Crypto’s original pitch was to build an objective and revolutionary financial system outside traditional finance within the decentralized finance ecosystem. At this year’s Consensus conference in Miami Beach, Florida, which took place from May 5-7, the agenda demonstrated the industry’s current shift that feels like a “if you can’t beat them, join them” maneuver.
The world’s largest crypto and blockchain technology conference delivered a message that is more traditional than ever, with speakers describing a market increasingly tied to banks, capital markets and day-to-day finance operations.
Across keynotes and panels, discussions focused on stablecoins as a way to modernize consumer and B2B payments, how financial assets are being brought on-chain and how private credit is starting to follow. Those developments are also taking shape alongside expanding regulatory frameworks and new tax reporting requirements, with growing attention on things like systems, controls and investor visibility.
The shift is playing out with different views on what drives value and adoption of digital assets and the underlying technology. Some speakers tied cryptocurrency performance to broader liquidity conditions, while others focused on how companies operate within defined rules and build around that reality.
The result is a market moving closer to existing financial infrastructure, while introducing new questions around liquidity management, reporting and how digital assets and blockchain technology are evaluated within broader financial strategies.
Here are seven ideas from the event that CFOs across the mid-market, private equity and large-cap space may be interested in:
1. Crypto markets are being read through a macro lens
Crypto is increasingly being evaluated through the lens of global liquidity alongside things like policy or product development. In his May 5 keynote, Arthur Hayes, chief investment officer at Maelstrom, framed Bitcoin as a direct function of money supply and fiscal expansion.
“The price of Bitcoin doesn’t care whether or not there’s regulation… if there’s more money being printed, the price goes up. If there isn’t, it goes down,” Hayes said. He tied major market moves to periods of monetary expansion, pointing to stimulus and central bank balance sheet growth as key drivers.
Hayes also described Bitcoin as a “thermometer” for fiat debasement, emphasizing its role as a response to how governments manage money supply.
That framing places crypto alongside other macro-sensitive assets, where Hayes argues liquidity, fiscal policy and capital flows become the primary signals shaping performance.
2. Stablecoins are becoming a practical tool for moving money
Stablecoins are emerging as one of the most widely used applications within digital assets, with usage increasingly tied to real financial activity rather than trading alone. On the “How regulatory developments impact institutional integration of stablecoins” panel, Peter Smith, co-founder and CEO of Blockchain.com, a cryptocurrency exchange and wallet provider, said, “The most popular product in crypto is stablecoins.”
Though previously limited, their role now is increasingly operational. Stablecoins are being used for cross-border payments, internal transfers and settlement between counterparties, allowing capital to move more quickly across jurisdictions and systems.
As companies evaluate how to deploy capital, clarity around rules is shaping how these tools are integrated into treasury workflows. “It’s not what regulation passes… it’s knowing what the rules actually are,” Smith said.
In practice, this shifts stablecoins from a market product to a mechanism embedded in how cash is moved, managed and accessed across geographies.
3. Regulatory clarity is shaping how capital is deployed
As firms move closer to deploying capital into digital assets, clarity around rules is influencing how and when those decisions are made. Defined frameworks allow companies to plan product launches, allocate resources and evaluate risk with more precision as digital assets move closer to core financial operations.
This approach differs from the liquidity-focused view outlined in a keynote from Hayes, where price was tied primarily to global money supply. In practice, companies allocating capital are focused on operating within known parameters.
At the same time, increased institutional attention is raising expectations around oversight and execution. Gregory Johnson, CEO of Rubicon Crypto, a digital asset trading and liquidity firm, said, “People who can’t even spell [the acronym for distributed ledger technology] are now looking under the hood… for the first time,” pointing to the level of scrutiny that comes with broader participation.
Like any newly regulated industry, clarity and legitimacy of operations are becoming a prerequisite for capital, shaping how strategies post-mainstream adoption are structured and executed.
4. Stablecoins are beginning to reshape how liquidity moves through the financial system
Stablecoins are expanding beyond company-level use cases and beginning to influence how capital moves across the broader financial system. As adoption increases, they are interacting more directly with deposits, payments and funding sources.
Panelists identified the liquidity ramifications on their panels, too. Todd Stevens, chief capital officer at Figure, a fintech company focused on blockchain-based lending and marketplace infrastructure, made an interesting point on his panel when he said, “if stablecoin is going to be $3 trillion, $5 trillion… that’s got to come from somewhere.”
Stevens described these flows as “hot deposits,” highlighting how quickly funds can move in and out of digital systems. That dynamic, he explained, introduces new considerations around liquidity volatility and funding stability.
At Figure, those dynamics are reflected in both platform design and investor expectations. In a separate interview earlier this year with CFO.com about the company’s recent IPO, Figure CFO Macrina Kgil described blockchain as infrastructure that allows assets to move and settle “in nanoseconds, with third-party visibility almost immediately.”
Based on their comments and the panel’s insight as a whole, as these systems scale, they begin to influence how capital is distributed, how funding behaves and how liquidity flows across the global financial ecosystem.
5. Cash management is shifting toward continuous allocation
Digital asset infrastructure is enabling a model where capital can move between cash and yield-generating instruments with minimal delay. Instead of sitting idle, funds can be deployed more dynamically across accounts and assets, changing how CFOs and their teams manage liquidity in real time.
“Every penny of my earnings is fully invested… from the moment I earn it to the moment that I spend it,” said Christine Moy, partner at Apollo Global Management, a global asset manager, describing a hypothetical system where capital remains continuously allocated rather than parked in static accounts like many organizations do today.
That view was reinforced by broader discussion around yield. “The on-chain world is hungry for yield,” said Joshua Riezman, chief legal and strategy officer at GSR, a digital asset trading and market-making firm, pointing to demand for income-generating assets that can be accessed and managed more flexibly.
Moy framed this as a structural shift in how capital is treated, where stablecoins act as a bridge between liquidity and investment, allowing funds to move across instruments without delay. As she expanded on how that model could reshape capital allocation, the panel ran out of time, with organizers cutting her mic while she was still speaking.
6. Tokenized private credit is building on existing structures
Tokenization is being applied to private credit, though early products closely resemble traditional structures. Core features such as lockups, longer durations and limited liquidity remain intact even as assets move on-chain.
“The earliest products are really the same opaque product… with a tokenized wrapper,” said Riezman.
Riezman emphasized that while the delivery mechanism is changing, the underlying economics are not. Private credit continues to be defined by underwriting, deal structure and exit timing, even as tokenization improves access and distribution.
The panel stressed that as these products evolve, the focus shifts to how liquidity, duration and risk are assessed in practice, particularly as tokenization can change access without changing underlying constraints, leaving capital tied up despite more flexible distribution being possible.
7. Tax reporting is becoming a systems and controls requirement
The expansion of digital asset activity is bringing new reporting obligations that require operational infrastructure to support them. A panel on the rollout of Form 1099-DA introduced ideas around transaction-level reporting, beginning with gross proceeds and expanding to cost basis tracking over time.
“We’re looking at an industry that has never done information reporting,” said Seth Wilks, tax managing director at Deloitte, highlighting the scale of change as reporting shifts toward standardized, IRS-facing documentation.
Wilks noted that the move toward reporting is not just about compliance, but behavior. “When you implement information reporting, you end up jumping from like 30% compliance all the way up to the 85, 90% [range],” he said, pointing to how visibility changes how activity is reported.
That shift places pressure on systems as tracking, reconciling and validating transaction data across exchanges, wallets and on-chain activity introduces complexity. Panelists also added that this can be particularly complex as reporting moves to transaction-level detail.
“The responsibility… is still with the taxpayer,” said Sulolit Raj Mukherjee, CEO of Bodin Advisory, a digital asset tax and accounting advisory firm, and former IRS digital assets leader. Mukherjee also pointed to ongoing complexity in tracking cost basis and transaction history, particularly as reporting requirements evolve.
As these requirements take hold, tax moves into core operations, with data integrity and recordkeeping shaping how digital asset activity is tracked, reviewed and ultimately reported.
