Goldman Sachs: Regulatory Developments to Drive Next Wave of Institutional Cryptocurrency Adoption

January 6 – Wall Street titan Goldman Sachs says improvements to the regulatory landscape and the rise of crypto use cases beyond trading are fostering a positive outlook for the industry, particularly for infrastructure firms that support the ecosystem but are less exposed to market cycles. In a Monday report, the bank noted regulatory uncertainty still poses a major barrier to institutional participation—but that dynamic is shifting fast. “We see regulatory landscape improvements as a key driver of ongoing institutional crypto adoption, especially for financial institutions acting as buyers and sellers, while new non-trading crypto use cases are also evolving,” wrote the analyst team led by James Yaro. Yaro highlighted upcoming U.S. market structure legislation as a key catalyst. Since Donald Trump took office, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) leadership has been fully overhauled. With Paul Atkins confirmed as chair, the agency has walked back years of aggressive crypto enforcement: it has dismissed nearly all pending lawsuits and pulled out of multiple court fights. Trump has made advancing the U.S. crypto industry a core policy goal, a priority Atkins has echoed at the SEC. The draft legislation now before Congress will set a regulatory framework for tokenized assets and decentralized finance (DeFi) projects, clarifying jurisdiction between the SEC and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). Goldman Sachs says these moves are critical to unlocking institutional investment in crypto. The report emphasizes passing legislation by the first half of 2026 is especially important—U.S. midterm elections later in 2026 could slow progress. Citing its own survey data, the bank found 35% of institutions view regulatory uncertainty as the biggest barrier to crypto adoption, while 32% name regulatory clarity as the top catalyst.