Briefly
- Citadel and different TradFi giants are signaling they could sue to dam crypto’s new regulatory wins, establishing a serious 2026 showdown.
- Wall Road is more and more break up: some companies see crypto as a risk, whereas others are embracing blockchain.
- The rising battle is anticipated to peak throughout SEC and CFTC rulemaking subsequent yr.
This yr vaulted the crypto business to unprecedented heights of political affect. However may that new place of energy pose sudden penalties—and entice new enemies—in 2026?
Initially of each new yr, Decrypt consults its useful Crypto Crystal Ball to divine what traits are prone to form the approaching months—and what these developments may imply for you.
First, we investigated whether or not the crypto business will be capable to cross its treasured market construction invoice this coming yr. In the present day, we glance right into a associated subject: whether or not Wall Road is poised to change into the business's latest villain in 2026.
In early December, Wall Road big Citadel Securities fired a warning shot throughout crypto’s bow in a scathing letter to the SEC. The market maker, based by billionaire Ken Griffin, urged the SEC to rethink granting exemptive aid to very large swathes of the crypto business, and warned such actions may “override key investor protections.” It additionally argued a lot DeFi exercise ought to be monitored by the securities regulator.
Amanda Tuminelli, government director of the DeFi Schooling Fund, is pretty sure that conventional finance giants are gearing as much as sue over crypto’s new regulatory victories—even when the SEC is now firmly on crypto’s facet.
“I do assume we’re going again to court docket whether or not we need to or not,” Tuminelli stated at a latest crypto coverage occasion. “I’m not simply speculating. [The letter] makes it abundantly clear that Citadel is on the brink of sue.”
Different conventional finance entities, together with the Nasdaq inventory alternate, have made comparable appeals to the SEC—to desert plans to grant the crypto business key exemptions.
One crypto coverage government instructed Decrypt their business has already confronted off towards conventional finance gamers this yr, and received.
“I feel it’s already a major political power,” the chief stated of an anti-crypto push from conventional finance. “It’s been an element, and it stays an element now.”
The banking foyer, for example, vocally opposed provisions within the GENIUS Act relating to stablecoin rewards—however the invoice handed Congress this summer season anyway. Banking teams are nonetheless pushing to have the language retroactively adjusted, however the Trump administration to date seems unmoved on the difficulty.
What’s extra, Wall Road isn’t any monolith with reference to crypto. The truth is, a rising variety of key gamers are embracing the know-how as a method to chop prices and probably skirt rules.
“I feel over the course of the following yr, the views of the Fidelitys of the world amongst TradFi gamers will begin to be a bit of bit louder, and stability out these on the opposite facet saying we’re an existential risk,” one other crypto coverage chief instructed Decrypt.
The coverage chief predicted crypto’s tensions with conventional finance will possible come to a head throughout rulemaking processes on the SEC and CFTC in 2026.
“It may very well be that it peters out within the sense that TradFi truly acknowledges the chance right here,” the coverage chief stated. However the friction may additionally spiral into “a full head-on conflict,” they added.
