The line between traditional finance and cryptocurrency continues to blur as we move deeper into 2025. Speaking at the Asia Blockchain Summit in Singapore last week, Bybit CEO Ben Zhou delivered a stark message to traditional financial institutions: evolve or risk irrelevance in the rapidly changing financial landscape.
“The question is no longer if traditional finance will adopt crypto technologies, but how quickly they can implement them,” Zhou told a packed audience of industry leaders and institutional investors. His comments come amid a surge in institutional cryptocurrency adoption, with over 40% of major banks now offering some form of digital asset services to clients.
The cryptocurrency exchange executive, whose platform recently surpassed $9 billion in daily trading volume, pointed to several developments that signal a fundamental shift in how traditional finance views blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies.
When I caught up with Zhou after his keynote speech, he elaborated on why 2025 represents a turning point. “Traditional institutions spent years fighting innovation. Now they’re racing to integrate it,” he explained. “The regulatory clarity we’ve seen over the past 18 months has removed the final major barrier for institutional adoption.”
Recent data from Chainalysis supports Zhou’s assessment. Their latest Market Intelligence Report reveals that institutional investment in crypto assets reached $312 billion in Q4 2024, representing a 78% increase year-over-year. This surge coincides with several regulatory developments, including the SEC’s approval of spot cryptocurrency ETFs beyond just Bitcoin and Ethereum.
“We’re witnessing a convergence that was almost unimaginable five years ago,” said Sarah Chen, Chief Research Officer at Digital Asset Research, in an interview with Bloomberg Crypto. “The traditional finance sector is recognizing that blockchain technology offers solutions to longstanding inefficiencies in their systems.”
Zhou emphasized that banking giants have shifted from viewing cryptocurrency as a threat to seeing it as an opportunity. JPMorgan’s recent expansion of its blockchain-based payment network to include stablecoin settlements demonstrates this evolution. Similarly, Goldman Sachs now offers cryptocurrency prime brokerage services, catering to the growing demand from institutional clients.
The Bybit CEO highlighted three primary areas where traditional finance is adopting crypto technology: payment systems, asset tokenization, and decentralized identity verification. “These aren’t speculative use cases anymore,” Zhou noted. “They’re being implemented by major financial institutions today.”
Payment processing giant Visa reported that transactions on their crypto-linked cards exceeded $8.7 billion in the first half of 2025, according to their quarterly earnings call. Meanwhile, Mastercard has expanded its CBDC testing program to 14 countries, including partnerships with central banks in Australia, Brazil, and South Korea.
Despite this progress, Zhou cautioned that many institutions still face significant hurdles in their adoption journey. “Legacy systems and organizational inertia remain the biggest challenges,” he said. “Banks that can overcome these obstacles fastest will establish dominant positions in the new financial ecosystem.”
Zhou’s comments come as Bybit launches its new institutional services division, aimed at bridging the gap between cryptocurrency markets and traditional finance. The platform now offers customized trading solutions, enhanced security protocols, and institutional-grade custody services through partnerships with regulated entities like Fireblocks and Copper.
“We’re building infrastructure that makes it easy for TradFi players to enter the market confidently,” Zhou explained. “Our goal is to remove technical barriers while maintaining the benefits of blockchain technology.”
Not everyone shares Zhou’s optimistic timeline for adoption. Peter Schiff, a persistent cryptocurrency skeptic, recently tweeted that “banks are just experimenting with blockchain without committing to real transformation.” When I mentioned this criticism to Zhou, he smiled.
“The skeptics have been consistently wrong for the past decade,” he responded. “Traditional finance isn’t monolithic – forward-thinking institutions are already reaping benefits while others fall behind. By 2026, the competitive advantage of early adopters will be undeniable.”
MIT Technology Review’s recent analysis supports Zhou’s perspective, finding that financial institutions incorporating blockchain technology reported 23% faster settlement times and 17% lower operational costs compared to their traditional counterparts.
The implications extend beyond just banks. Insurance companies like Allianz are implementing smart contracts for automated claims processing, while asset managers including BlackRock have expanded their digital asset offerings beyond their initial Bitcoin ETF.
“Every financial service will be reinvented through blockchain technology,” Zhou predicted. “Not overnight, but through steady innovation and integration. The lines between TradFi and crypto will eventually disappear completely.”
As our conversation concluded, Zhou emphasized that 2025 represents just the beginning of this transformation. “We’re still in early days, but the momentum is undeniable,” he said. “Traditional finance isn’t going away – it’s evolving. The institutions that embrace this change will thrive. Those that resist will eventually fade.”
For financial professionals watching this space, the message seems clear: cryptocurrency adoption isn’t just about adding digital assets to existing portfolios – it’s about fundamental changes to financial infrastructure that will reshape how money moves in the digital age.
