Jefferies, one of Wall Street’s more established investment banks, just put a number on what many in the crypto industry have been whispering about for years. The bank projects that public listings of crypto and blockchain-related companies could collectively reach a $1 trillion market by 2031.
The forecast emerged from the bank’s inaugural Digital Assets Investor Conference, held on May 27 in New York. Around 150 institutional investors and executives from 35 digital asset firms gathered for the event.
The thesis: tokenization and stablecoins are doing the heavy lifting
The core thesis rests on two pillars: the tokenization of real-world assets and the integration of stablecoins into payments and settlements. Tokenization of RWAs means taking traditional financial instruments like money market funds and private credit and putting them on a blockchain, enabling faster settlement, around-the-clock trading, and access to a global investor base.
Institutional interest in partnerships for faster settlement and 24/7 payments via stablecoins is increasing, according to the conference’s takeaways. The conference also highlighted impending regulatory clarity as a catalyst. Legislation like the proposed CLARITY Act is expected to give firms the legal guardrails they need to go public.
The IPO pipeline: slower than 2025, but far from dead
The crypto IPO market slowed in 2026 compared to a more active 2025. Securitize, a platform focused on tokenized securities, is among the upcoming IPO candidates. So is Payward, the parent company of Kraken. FalconX, the institutional crypto brokerage, has also filed for an IPO. And Bullish acquired Equiniti for $4.2 billion to bolster its tokenized securities infrastructure.
Jefferies expects 10 to 15 crypto-native IPOs in the next 18 to 24 months.
What this means for investors
The conference consensus pointed toward a pivot away from speculative token plays and toward revenue-generating blockchain applications encompassing trading platforms, payment processors, lending protocols, and tokenized product issuers. The conference takeaway was that blockchain technology is transitioning from speculative investment toward a role within core financial infrastructure.
