Crypto Has Two Years to Become "Too Big to Fail," Says Caroline Pham

Speaking on Scott Melker's Wolf of All Streets podcast, Pham argued that the sector's future will depend less on legislation alone and more on whether institutional adoption reaches a point where it becomes impossible to reverse.

"We have like two years to get this done," she said, referring to the current regulatory environment in the US and the time needed to implement new rules and frameworks.

From disruption to modernization

A recurring theme in the interview was Pham's contention that the crypto industry should stop presenting itself as a force seeking to replace the financial system. She described blockchain as the next stage in the evolution of financial infrastructure, comparing it to earlier transitions from paper-based systems to digital networks.

Institutional investors, she argued, are not looking for a radically different financial system – they are looking for faster settlement, greater efficiency and new ways to move assets across markets. Years of investment by banks, exchanges and asset managers are now beginning to bear fruit, making 2026 a pivotal year for institutional adoption.

That transition is already visible in the growing overlap between banks, asset managers, payment firms and crypto companies.

Tokenization moves into Wall Street's plumbing

Pham pointed to tokenization as one of the clearest examples of crypto's integration into mainstream finance, arguing that blockchain-based assets are moving from experimentation toward production-scale deployment.

The contextual backdrop is significant. Last year, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) authorized the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) to begin tokenizing US securities, allowing blockchain-based representations of traditional assets to move through one of Wall Street's most important post-trade systems. Separately, Coinbase this month announced plans to offer tokenized US stocks backed one-for-one by underlying shares to eligible users outside the US.

Stablecoins, path to permanence

Pham also pushed back against the long-standing view that decentralized finance (DeFi) and compliance are incompatible. Calling the idea a "fallacy," she said crypto firms have already demonstrated that Know Your Customer (KYC) and anti-money laundering (AML) controls can function alongside non-custodial and blockchain-based systems.

Stablecoins are becoming increasingly embedded in mainstream financial infrastructure. Earlier this month, Mastercard said issuers and acquirers could settle card transactions directly using regulated stablecoins onchain, moving blockchain technology into the core settlement layer of its payments network.

For Pham, developments such as tokenized securities, stablecoin settlement and growing institutional participation point to a broader shift: blockchain is no longer seeking a place within finance – it is becoming part of the infrastructure itself.