#机构采用加密货币 Seeing the actions of Royal Bank of Canada and Interactive Brokers this week, I am reminded of the scene in 2017. Back then, we were all debating when institutions would truly step in. The result? We waited a full seven years.

Royal Bank's purchase of 77,700 shares of American Bitcoin may seem insignificant—$150,000 in a trillion-dollar asset class is just a drop in the bucket—but the signal's significance far exceeds the numbers themselves. More importantly, Interactive Brokers opening a stablecoin deposit channel is what I really want to discuss.

Remember the end of 2018? At that time, exchanges like Coinbase and Kraken were struggling with institutional deposits and withdrawals. Five years later, institutions no longer need to go through centralized exchanges; they can directly fund brokerage accounts with stablecoins. This is not just process optimization; it’s a simultaneous reduction in entry costs and psychological barriers.

Stablecoin supply has grown from $130 billion at the beginning of the year to $310 billion, an increase of nearly 140%. Some say this is a "super cycle," while others mock it as just bait. I believe both perspectives have merit. History shows that every time traditional finance and crypto merge, it is accompanied by mutual suspicion and testing. But regardless of attitudes, the fact is that the gates for institutional adoption have truly opened.

The difference this time compared to 2017 is: back then, it was a frenzy of speculators; now, it’s the layout by system designers. What we are finally waiting for is not a bubble, but the improvement of infrastructure.