Major Wall Street banks are doing some incredible things. What we see from the latest reports is that in the first quarter of 2026, major U.S. banks spent a record $33 billion on share buybacks. This is far above market expectations.

JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, and Citigroup have each carried out their largest buybacks ever. Bank of America and Morgan Stanley also reached multi-year highs. Senior analyst at Oppenheimer, Chris Kotowski, points out that the actual buyback amounts for each bank exceeded model predictions by 30 to 50 percent. In other words, banks are actively returning more capital to shareholders than initially anticipated.

The backdrop to this is the deregulation policy of the Trump administration. Since the 2008 financial crisis, this is arguably the first time Wall Street has experienced such strong deregulation. Banks are allowed to allocate resources to share repurchases and shareholder returns instead of just strengthening capital buffers, which has sparked this buyback surge.

These developments in the banking sector could also have ripple effects on the cryptocurrency market. Especially in a phase where blockchain-related assets like Ripple and XRP are attracting attention, changes in institutional investor capital flows are a significant factor. As banks become more aggressive, overall market liquidity and investment attitudes are likely to shift. Tracking the correlation between bank buyback strategies and the crypto market remains valuable.