![[Research Brief] Apr 22 | Institutional Adoption Accelerates and DeFi Infrastructure Innovates… Stablecoins, RWA, and AI Gain Momentum](https://advertise.tokenpost.kr/images/covers/research_en.webp)
This week’s digital-asset research focused on institutional adoption and global regulatory developments, the expansion of stablecoins and real-world assets (RWA), and the maturation of AI-driven on-chain infrastructure. Crypto.com and Kaiko Research interpreted the market rebound and the reshaping of stablecoin competition as signals of traditional finance entering the space. In addition, reports covered risk management in DeFi asset management, the expansion of perpetual futures into RWA, prediction markets, and decentralized GPU infrastructure.
■ Crypto.com
Crypto Rebounded but Trading Stayed Quiet… Crypto.com Says Regulation, Institutional Capital, and Stablecoins Will Define the Next Quarter
Crypto.com reported that while its crypto price index rose 6.41% last week, trading volume fell 4.26% and volatility declined 15.76%. Bitcoin (BTC) gained 6.60% and Ethereum (ETH) rose 13.47%, while net outflows from spot Bitcoin ETFs eased to $526 million. Beyond a short-term bounce, the market’s next-quarter direction is expected to hinge on regulatory clarity, institutional adoption, and whether stablecoin infrastructure continues to expand.
■ Messari Research
MEV Is Blocking Institutional On-Chain Flows… Messari Highlights Sei Giga as a Potential Solution
Messari estimated that since Ethereum’s (ETH) Merge, roughly $6.55 billion in value has been transferred away on public blockchains through maximal extractable value (MEV) and liquidity loss. Sei Giga was assessed as a design aimed at enabling institution-grade on-chain trade execution by combining multi-concurrent proposers (MCP), deterministic transaction ordering, and a private propagation layer. Institutional on-chain inflows will likely depend on how convincingly execution transparency and MEV mitigation are proven at the protocol level.
Can Idle GPUs Solve the AI Bottleneck?… Messari Highlights the Dispersed Architecture
Messari noted that Dispersed, a compute subnet of Render Network, is an on-demand marketplace that connects idle GPUs worldwide with demand for AI and general-purpose compute. The report explained that enterprise-owned GPUs may run at only ~5% utilization while AI compute demand is surging, and that Render (RENDER) token rewards plus a 95% burn mechanism function as value-accrual tools for the network. The decentralized GPU market could emerge as a complementary infrastructure alternative that mitigates the cost and supply bottlenecks of centralized cloud providers.
■ Alea Research
“High APY Isn’t the Answer”… Alea Says Risk Management Is the Key Battleground for DeFi On-Chain Asset Management
Alea estimated the on-chain asset management market has grown to roughly $20 billion and is evolving from simple APY-chasing vaults toward structures that combine risk curators with asset allocators. ERC-4626 and vault infrastructure such as Morpho, Euler, and Veda are accelerating standardization across deposits, redemptions, and portfolio operations. DeFi’s next competitive edge will likely be less about headline yields and more about the ability to explain and control collateral, oracle, and liquidity risks.
■ Kaiko Research
In the $300B Stablecoin Era, Why Are USDT and USDC Still Winning?… Kaiko Says “Adoption, Not Issuance”
Kaiko reported that while stablecoin market capitalization reached $300 billion in 2025, the USDT–USDC duopoly remains firmly intact. As of June 2026, USDT’s market cap was about $186 billion and USDC’s about $70 billion, while euro-denominated stablecoins accounted for just 0.12% of trading volume. The success of new stablecoins will likely depend less on issuance itself and more on adoption capabilities—securing liquidity, exchange integrations, and repeated usage.
■ a16z crypto research
Can U.S. Stablecoins Become a Nationwide Payments Rail?… a16z Says Post-GENIUS Rules Will Decide
a16z crypto argued that after the U.S. GENIUS Act, consistency between state-level regimes and a federal framework becomes a decisive variable for the stablecoin industry. The report highlighted issuer oversight transitions above $10 billion in circulation and state “passporting” principles as key to enabling a nationwide payments network. If regulatory coherence is achieved, the U.S. stablecoin market could expand into an open digital-dollar infrastructure.
Crypto’s Real Battleground Isn’t Price—It’s Owning the Center of Money Flow… a16z crypto Analysis
a16z crypto argued that the industry’s core advantage lies not in asset prices but in controlling the center of money flows where value is created, transferred, and settled. The report cited Visa’s FY2024 results—$15.7 trillion in payments volume and $35.9 billion in net revenue—to illustrate how crypto networks can similarly design for fees and network effects. Stablecoins and network tokens are expected to be key tools for reshaping the cost structure of global money movement.
■ CoinFeed
Bitcoin’s Bounce: Trend Reversal or Retracement?… CoinFeed Says ETFs and the FOMC Will Decide BTC’s Path
CoinFeed assessed Bitcoin’s (BTC) rebound from below $58,000 to around $64,000 as closer to a retracement than a trend reversal. Spot Bitcoin ETFs saw $2.7 billion in outflows over 10 trading days, followed by a single-day inflow of $220 million, but remained down $5.4 billion net year-to-date. BTC’s direction will likely depend on sustained ETF inflows, reclaiming $68,000, and the interest-rate path after the FOMC meeting.
■ Tiger Research
Treasury Tokenization Is Only the Beginning… Tiger Research on Canton Network’s Financial Infrastructure Shift
Tiger Research argued that the RWA market is expanding beyond U.S. Treasury tokenization into a broader restructuring of financial infrastructure that includes repo, securities settlement, financing, and stablecoin payments. As of May 2026, on-chain issued assets reached roughly $34 billion, and total on-chain represented assets grew to about $360 billion, while Broadridge’s Canton-based repo platform processed $7.7 trillion in monthly settlement volume. With privacy and atomic settlement, Canton Network is positioned to become a leading option for institution-grade capital markets infrastructure.
$14B Prediction Markets: The Next Information-Finance Infrastructure?… Tiger Research Warns of Asia’s Regulatory Vacuum
Tiger Research reported that prediction markets have grown into an “information finance” infrastructure, exceeding $14 billion in monthly trading volume by reflecting event probabilities in real-time prices. Contracts across politics, rates, inflation, and crypto settle at $1 or $0 depending on outcomes, and the report cited a case in Korea’s 2026 local elections where 14 of 16 metropolitan mayor/governor winners were correctly predicted. If Asia confines prediction markets under gambling regulations, the region may face capital outflows and loss of information sovereignty.
■ CoinGecko
Crypto Exchanges Are Absorbing Traditional Assets… CoinGecko Highlights Rapid Growth in RWA/TradFi Perpetuals
CoinGecko noted that crypto exchanges are rapidly absorbing traditional finance (TradFi) assets—stocks, commodities, ETFs, pre-IPO contracts—into 24/7 trading products. RWA/TradFi perpetual futures volume surged from $230 million in early 2025 to $347.17 billion in May 2026, and cumulative 2026 volume exceeded $1.32 trillion. While growth is rapid, long-term sustainability will depend on trustworthy underlying-asset linkage and robust liquidation-risk management.
■ CoinMarketCap
“Has Bitcoin Bottomed?”… CoinMarketCap on the Market Rebound and Reshaped Stablecoin Competition
CoinMarketCap reported that as of July 3, 2026, Bitcoin (BTC) rose 2.5% week-over-week, Ethereum (ETH) gained 9.51%, and total crypto market capitalization increased to $2.14 trillion. Short liquidations exceeded $500 million over two days, but funding rates remained at manageable levels—suggesting selective recovery rather than overheating. The next catalyst will be tested as stablecoin competition, the institutionalization of DeFi, and governance restructuring converge.
■ CryptoQuant
“Will $60K Hold or Break?”… CryptoQuant Warns of Rising Volatility as BTC/ETH Exchange Inflows Surge
CryptoQuant noted that as Bitcoin (BTC) tests the $60,000 support level, daily exchange inflows climbed to as high as 49,000 BTC. Ethereum (ETH) also saw over 1.25 million ETH flow into exchanges in a single day, while altcoin deposit transactions reached around 45,000—its highest level in two months. If BTC fails to defend $60,000, downside could open toward $53,000 based on realized price, making higher volatility increasingly likely.
■ Binance Academy
Could ESG Become a New Standard for Crypto Investing?… Binance Academy Highlights Bitcoin Energy Use and Governance
Binance Academy argued that ESG (environmental, social, governance) criteria are expanding beyond equities into frameworks for evaluating crypto projects. The report noted that since the 2015 Paris Agreement, institutional investors have intensified carbon-exposure scrutiny, and that Bitcoin’s (BTC) proof-of-work (PoW) energy use and DAO governance transparency could become key evaluation factors. ESG is less a short-term performance formula and more likely to become a long-term framework for assessing sustainability in digital assets.
■ Korbit
BTC Perpetual Futures Approval Shakes Traditional Exchange Stocks… Korbit on the Reshaping of RWA Derivatives Markets
Korbit highlighted that after the U.S. CFTC approved Kalshi’s Bitcoin (BTC) perpetual futures product, Cboe and CME shares fell by roughly 20% and 10%, respectively. The report argued that global centralized (CEX) and decentralized exchanges (DEX) are expanding perpetuals into stock indices, single stocks, commodities, and even private-company valuations—growing the RWA derivatives market. The next phase of competition in digital capital markets will hinge on how efficiently and credibly platforms can offer a broader range of underlying assets.