Institutions Eye Tokenized RWAs, Stablecoins, AI Compute in 2026

At the Hong Kong Web3 Festival, three industry executives discussed where institutional capital is likely to flow in 2026 and which operational barriers are keeping allocations small. Participants included Michael Ivanov, chief executive of Arcanum; Ciara Sun, founder and managing partner of C² Ventures; and Ivan Ivanov, founder of UVECON.VC and RWA SUMMIT.

The panel identified four priority areas for institutional demand next year: tokenized real-world assets, regulated stablecoins, institutional-grade trading and liquidity platforms, and networks that combine AI workloads with compute and energy infrastructure. Panelists said these areas attract interest because they mirror traditional financial structures or offer clearer revenue and liquidity paths.

Speakers described regional differences in allocator behavior. Family offices in parts of Asia allocate under 5% of client capital to digital assets and concentrate holdings in bitcoin, ether and exchange-traded products. Crypto-focused hedge funds and licensed managers are more active, while some allocators and funds of funds in Asia already use quant trading workflows. U.S. institutional demand remains limited pending clearer regulatory direction, the panel reported.

Panelists listed custody, mandate, due diligence and sizing as recurring operational blockers. Custody issues arise when institutions cannot audit or verify asset controls. Many funds lack an explicit crypto allocation in their investment mandate, and adding one can take months. Due diligence often fails when strategy documentation or independent validation is incomplete. Without risk models that support position sizing, allocators cannot decide how much capital to commit.

Banking and reputational constraints also restrict flows. One executive noted that banks in Hong Kong commonly reject corporate applicants that state an intention to invest company funds in crypto, even when service providers hold licenses. Internal reputation risk inside institutions can stop approvals at board or committee level, producing deals that never close.

Arcanum’s product, Pulse, was described as a tool designed to address some operational frictions. Pulse allows users to add API keys through a Telegram Mini App and run trading strategies on Bybit subaccounts that remain under allocator control. For clients seeking delegated management, Arcanum offers either license agreements with profit-sharing or joint operating companies, and the firm plans to expand into broker services, lower-fee terminals and new algorithms. The platform provides real-time reporting and a history of executions for investor review.

Panelists emphasized transparency and investor protection as conditions for larger allocations. Investors require clear records of trades, verifiable risk controls, documented token and cap table structures, and legal protections that specify investor rights. One speaker described trust in market participants as central, summarizing it as “Trust is the new gold in crypto.”

The group identified improvements in banking access, reliable custody arrangements, regulated stablecoin frameworks and clearer legal structures as factors that would reduce the gap between interest and deployment. They said licensed providers and transparent operational proof points could help some allocators move from interest to actual capital deployment.