capital in the cryptocurrency space, driving its scaling. Goldman Sachs will expand its digital asset trading activities, explore crypto lending, and heavily invest in tokenization. With a growing number of Goldman Sachs clients eager to participate more actively in digital asset trading, Goldman Sachs will focus on business implementation and hopes to obtain various regulatory approvals. 1. Developing Stablecoins On October 10th, Reuters reported that several global banks are collaborating on a joint stablecoin project, including Santander, Bank of America, Barclays, BNP Paribas, Citi, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG), TD Bank, and UBS. On October 11th, a group of banks, including Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank, and Citi, are exploring the issuance of stablecoins pegged to major G7 currencies (US dollar, euro, Japanese yen, etc.). The project aims to issue a 1:1 reserve-backed digital currency, providing stable payment assets on a public blockchain while adhering to regulatory requirements and best risk management practices. This move aims to explore the competitive advantages of digital assets in the market. 2. Focusing on ETFs On December 2nd, Goldman Sachs agreed to acquire Innovator Capital Management for approximately $2 billion, bringing this institution, which issues "defined income" exchange-traded funds (ETFs), into its asset management portfolio. Its products include a Bitcoin structured fund. The transaction is expected to close in the second quarter of 2026, adding approximately $28 billion in regulated assets to Goldman Sachs' asset management division. VII. Citigroup: Deploying Stablecoins and Exploring Crypto Custody In its 2025 Digital Asset Report, Citigroup stated that by 2030, the size of tokenized assets could reach $4-5 trillion, with stablecoins and tokenized deposits becoming core drivers. Citigroup believes that blockchain is not a replacement for banks, but rather a new "settlement layer" for banks. 1. Deploying Stablecoins On July 16th, Citigroup CEO Jane Fraser stated that Citigroup is exploring the possibility of issuing stablecoins. On October 11, Citigroup joined a group of European banks developing a euro stablecoin. On October 27, Citigroup and Coinbase announced a collaboration to explore stablecoin payment solutions for institutional clients. The collaboration reportedly aims to leverage stablecoins to enhance cross-border and corporate payment systems and improve transaction efficiency. 2. Exploring Crypto Custody In February, Bloomberg reported that Citigroup would explore cryptocurrency custody services. On October 14, a report indicated that Citigroup plans to launch a crypto asset custody service in 2026, according to a senior executive in an interview. As Wall Street giants continue to expand their presence in the digital currency field, Citigroup's move shows that traditional financial institutions are accelerating their entry into this arena. Biswarup Chatterjee, Global Head of Partnerships and Innovation at Citigroup Services, stated that the bank has been developing crypto custody services for the past two to three years and has made substantial progress. "We are exploring various avenues. We hope to launch a trusted custody solution for our asset management clients and other institutional clients in the coming quarters." VIII. Google: Blockchain as the Cornerstone of AI, Enhancing Stablecoin Compatibility AI + blockchain and traditional payments + stablecoins are Google's two major focuses in the crypto space by 2025. 1. Blockchain as the Cornerstone of AI Agents On August 31st, Ethereum and Google developers jointly proposed a new initiative to make blockchain the cornerstone of an AI agent economy. Tech giants like Google and Amazon are betting on AI agents, while Ethereum developers believe their blockchain has unique advantages in supporting this new machine economy. Ethereum core developer Davide Crapis has proposed the ERC-8004 standard, which aims to enable mutual discovery, verification, and transactions between AI agents. Supporters argue that Ethereum's payment channels, digital identity tools, and scalable multi-tiered architecture make it the most efficient infrastructure for an AI-driven economy.

2. Enhancing Stablecoin Compatibility

On September 16, Google released a new open-source payment protocol. This solution aims to make it easier for different AI applications to send and receive funds, supporting not only more traditional payment methods such as credit and debit cards, but also stablecoins. To enhance compatibility with stablecoins, Google partnered with cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, which has built its own AI and cryptocurrency payment solution. Google also collaborated with other cryptocurrency companies, including the Ethereum Foundation. It is reported that Google also consulted with more than 60 organizations, including Salesforce, American Express, and Etsy, to develop other elements of the new payment protocol.

IX. SBI: Entering the Stablecoin and Tokenized Stock Markets

1. Entering the Stablecoin Market

On March 4, SBI VC Trade announced that it had completed its first registration for stablecoin trading in Japan. After receiving approval, it began processing USDC transactions on March 12.

The company can provide USDC buying, selling, and deposit/withdrawal services to individual and corporate clients, and is required to safeguard USD collateral equivalent to or exceeding the amount of USDC deposited by clients. SBI Group's New Trust Bank will assume the role of trust escrow. On August 22, Ripple partnered with Japan's SBI Group, planning to launch the stablecoin RLUSD in Japan in the first quarter of 2026. On December 16, Japanese blockchain infrastructure company Startale Group and Japanese financial group SBI Holdings planned to launch a fully regulated, yen-pegged stablecoin by the second quarter of 2026 to support global settlements. The two parties will collaborate on the development of this digital currency under a new agreement. 2. Tokenized Stocks On August 22, SBI announced a strategic partnership with crypto infrastructure company Startale Group to jointly launch an on-chain tokenized stock trading platform. The platform will combine SBI's financial ecosystem and Startale's blockchain infrastructure to support 24/7 trading of tokenized stocks, providing faster cross-border settlement and fractional ownership functionality. The platform will also integrate decentralized finance protocols and feature account abstraction, institutional custody, and real-time compliance monitoring.

X. Samsung: Terminal Encryption Service

On October 3rd, Samsung partnered with Coinbase to provide Coinbase One service access to 75 million Galaxy device users in the US. This is Coinbase's largest consumer-end distribution to date and Galaxy's biggest move in the crypto space. Users can directly access Coinbase through Samsung Wallet, enjoying zero transaction fees and higher staking rewards without needing to download additional apps or transfer funds. Samsung Pay will also be integrated with Coinbase accounts, supporting payments by linking crypto assets. This plan will be expanded to international markets in the future.