"""

After the product-building phase, the focus has shifted to adoption

After years of infrastructure investment, the crypto industry’s new core question is how widely the financial products it has built are actually being used. Asset managers are launching tokenized funds, exchanges are expanding into lending and payments, and blockchain networks are trying to attract institutional clients.

This has pushed competition beyond technical capability and into customer behavior. Companies are now looking less at whether a product works on the blockchain and more at whether it addresses users’ needs to grow, store, send, spend or borrow against their money.

Coinbase is trying to expand the user loop

According to Ben Shen, who oversees financial services and loyalty products at Coinbase, adoption is not limited to one-time use. The company is pursuing a cycle built around bringing money onto the platform, creating reasons to keep those assets there and then getting users to spend, pay or trade with them.

Rewards stand out as an important tool in this model. Some incentives are built into the product itself, while others are used temporarily to bring assets onto the platform from elsewhere. But the goal is not for the funds to leave as soon as a promotion ends; it is to make sure users continue doing other transactions with the same assets after they arrive.

  • Increase inflows onto the platform
  • Offer rewards and yields that encourage users to keep assets on the platform
  • Create additional use cases such as spending, payments, trading and borrowing

For institutions, the metric is real usage, not just technology

Kevin O'Leary said at Avalanche Summit in New York last month that blockchain networks seeking institutional business need to go beyond tests. In his view, being able to show that companies are actually using these networks has become a key factor in attracting new clients.

Another dimension of adoption is trust. Shen stresses that in financial services, users are not just choosing an app; they are deciding where to place their salaries and savings. For that reason, positive experiences from other users are emerging as an important factor in decision-making for both retail and institutional customers.

WisdomTree is expanding distribution to broaden access

WisdomTree is trying to scale its tokenized fund products within its roughly $150 billion asset management business. According to Will Peck, head of digital assets at the company, the tokenized money market fund WTGXX has a size of about $1.2 billion.

What will the MoonPay partnership do?

One of the company’s latest moves is a partnership with MoonPay. Through this arrangement, eligible U.S. retail investors will be able to access WTGXX via the MoonPay platform; customers who have already completed verification with MoonPay will also be able to buy using stablecoins without going through the WisdomTree process.

Similarly, Coinbase is exploring ways to make its products available not only through its own app and website, but also via third-party channels. While protecting its own platform, the company is working on integration with new distribution paths such as AI tools. The message across the industry is becoming clear: building the technology is not enough on its own; lasting growth depends on winning and keeping users.

"""