BlockBeats news, on January 25, at the 2026 World Economic Forum (WEF) Davos annual meeting, cryptocurrency and blockchain technology have completely shed the label of 'marginal topics' and have become the core issues hotly debated by global financial leaders and policymakers. Here are summaries of relevant remarks from industry leaders in the crypto sector and traditional financial giants during this Davos period:
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong revealed that during the World Economic Forum in Davos, an executive from one of the world's top ten banks told him that cryptocurrency has become the bank's 'number one priority' and is even seen as a 'matter of life and death.' Although he did not specify the names of the bank and the executive, Armstrong emphasized that many financial leaders he interacted with during this week-long event not only hold an open attitude towards cryptocurrency but are also actively seeking ways to enter the market. 'The vast majority of them actually support cryptocurrency very much and see it as an important opportunity.' Tokenization is one of the most discussed trends at the Davos Forum.
Binance founder CZ stated in an interview with CNBC at Davos that he is completely unable to predict the short-term fluctuations of Bitcoin, but it is easy to predict the long-term performance of Bitcoin. From the perspective of a one-year timeline, he is uncertain about 2026, but he has a strong feeling that Bitcoin will enter a super cycle in 2026. The change in the U.S. attitude towards the crypto space is of symbolic significance and will also affect various aspects of the Western world. Following the U.S., many countries are also beginning to change their attitudes towards crypto assets.
Executives from companies like Circle and Ripple stated that stablecoins have become the global financial 'plumbing', used for cross-border payments and efficiency improvements. Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse indicated that stablecoins are a typical representation of tokenization and predicts that the crypto market will reach an all-time high in 2026.
BlackRock CEO Larry Fink emphasized multiple times at Davos that the future of assets is tokenization, and there is a current need to rapidly advance tokenization by placing all financial assets on a single blockchain to reduce intermediaries and corruption. He views tokenization as a necessary trend that can encompass everything from money market funds to stocks and real estate.
Overall, crypto has shifted from a fringe topic to the core narrative of global financial infrastructure. Institutions have moved from 'watching' to 'deploying', focusing on regulatory clarity (U.S. GENIUS Act, CLARITY Act), scaling of tokenization, stablecoin interoperability, and integration with AI. Bitcoin is also mentioned, but mainstream discussions lean more towards practical infrastructure rather than pure speculation. Larry Fink quoted Elon Musk at the closing of the 2026 Davos Forum: 'Being an optimistic loser is better than being a pessimistic winner.'