KBW2025: On-Chain Era Dawns as Pension Funds and Asset Managers Chase Crypto Yields

Wall Street's most conservative players just woke up to blockchain's siren song.

Yield Hunters Break Tradition

Pension funds and asset managers—the same institutions that once dismissed crypto as a fringe experiment—now deploy billions into decentralized protocols. They chase returns that traditional finance hasn't delivered in decades.

Blockchain Infrastructure Scales Up

Enterprise-grade custody solutions and regulatory clarity finally meet institutional demand. The plumbing works, and money flows where barriers once stood.

Legacy Finance's Ironic Twist

The very system that created zero-interest-rate policies now scrambles to adopt the technology it mocked. Nothing motivates change like missing out on double-digit yields while bond portfolios stagnate.

The on-chain future isn't coming—it's already pricing in retirement plans.

RWA tokenization was highlighted as one of the year’s most important trends. Kleos said it is already operating tokenized U.S. Treasuries within institutional-grade risk frameworks, while HappyBlock argued secondary markets for assets such as stablecoins will inevitably shift on-chain.

“Conservative investors are entering RWAs, but the big institutions are only beginning,” Sanna said. “The growth potential is enormous.”

Panelists agreed the infrastructure for institutional crypto adoption has matured rapidly, with banks and fund giants including Franklin Templeton and Fidelity setting governance standards. Central banks, financial institutions, and DeFi markets are expected to compete directly as regulated yield products expand.

Looking ahead, AI-driven strategies are expected to optimize protocols and push crypto yields into everyday use cases—blurring the line between traditional financial products and daily consumption.

The two-day “KBW2025: IMPACT” event, hosted by FactBlock and co-organized by Bithumb, brings together regulators, blockchain firms, banks, and investors. This year’s theme, “Where Washington Meets Seoul, and Crypto Meets AI”, explores the intersection of regulation, tokenization, institutional finance, and artificial intelligence.

High-profile participants include U.S. presidential family members, the White House Digital Asset Committee, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and executives from Tether and Circle, alongside Korean lawmakers and commercial banks.