Banks Take Control of Crypto Infrastructure as Exchanges Fall By the Wayside
BitMEX, the pioneering exchange behind crypto's first perpetual futures contract, will shut down on September 23 after an 11-year run. Another prominent platform, BitMart, plans to wind down by January.
A growing number of established players are abandoning or scaling back their crypto endeavors in favor of more traditional financial products and infrastructure. Movement Labs, developer of the Movement blockchain network, and Storj, operator of a decentralized cloud storage service, both filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection this month.
According to Jean-Marie Mognetti, CoinShares co-founder and CEO, 'this is not a collapse.' Instead, it's a natural sorting process as the industry evolves. Blockchain was never intended to replace traditional finance; rather, its primary value lies in providing more efficient plumbing for financial systems. And indeed, established banks are beginning to build on top of these innovations.
One notable example is Hyperliquid, a decentralized derivatives exchange that has seen real-world assets account for 54% of its trading volume - a staggering $26 billion. This shift away from crypto-centric exchanges and towards regulated financial products is further reflected in the growth of ETFs like CoinShares' BRRR and BTF.
Banks are also expanding their own crypto-related offerings, with JPMorgan's Kinexys platform processing over $4 trillion in transactions since its launch. BlackRock's tokenized Treasury fund has surpassed $2.5 billion in assets across eight blockchains.