Davos 2026 did put crypto back in the global spotlight. It may not have dominated the WEF agenda but it was a part of enough speeches and conversations to move markets and set narratives for 2026.
What was the big takeaway? Politics is still navigating through short-term price action. But traditional finance, Wall Street and more are increasingly treating crypto and tokenization as inevitable.
In an exclusive chat with 99Bitcoins, Dea Markova, Policy Director for Fireblocks, weighed in. “As geopolitical tension and market growth concerns take a hold of 2026, I expect the politics and policy of digital assets to slip from the news spotlights to the product development roadmaps,” said Markova. “This will be constructive.”
“2025 was about generating a new momentum in crypto policy,” added Markova. “We concluded the year with most crypto hubs committed not only to clarity, but to competitiveness. In many capital that meant the beginning of a meaningful institutional digital assets projects and investments.”
“If 2025 as a Momentum Year, then 2026 will be a Rollout Year.”
“Legislative reform gets sent to the level of rule-making. Infrastructure investments result in increase in new products and increased transaction volumes on, for example, stablecoin transfers. Questions like which ledger supports privacy or distribution at scale come to the fore,” said the Policy Director of Fireblocks, the digital asset infrastructure company, known to provide secure custody and transfer infrastructure for financial institutions, exchanges, and other businesses to manage digital assets.
In contrast to the geopolitical tensions, 2026 in digital assets also has to be a year of finding cross-border regulatory alignment on issues like access to global liquidity or recognition of compliant stablecoins. In some ways, this is the one contrarian trend which our industry contributes to, and requires from, global trade tensions.
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Industry Leaders Pitch 2026 Optimism
DAVID SACKS: “AFTER THE MARKET STRUCTURE BILL PASSES, BANKS ARE GOING TO FULLY GET INTO CRYPTO”
Just in from Davos 2026.
Watch.
pic.twitter.com/FZvjKDyDGg
— SMQKE (@SMQKEDQG) January 21, 2026
Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse said he is “very bullish” on crypto’s prospects in 2026. He said, “We’ll see an all-time high.”
Meanwhile, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink said at Davos that updating the financial system to run on blockchain technology is “necessary.” “We would be reducing fees, we would do more democratisation, if we have one common blockchain, we could reduce corruption,” said Fink.
UBS CEO Sergio Ermotti echoed the 2026 optimism. He said that “Blockchain is the future for traditional banking.”
Just as Davos 2026 concluded, on 23 January 2026 Swiss banking giant UBS announced crypto investing available for private banking clients. According to Bloomberg, “The Swiss banking giant, which oversaw some $4.7 trillion in wealth assets as of 30 September 2025, is in the process of selecting partners for a crypto offering, people with knowledge of the matter said.” However, all the details of this decision has not been revealed yet.
Key Takeaways
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Despite the market wobble, the tone from prominent crypto executives at Davos was notably bullish.
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US President Donald Trump’s comments and broader foreign-policy posture helped revive a “Sell America” tone in markets, and reminded traders that Bitcoin is still tightly correlated with macro risk appetite when uncertainty spikes.
The post 99Bitcoins Exclusive: Fireblocks Calls 2026 the ‘Rollout Year’ For Crypto Despite Rising Geopolitical Tensions appeared first on 99Bitcoins.
