Inside the Future of Digital Assets at Consensus Hong Kong 2026 | Day 1 Replay
Speakers
Anthony Scaramucci — Founder, SkyBridge Capital
— SkyBridge Capital founder
Summary
- Institutional Inertia: Despite recent market volatility (Bitcoin down ~40% from Oct highs), institutional infrastructure is expanding. BlackRock notes 95% of APAC investors chose their ETF, and redemption rates during dips were low (<1% of volume).
- Hong Kong as Crypto Hub: Hong Kong is aggressively regulating stablecoins (allowing yield, unlike the US) and positioning itself as the "Internet Capital Markets" hub, leveraging its history as the financial gateway to China.
- The "Clarity Act" & US Regulation: Multiple speakers (Scaramucci, Coinbase) predict US market structure legislation will pass before Memorial Day 2026, driven by bipartisan interests and the "Fairshake" PAC's influence.
- DeFi/TradFi Convergence: The dominant theme is "DeFi becoming Fi." Major players (ICE, Robinhood, Coinbase) are building regulated pipes (futures, agentic payments, L2s) to merge traditional finance speed with blockchain settlement.
- AI Agents as Economic Actors: A recurring thesis is that the next wave of crypto users won't be humans, but AI agents. Infrastructure is pivoting to support "Agentic Payments" (Coinbase X42, Maltbot, etc.).
Trade Ideas
Scaramucci believes the bear market is 2/3 over and sticks to a $150k price target. Thielen notes a liquidity gap at $87k but expects a bottom around $50k before a rebound driven by Fed cuts/election cycles. The macro cycle (currency debasement + eventual rate cuts) favors hard assets. Institutional holders (ETFs) are sticky, creating a higher floor. LONG (Accumulate on dips to $50k). "Quantum threat" (mentioned by Hoskinson/Lubin) requiring a hard fork; prolonged high rates.
"Dexes like Hyperliquid... have completely changed the game." Volumes are shifting to decentralized perps because they offer transparency on leverage that TradFi/CEXs cannot. As traders demand transparency post-FTX and post-market crashes, volume is structurally migrating to high-performance on-chain perp engines. Hyperliquid is capturing this "DeFi Derivatives" market share. LONG. It is the infrastructure play for the "return of the degens" and transparent leverage. Smart contract risk or regulatory crackdowns on DeFi interfaces.
ICE (parent of NYSE) is launching CoinDesk 5 and CoinDesk 20 futures, plus the first regulated BNB futures contract in the US. ICE provides the "adult in the room" infrastructure that allows massive institutional capital to hedge and trade crypto assets compliantly. Launching a BNB contract legitimizes BNB as an institutional asset class alongside BTC and ETH. LONG. ICE benefits from data/trading volume; BNB benefits from institutional legitimacy and implied regulatory safety. Regulatory crackdown on Binance affecting the underlying BNB asset.
Franklin Templeton has tokenized nearly $1B of Treasuries on Stellar. Hex Trust sees 2026 as the year DTCC tokenizes "hundreds of billions." The "pilot phase" is over. Major financial plumbing (DTCC) and asset managers are moving from proof-of-concept to commercial scale on specific chains (Stellar mentioned explicitly for Treasuries). LONG. Stellar is a specific beneficiary of the regulated RWA thesis. Banks building private blockchains instead of using public networks like Stellar.
Bitmine (a DAT - Digital Asset Treasury) holds 4.4 million ETH, has no debt, and generates yield via staking. They claim DATs outperform the underlying L1 (ETH) due to yield and strategic investments (e.g., Mr. Beast's company). Investors seeking ETH exposure should prefer a vehicle that generates yield and has corporate growth upside (moonshot investments) over holding the raw asset, effectively acting as a leveraged ETH play without liquidation risk. LONG. A play on ETH mean reversion ($12k target mentioned) plus operational alpha. ETH underperforming SOL/BTC; corporate mismanagement of the treasury.
Robinhood is launching its own L2 chain (public testnet) and acquiring Bitstamp to expand in Asia. Coinbase is launching "X42," an agentic payment protocol to allow AI agents to transact. Exchanges are evolving from simple trading venues into comprehensive financial infrastructure. Robinhood is capturing the global retail market via L2s, while Coinbase is capturing the future "Machine Economy" where AI agents require bank accounts and payment rails. LONG. Both are diversifying revenue streams beyond transaction fees into infrastructure dominance. Regulatory delays in the US "Clarity Act" or failure of AI agent adoption.
Scaramucci calls Solana "anti-fragile" and notes it handled massive throughput during the "Trump coin" mania. Evan Cheng notes Sui is the first non-EVM chain to get a full Coinbase integration and emphasizes "T+0" settlement for TradFi. In the race for "Internet Capital Markets," institutions require speed and low cost. Solana and Sui are winning the technical narrative for high-frequency TradFi integration over legacy chains, positioning them as the rails for RWA (Real World Assets). LONG. These L1s are capturing the "execution layer" value of the new financial stack. Network outages (Solana) or lack of developer traction compared to EVM (Sui).
Memecoins are evolving into "cultural startups." Bonk is building trading bots and infrastructure, not just a ticker. In a market saturated with 25 million tokens, only "Utility Memes" that generate revenue or build products will survive the rotation. Bonk is pivoting to infrastructure. WATCH. Differentiate between pure gambling memes (AVOID) and infrastructure memes (LONG). Retail fatigue; rotation to new "shiny object" memes.
Up Next
This CoinDesk video, published February 11, 2026, features Anthony Scaramucci, Joy Pathak, David Eis, Raja Chakravorti, Tom Lee, Johann Kerbrat, Ray Chan discussing BTC, HYPE, BNB, ICE, XLM, BITMINE, ETH, HOOD, COIN, SOL, SUI, BONK. 8 trade ideas extracted by AI with direction and confidence scoring.
Speakers: Anthony Scaramucci, Joy Pathak, David Eis, Raja Chakravorti, Tom Lee, Johann Kerbrat, Ray Chan · Tickers: BTC, HYPE, BNB, ICE, XLM, BITMINE, ETH, HOOD, COIN, SOL, SUI, BONK