CRYPTO 101 Ep. 712 Crypto Isn’t Dead — It’s Being Rebuilt by Wall Street: What Smart Money Is Buying Now
Mar 19, 2026
Aryan Sheikhalian, Head of Research at CMT Digital and institutional blockchain investor, explains how crypto is shifting into institutional-grade infrastructure. He discusses tokenization, on-chain settlement, privacy with compliance, and the battle between Ethereum and faster L1s. The talk focuses on where smart money is allocating and what infrastructure really matters next.
AI Snips
Chapters
Books
Transcript
Episode notes
Back Into Investment Thesis From The End Use Case
- Start research by defining the end use case then work backward to spot missing infrastructure.
- Aryan emphasizes mapping current blockchain ecosystems and identifying gap infrastructure pieces like custody or data layers.
Fund Strategy Evolved With Crypto Adoption Stages
- CMT's funds evolved with adoption: fund one targeted access, fund two targeted infrastructure, fund three targeted real utility, fund four targets on-chain/off-chain integration.
- This progression mirrors market cycles from 2017 access plays to current tokenization and institutional integration.
Tokenization And On Chain Settlement Are The Next Wave
- The next wave centers on tokenization and on-chain settlement as incumbents must adopt to defend market share.
- Aryan expects banks, asset managers, and fintechs to pursue tokenization and reconciliation tools to merge on-chain with legacy systems.
