While the market watches every move of MicroStrategy (now Strategy), JPMorgan analysts point to a much deeper and more systemic risk for Bitcoin. This is not about sales by the largest corporate BTC holder, but about the rapid spread of tokenized finance on private blockchains, which could strip public networks—including Bitcoin—of their key advantage: liquidity and activity.
Wall Street is building its own "crypto infrastructure"
More than 15 of the world's largest banks are actively implementing asset tokenization solutions. JPMorgan's Kinexys platform (formerly Onyx) has already processed transactions worth over $3 trillion since launch, with daily transaction volumes exceeding $7 billion. Notably, the bank's CEO Jamie Dimon continues to criticize Bitcoin, yet his company is building one of the most powerful blockchain platforms.
The key arena is the Canton Network. Here, the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) is tokenizing U.S. Treasury bonds, planning to complete the project by 2026. HSBC is testing tokenized deposits, and Goldman Sachs is settling tokenized bonds. And this is just the tip of the iceberg: The Clearing House network involves over 15 leading banks aiming to launch a full-fledged institutional settlement network by 2027.
Why this threatens Bitcoin
In a JPMorgan report dated July 9, analysts led by Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou emphasize: if settlements and assets migrate to permissioned networks, public blockchains will gradually lose activity, liquidity, and capital inflows. For financial institutions, governance, confidentiality, and legal predictability are critical—exactly what private, permissioned platforms provide.
Statistics confirm the trend. According to rwa.xyz, about $31 billion in tokenized real-world assets are hosted on public blockchains, with two-thirds of that amount on Ethereum. However, the Canton Network collected approximately $60 million in fees in the 30 days leading up to the end of June—compared to just $11 million for Ethereum over the same period. This is a clear indicator of the shift in institutional interest.
The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) has also expressed skepticism toward public blockchains, citing scalability and financial transparency issues, and supported the use of unified ledgers on regulated platforms.
Alternative perspective
There is also a counterargument: Bitcoin is valued not for mass financial use, but for its scarcity and neutral status. Some analysts already prefer stablecoins and tokenization over direct BTC investments. Strategy, while controlling about 4% of Bitcoin's supply, is according to JPMorgan merely a secondary factor, adding short-term volatility but not posing systemic risk.
My analysis: Asset tokenization is not just a trend, but a fundamental paradigm shift. While Bitcoin positions itself as "digital gold" and a store of value, institutions are building a parallel, far more efficient financial system on the blockchain. If this system reaches critical mass, public networks risk being left on the sidelines of mainstream finance, which could in the long term undermine Bitcoin's narrative as the "money of the future."