Welcome to our institutional newsletter, Crypto Long & Short. This week:
- Jordan Brewer on the missing piece in token markets: institutional investor relations.
- Martin Burgherr on the maturing of crypto markets, which are becoming more efficient and lower risk for institutions.
- Top news that institutions should pay attention to by Francisco Rodrigues.
- Collector Crypt: Revenue Recovery Meets Token Revaluation in Chart of the Week.
-Alexandra Levis
Expert insights
Guide, deliver, repeat: the hidden driver of token performance
By Jordan Brewer, Investment Analyst, Runa Digital Assets
In early March, just three months after a Solana Breakpoint main stage performance by Ranger Finance co-founder Fathur Rahman, and two months after the ICO, token holders forced the liquidation of the protocol’s treasury. How does a 14x oversubscribed ICO unravel so quickly? The answer: poor investor relations.
Investor relationships at the institutional level remain the missing piece in the token markets. Crypto spent years in a venture-style framework, but protocols are now looking to public market investors to provide more sustainable capital. A key part of investor relations is a regular investor call where management reviews forward guidance – teams from Maple Finance and EtherFi are leading the charge here. These calls are solid, but this is just the beginning and the stakes are high. When done right, symbolic appreciations are rewarded; done poorly, the downside is steep.
It pays to give guidance (as long as you beat it)
Research shows that the value of forward guidance lies not only in its provision, but also in its accuracy. Bartov, Givoly, and Hayn (2002) found that companies that consistently meet or exceed their own guidelines enjoy a measurable stock price premium over those that do not. This premium is aimed at ‘regular beaters’, meaning the market increasingly trusts and rewards management teams that perform repeatedly. Furthermore, price expectations are a leading indicator of future stock performance, regardless of whether the price was real or the result of earnings or expectations management. Skinner and Sloan (2002) have also shown the opposite: growth stocks that disappoint on earnings expectations experience an asymmetrically large negative price reaction, which far exceeds the upside reward from a positive surprise. Guidance accuracy is a measure of management’s credibility, and credibility is a direct input to valuation multiples.
Crypto is starting to produce its own version of this dynamic. In December 2024, when Maple’s AUM was $460 million and their ARR was $4 million, Maple set the guidance of $4 billion in AUM and $25 million in ARR for 2025 and later increased the guidance to $5 billion in AUM and $30 million in ARR. Maple delivered results, achieving $5 billion in assets under management and $28 million in annualized 30-day revenue in October (see table below). That’s a cadence that any public market investor would recognize and reward. From December 2024 to June 2025, the SYRUP token price rose from $0.10 to a high of $0.60, outperforming competitors like AAVE by 475%.
EtherFi is a good example of this dynamic. During their March 2026 tokenholder call, the team predicted a 55% reduction in customer acquisition costs, while increasing their advertising budget by 420% in 2026, implying 11x year-over-year customer growth. That’s the kind of specific guidance that gives investors something concrete to stick to.
However, guidance without delivery is just marketing. Investor relationships in crypto don’t end with a dashboard, that’s where it starts. Guidance and accountability are at the heart of protocol teams’ credibility, and it is credibility that increases the persuasiveness of public investors.
Principled perspectives
Institutions separate custody and execution in crypto
By means of Martin Burgherr, Head of Clients, Sygnum Bank
There is a quiet but significant shift in the way institutional capital moves through the crypto markets. Large trading firms are increasingly separating where they hold assets and where they execute transactions. More than a tactical change, it signals a broader evolution in the structure of the digital asset market.
For most of crypto’s institutional history, there has been a basic architectural assumption: to access liquidity, you need to hold capital on the exchange. Historically, if you want to trade on an on-chain options exchange or execute strategies in multiple locations, you transfer the collateral to each exchange and leave it there. The model works, until you ask what it costs.
These costs are not just counterparty risk, but that is also important. It’s capital inefficiency. Every dollar posted as margin on an exchange remains idle, earns nothing and cannot be redeployed. For an institutional trading desk managing hundreds of millions in positions, the opportunity cost is enormous – and in a rising interest rate environment it is becoming increasingly difficult to justify this.
The infrastructure is catching up
The separation between custody and execution is not theoretical. Companies like Wintermute and Nomura’s digital asset arm Laser Digital already operate this way, using collateral held in regulated bank custody while retaining full access to exchange liquidity. BlackRock’s BUIDL money market fund, which has approximately $2.5 billion in assets under management, is now accepted as off-exchange collateral. The infrastructure is not built by startups. It is built by the institutions that want to use it.
When collateral comes into regulated custody, this may take a different form. U.S. Treasury bonds or tokenized money market fund shares can serve as trading collateral while providing returns. The collateral isn’t just in a safe; it remains productive while still supporting trading activity. Capital that was previously inert can now generate returns, reducing the effective cost of maintaining trading positions. This is not a marginal efficiency gain. It fundamentally changes the economics of running an institutional crypto trading operation.
A mature market structure
Crypto is starting to follow a familiar pattern. Traditional finance solved this problem long ago: shares are traded on stock exchanges, assets are settled through custodians. The two functions are located in different places and controlled by different entities. This separation makes institutional participation possible on a large scale.
According to the 2026 EY-Parthenon Institutional Investor Survey, 73% of institutional investors plan to increase their digital asset allocation this year, with respondents becoming more selective about counterparty risk. The infrastructure is being scaled up to meet this. The migration is already underway.
Main points of the week
By means of Francisco Rodrigues
This week’s headlines highlight that as the bridges between the traditional financial sector and the crypto sector continue to grow, the devastation caused by smart contract exploits is hitting the market.
- US Military Operates Bitcoin Node, Views Crypto as ‘Power Projection’ vs. China: Admiral Samuel Paparo, head of the US Indo-Pacific Command, told Congress that INDOPACOM operates a live node on the Bitcoin network for cybersecurity testing and views the protocol as a tool for US power projection against China.
- Aave raises nearly 80% of the $200 million it needs to cover the bad debt left behind by the Kelp DAO exploit: The DeFi United recovery initiative has raised about $160 million of the $200 million needed to recapitalize rsETH and wipe out the bad debt, with Mantle and the Aave DAO providing 55,000. $ETHabout $127 million, of the total.
- More than 100 crypto companies are urging the Senate to move on the US market structure bill: A coalition including Coinbase, Ripple, Kraken, Andreessen Horowitz and Paradigm wrote to the Senate Banking Committee urging an increase in the Clarity Act, warning that without a federal crypto framework, investments and jobs will move abroad to jurisdictions like the EU that already have one.
- JPMorgan says persistent security flaws are curbing DeFi’s institutional appeal: Wall Street’s largest bank told clients that repeated exploits of bridges and infrastructure, culminating in the KelpDAO attack that wiped out about $20 billion in TVL within days, and flat $ETHEconomic growth is pushing capital towards Tether’s USDT and keeping institutions on the sidelines.
- The EU’s biggest actions against Russia to date include the escalation of crypto sanctions evasion: Brussels’ 20th sanctions package imposes a sectoral ban on all Russia-based crypto service providers and DeFi platforms, bans transactions in the digital ruble and the RUBx stablecoin, and designates Kyrgyzstan exchange TengriCoin, the first time a third-country VASP has been hit for facilitating the Garantex-Grinex-A7A5 Circumvention Network.
Chart of the week
Collector Crypt: revenue recovery combined with token revaluation
After peaking in September 2025, Collector Crypt’s weekly revenues fell sharply before falling back to ~$1m/week since March – with the CEO’s revenue-funded buyback program triggering a mechanical bid under CARDS during the recovery. The recent price spike was then fueled by a community update on April 24 that claimed $146.9 million in first-quarter revenue and $8.6 million in profit, though the token remains 73% below its all-time high.
Listen. Read. Watch. Involve.
- Listen: Have you heard? The Miami consensus is heating up. Recently added speakers include: U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, U.S. Senator Ashley Moody and Donald Trump Jr., co-founder of World Liberty Financial. Take advantage of a 20% discount on your ticket today!
- Read: In Crypto for Advisors, Vincent Chok of First Digital unfolds the rise of ‘agentic finance’, where #AI agents go beyond advice to carry out financial transactions.
- Watch: CoinDesk’s Public Keys from NYSE with host Jennifer Sanasie. Brett W. Redfearn, president of Securitize, joins to discuss the $30 billion in tokenized assets on chain, NYSE’s Michael Reinking provides macro outlooks on digital assets, and AVAX One CEO Jolie Kahn explains a treasury strategy around Avalanche.
- Involve: David LaValle will speak at the June ICI conference in Nashville. Let’s connect on the spot!
Looking for more? Get the latest crypto news from Coindesk.com and market updates from Coindesk.com/institutions.
Note: The views expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of CoinDesk, Inc., CoinDesk Indices or its owners and affiliates.