As reported on CoinDesk, institutional capital is flooding into digital assets at an unprecedented pace, with JPMorgan forecasting $60 billion in inflows by 2025—outpacing private equity and private credit. But beyond the headline numbers lies a deeper transformation: institutions are not just investing in crypto, they’re rewiring how capital itself moves.
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From Static Assets to Programmable Capital
BlackRock’s tokenised treasury fund, BUIDL, has ballooned to around $3 billion AUM and is now being used as collateral on major crypto exchanges. This signals a profound shift toward “programmable capital markets,” where assets are not only held but actively deployed in real-time financial operations.
Adam Saville-Brown, Head of Commercial at Tesseract, says the implications extend far beyond market growth:
“Traditional finance and blockchain are converging, fundamentally reshaping how capital is put to work. High yield is no longer a hunt for percentages but a race to programmable safety and transparency. The space is moving from passive, static tokens to a new paradigm of ‘programmable capital’ across two distinct but interconnected tracks: regulated tokenised cash products and protocol-native yield mechanisms, both wrapped in institutional-grade infrastructure.”
Adam Saville-Brown, Head of Commercial at Tesseract
Adam continues, “On one rail, we’re seeing the maturation of regulated, tokenised cash products. Institutions are not just dipping their toes in; they are building on-chain. As of August 2025, tokenised U.S. Treasuries have surged to approximately $6.6 billion, with the total on-chain real-world assets market (excluding stablecoins) surpassing $25 billion.
Prime examples include BlackRock’s BUIDL, a tokenised money fund that has reportedly grown to around $3 billion in AUM as of July, and Franklin Templeton’s BENJI, which is expanding its presence across multiple blockchains and into new jurisdictions, like Luxembourg. These products bring the stability of traditional assets to public chains with institution-grade compliance and liquidity.
The other rail is protocol-native yield, particularly through staking and restaking. The appetite for this is clear, with Ethereum’s restaking TVL surging past $20 billion at one point. While a ‘base’ ETH staking yield sits at around 3%, restaking offers a way to compound these returns by securing multiple protocols simultaneously.
“The real unlock, however, is the composability of these instruments. They can be used as collateral, moved cross-chain, and rebalanced instantly – transforming treasury operations into software.”
Adam Saville-Brown, Head of Commercial at Tesseract
The gap between ‘holding a token’ and ‘putting it to work’ is closing fast, allowing treasurers to earn yield, post collateral, and reallocate capital in minutes, not days. The future of finance is a 24/7, programmable, and transparent system where regulated yield is the new gold standard.”
Regulatory Tailwinds Accelerate Adoption
JPMorgan attributes much of the surge in institutional inflows to a friendlier U.S. regulatory climate. The passage of the GENIUS Act brought long-awaited clarity around stablecoins, setting global standards for dollar-backed tokens. Meanwhile, the CLARITY Act aims to clearly define whether digital assets are securities or commodities—potentially making the U.S. more attractive for crypto-native companies than the EU’s MiCA framework.
This clearer legal environment is driving renewed interest across both private and public markets, with crypto VC funding rebounding and public offerings—like Circle’s IPO—capturing investor attention.
The Bottom Line
With U.S. tokenised treasuries now at $6.6 billion, on-chain real-world assets exceeding $25 billion, and restaking strategies pulling in tens of billions more, the building blocks of programmable finance are in place. If JPMorgan’s $60 billion projection holds, the next phase won’t just be about bigger numbers—it will be about faster, smarter, and more transparent ways of putting that capital to work.