Crypto’s rising political clout this year has bought it influence — and now a new set of adversaries may be lining up for a fight in 2026.
Each January Decrypt dusts off its Crypto Crystal Ball to pick the policy and market trends that will matter most. After weighing the fate of the industry’s market-structure bill, the next question is whether Wall Street is about to become crypto’s newest—and fiercest—opponent.
A dramatic signal came in December when Citadel Securities, the market maker founded by Ken Griffin, sent a blistering letter to the SEC. Citadel warned the agency against granting broad “exemptive relief” to crypto firms, arguing that doing so could undermine investor protections and urging closer supervision of much DeFi activity. The tone and specificity of the letter suggest Citadel is preparing for a legal challenge if regulators move forward.
Amanda Tuminelli of the DeFi Education Fund told attendees at a recent policy event she expects litigants from traditional finance to test crypto’s regulatory gains in court. “I do think we’re going back to court whether we want to or not,” she said, adding that Citadel’s letter makes the prospect of lawsuits “abundantly clear.”
Citadel isn’t alone. Nasdaq and other TradFi players have made similar appeals to the SEC, asking regulators to rethink plans to carve out regulatory exemptions for parts of the crypto industry. Yet crypto advocates point to recent victories that show the industry can flex political muscle: provisions in the GENIUS Act that allow stablecoin rewards survived strong opposition from the banking lobby and were included when Congress passed the bill this summer. Banks are still pressing for retroactive fixes, but the current administration has shown little appetite to revise the text.
That said, Wall Street’s stance on crypto is far from uniform. Some legacy firms — and large asset managers such as Fidelity — are increasingly embracing blockchain and tokenization as ways to reduce costs and expand services. One crypto policy executive told Decrypt that those pro-crypto TradFi voices will grow louder in 2026, balancing more hostile actors.
How this plays out could hinge on the SEC and CFTC’s rulemaking next year. Policy insiders expect tensions between crypto firms and traditional finance to peak during those regulatory fights. The likely scenarios: a détente in which TradFi accepts crypto’s business case and integration accelerates, or an escalation that culminates in high-stakes litigation and regulatory confrontation.
Bottom line for market participants: 2026 may bring neither a clean victory nor a clear defeat, but a contentious period of rulemaking and courtroom tests that will shape who benefits from crypto’s newly asserted political power.
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