BNY CEO: Big Banks Will Be the Bridge Powering Crypto’s Next Wave

BNY Mellon chief executive Robin Vince said the next phase of crypto adoption will come through large financial institutions, not retail speculation, as the bank pushes deeper into tokenised finance.

Speaking at the Digital Asset Summit in New York on March 24, Vince said BNY’s role is to connect traditional markets with digital infrastructure. 

The bank oversees US$52.1 trillion (AU$79.7 trillion) in assets under custody and is positioning tokenisation as a practical way to modernise financial products that still move slowly, especially loans and real estate.

That strategy is already underway. In January, BNY launched tokenised deposits on its permissioned blockchain for collateral and margin payments. 

The product basically creates on-chain representations of client deposit balances and has drawn early use from firms including Intercontinental Exchange, Citadel Securities, DRW, and Circle. Anchorage Digital, Paxos, and Securitize are also part of the network.

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Regulation Remains the Barrier

Vince said broader adoption will depend on clear rules. His argument was pretty simple: most of the financial services industry will stay out of digital assets if regulation remains uncertain. 

He described the shift as a long-term process that will take years of progress in market structure, technology, and compliance rather than a rapid crypto-style breakout.

That message came as regulators signalled a more defined US approach. At the same summit, SEC Chairman Paul Atkins said it was a historic week for digital asset markets after the agency issued new guidance dividing tokens into five categories, with four outside securities oversight.

BNY has been building this business in stages. In July 2025, it partnered with Goldman Sachs to tokenise money market fund shares using Goldman’s Digital Asset Platform, reducing settlement from up to two days to same-day completion. BlackRock, Dreyfus, Federated Hermes, and Fidelity are among the participating fund managers.

The bank has also taken on supporting roles across the sector, including work on Morgan Stanley’s Bitcoin trust and a dedicated stablecoin reserves fund. Its digital asset testing began earlier, through Singapore’s Project Guardian in 2023.

Vince said BNY’s scale is an advantage because it can absorb new systems and turn them into infrastructure that large institutions are willing to use.

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