Quick insight series, Top 10 Crypto & Digital Asset Trends – Sean Kiernan, Greengage
This week’s Top 10 Crypto & Digital Asset Trends is dedicated to Sean Kiernan, CEO, Greengage
What’s your current assessment of the digital asset market, and how is macroeconomic or regulatory uncertainty affecting sentiment among private wealth clients?
The digital asset market in 2025 has entered a new phase of credibility. The speculative excesses of earlier cycles have given way to a more disciplined, institutional environment, with total market value now sitting north of four trillion dollars. What we are seeing is digital assets becoming part of the global financial bloodstream rather than existing on its periphery. At the same time, broader macro conditions are shaping sentiment: inflation remains stubborn in parts of the developed world, central banks continue to signal uncertainty around rate trajectories, and geopolitical tensions are influencing capital flows. All of this makes investors more discerning. For private wealth clients, the conversation has shifted from short-term opportunity to long-term infrastructure: not “what to trade,” but “what systems will last.” Bitcoin increasingly plays the role of digital gold, while Ethereum functions more like the petroleum of the new economy, serving as a base layer powering smart contracts, settlement, and real institutional use cases.
How are recent policy changes in the U.S., EU, or Asia influencing crypto adoption or caution in the private client space?
Regulation is doing what volatility never could, it is forcing digital assets to grow up. In the United States, the approval of spot ETFs has normalised crypto in capital markets. BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust is closing in on one hundred billion dollars in assets, making it the fastest growing product in the firm’s history. Alongside this, the recently enacted GENIUS Act, focused specifically on creating a US national framework for stablecoins, has become a bellwether for institutional adoption. By setting federal standards for issuance, reserves, and oversight, it signals Washington’s recognition that stablecoins are not fringe instruments but the next layer of the global dollar system. In Europe, MiCA is bringing long needed harmony to custody and trading, while Singapore and Hong Kong are actively designing their regimes to attract institutional liquidity. This is not about fuelling speculation, it is about formalising the digital architecture of finance.
What role are digital assets currently playing in the portfolios of HNWIs and family offices — speculative, hedging, or strategic?
Digital assets are becoming a strategic, rather than purely speculative, part of wealth portfolios, particularly due to interests from the next generation of family office and private client wealth. At the same time, a new wave of crypto-native wealth is emerging, with founders and early investors setting up family offices and looking to diversify out of digital assets into credit, real estate, and other yield-bearing structures. At Greengage, our focus is to provide those foundations, crypto-friendly accounts and private credit solutions that let clients participate confidently and securely in the ecosystem’s growth.
How are wealth managers integrating crypto and blockchain-based products into diversified portfolios for their clients?
Most wealth managers are taking an incremental approach rather than a radical one. They are not positioning themselves as “crypto native,” but they are responding to client demand by opening access to regulated products such as BlackRock’s IBIT and other spot ETFs, or partnering with regulated institutional providers such as Fidelity Digital Assets. This approach allows exposure within familiar compliance frameworks, which is critical for fiduciaries. Beyond that, the majority of integration remains exploratory across the traditional financial services space, focused on understanding how blockchain might improve settlement, custody, and reporting, rather than driving active exposure. The real progress is happening quietly: digital assets are being normalised as part of the conversation, but through traditional channels and regulated wrappers, not speculative plays.
Are there specific tokens, protocols, or segments (DeFi, stablecoins, real-world assets) that you see gaining traction among private investors in 2025?
Most private investors gaining exposure are doing so through the major assets, primarily Bitcoin and to a lesser extent Ethereum and others, and almost always via regulated products or providers. Beyond those, stablecoins remain the standout story. USD stablecoins now account for roughly two percent of all global dollar flows, making them the clear “killer app” of blockchain to date. Their growing use in settlements and payments is familiarising users with digital wallets that increasingly behave like IBANs, which in turn is opening the door to broader adoption of digitally native financial products. Tokenised private credit, though still far smaller in scale, is starting to gain traction as investors explore yield opportunities on-chain. Meanwhile, DeFi (or Decentralized Finance) is evolving from a retail experiment into a testing ground for institutional-grade infrastructure, particularly around liquidity provision and automated settlement.
How do you see the evolution of ESG frameworks and sustainability intersecting with blockchain and digital assets?
The ESG debate around blockchain has matured. Proof-of-work networks like Bitcoin are still energy intensive, but over half of the energy used now comes from renewable or otherwise stranded sources. With proof of stake and energy-efficient chains now standard across much of the sector, the focus has shifted from energy consumption to transparency, as blockchain systems increasingly demonstrate how technology can support verifiable ESG goals through efficiency, accountability, and real-time data integrity.
What are the key risks private clients should be aware of in crypto markets — and how can advisors mitigate them?
The risks are structural rather than sensational. Custody, counterparty discipline, and regulatory clarity remain paramount. The biggest danger is not price movement, it is operational fragility. Advisors can mitigate this by working only with regulated custodians, by demanding transparency in governance, and by treating digital assets as part of financial infrastructure, not a separate universe. Education on terminology is important, as once new terms become familiar to clients they have a better handle on potential risks. The firms that survive the next cycle will be those that operate to tried and tested standards, and who work with clients to ensure they know clearly what they are getting into when engaging with the digital sector.
Have expectations changed in terms of custody, access, or transparency in crypto wealth management solutions?
Completely. The modern client expects institutional grade service across all asset classes, and digital assets are no exception. Secure custody, audited flows, and real time transparency are now baseline expectations. The crypto silo mentality has faded. What clients want are seamless platforms that let them transact in both fiat and digital form with the same confidence they have in traditional financial services.
In what ways are you seeing private banks or trustees adapting to the inclusion of digital assets in estate planning and fiduciary conversations?
Private banks and trustees are catching up fast. The conversation has shifted from avoidance to integration. They are creating crypto aware trusts, defining how keys are stored and transferred, and embedding digital asset language into estate documentation. The aim is simple, continuity. If wealth can be created in digital form, it must also be preserved and passed on with legal and technical certainty.
What innovations or infrastructure developments (e.g. tokenisation, ETFs, compliance tools) do you believe are most important to the future of crypto in private wealth?
The real breakthroughs are coming from the convergence of traditional finance and digital infrastructure. Tokenisation is moving from pilot projects to genuine capital formation, with private assets now being issued and traded on-chain under regulated frameworks. Stablecoin settlement is emerging as the quiet workhorse of this transition: replacing the slow, fragmented back-office processes of traditional payments with near-instant, atomic settlement. This is showing also how similar settlement efficiencies could be achieved for e.g. stocks, bonds and funds down the road. On-chain compliance and blockchain analytics are also maturing fast, making transactions on digital rails in some cases more transparent and traceable than those in legacy finance. These developments are not as headline-grabbing as the price of Bitcoin, but they are rewriting how financial systems operate: faster, cheaper, and with clearer lines of trust and accountability.
Sean Kiernan’s Citywealth Leaders List profile
Greengage’s Citywealth Leaders List profile
Key Takeaways
- The digital asset market in 2025 shows increased credibility, with total value over four trillion dollars.
- Regulatory changes, like the approval of spot ETFs in the U.S., are fostering institutional adoption and formalising the digital finance architecture.
- Digital assets shift from speculative to strategic roles in wealth portfolios, driven by the next generation of private clients.
- Wealth managers are gradually integrating crypto products while ensuring compliance with existing financial regulations.
- Innovations like tokenisation and stablecoin settlements are critical for the future of crypto in private wealth management.
Estimated reading time: 7 minutes
Subscribe to the Citywealth Weekly Newsletter to learn more about Private Wealth Management.
Read more:
Citywealth Crypto Focus: A Chat with Sean Kiernan | Citywealth News
Middle East’s Economic Transformation Explained
Citywealth Crypto editorial board – Digital Event | Citywealth
Top 50 Crypto Professionals 2023 | Citywealth Top List
Crypto Editorial Board: news round-up
Top 10 Crypto & Digital Asset Trends – Ben Lee, Andersen Tax
This week’s Top 10 Crypto & Digital Asset Trends is dedicated to Ben Lee, Partner at Andersen Tax.
Top 10 Crypto & Digital Asset Trends – James Burnie, Gunnercooke
James Burnie, financial services regulation and FinTech Partner, Gunnercooke - advising financial institutions on EU and UK financial regulation. Burnie has an MA in Law from Cambridge University, and a specialist corporate and commercial LLM from the London School of Economics, where his specialisms included Information Technology and the Law.