Investment bank B. Riley states that as regulations mature and traditional financial institutions begin large-scale deployments of blockchain technology, digital assets are expected to cross a key hurdle in 2026, transforming from primarily speculative assets into practical financial infrastructure. Analysts point out that increasingly clear regulatory rules surrounding stablecoins, the continued tokenization of institutional real-world assets (RWAs), improved governance frameworks, and the increasing interoperability between bank ledgers and public blockchains are collectively changing the "how digital assets are used," not just the "how they are traded." This evolution is prompting digital asset treasury companies to shift from simply hoarding tokens to investing digital assets in actual operations to create sustainable, recurring revenue-generating business models. (CoinDesk)