The crypto industry is having a glow-up moment, as the latest round of legislation and regulation, such as the upcoming Clarity Act, is turning cryptocurrencies from a fringe asset class into a must-own asset class for all investors.
At Consensus 2026 in Miami Beach, BeInCrypto met up with Henri Arslanian, Co-founder of Nine Blocks Capital Management. Henri has been an early investor in the crypto space, and firsthand witness to the massive changes in crypto over the years.
The Focus on Stablecoins
In recent weeks, news broke that the U.S. Senate would move on the Clarity Act. This legislation would create the regulatory rails that will allow adoption by large financial institutions.
At its core, the legislation focuses on stablecoins. This provides an onramp from physical dollars to a digital token backed by, and pegged at a value of one dollar.
According to Henri:
The Rise of Crypto Payments
Companies have embraced crypto payments for their fast settlement times and lower fees compared to legacy systems such as banks and credit card providers.
The latest iteration of payments? Agentic payments, or payments made by AI programs without any human input. Many of these payments are routed through crypto programs.
But even as payments via cryptos rise, it raises with them significant questions that remain to be addressed.
Crypto Mainstream Remains A Distant Goal
Cryptocurrencies have been around since 2009. That’s still in its infancy compared to stocks or bonds, which have been around for hundreds of years, or gold and real estate, which have been around for thousands of years.
Currently, only a small percentage of the population is actively involved in the space. And with many new crypto tools being developed into mainstream banking platforms, much of crypto’s success is happening away from the eyes of everyday investors.
Henri has identified the three biggest challenges facing crypto today:
Crypto’s Institutional Moment
One of the biggest observations of this year’s Consensus conference was the overlap between major banking institutions and the crypto space.
Much of the technopunk vibe is gone, replaced with a convergence between the existing banking system and the 21st century tools developed in the crypto market.
Henri, a veteran of the Consensus conference, has noted the shift:
The Crypto Winter
While some had hoped that Bitcoin would break its four-year price cycle last year, that didn’t happen. Prices peaked around $120,000, and promptly fell by nearly 50% within a few months.
But a crypto winter isn’t just about price action. It’s about what it means for sentiment in the space:
While prices have turned higher off their lows, it will take some more time to confirm that the worst of the related selloff is over. While still a crypto winter, it has been an active one in terms of the projects being built out, and the conference between tradfi and crypto.
As Henri notes, there are a lot of challenges in crypto right now… but with it, a lot of opportunities.
The post From Stablecoins to the Future of Crypto: A Discussion with Nine Blocks Capital Management Co-Founder Henri Arslanian appeared first on BeInCrypto.
Source: https://beincrypto.com/from-stablecoins-to-the-future-of-crypto-a-discussion-with-nine-blocks-capital-management-co-founder-henri-arslanian/
