Will Jones
While headlines fixate on Bitcoin price swings, a quieter shift is reshaping who is actually moving crypto markets. Lane Kasselman, Co-CEO of Blockchain.com, says the real story isn’t what retail traders are doing right now. It’s what they aren’t.
“While the consumer side of crypto has been quiet this quarter, the institutional space has been anything but,” Kasselman told the crypto media platform Beluga.
The divergence is striking. When major crypto assets pulled back in recent weeks, everyday traders largely sat on the sidelines or sold. Institutional players had a different read on the same market data. Kasselman noted that while price drops often trigger panic selling among everyday users, “institutional users see it as the majors being on sale and that’s when they buy.”
Institutions Buy the Dip as Retail Steps Back
Blockchain.com’s institutional arm operates as a prime brokerage, serving hedge funds, venture capital firms, high-net-worth individuals, and crypto-native funds. The product suite spans spot trading, OTC derivatives, custody, lending, margin, and structured products, with trading desks running 24/7 across offices in Singapore, London, and Dallas. That infrastructure has given Lane Kasselman a front-row seat to a behavioral split most casual observers miss.
Alt-coin activity, he noted, remains muted on the institutional side. The action is concentrated in the majors, Bitcoin and Ethereum, where conviction is holding firm. Kasselman suggests we are entering a new era of market maturity. “The future movements in crypto will be largely driven by institutions,” he noted, “as they’ve realized this is an extremely exciting and high alpha asset class.”
The institutional business sits alongside Blockchain.com’s retail wallet product, which now serves more than 40 million verified users and 90 million wallets across more than 100 countries. Kasselman described the two as complementary rather than competing priorities. The retail wallet product builds the global brand footprint; the institutional arm drives a large share of revenue.
The next wave of institutional demand, he believes, will come from family offices. “The US has the highest concentration of family offices in the world,” Kasselman said, “and those family offices are very crypto curious.” His expectation: a large portion of them will move toward asset management products in the near term, a market Blockchain.com is actively building toward.
From Skeptic to Co-CEO: How Peter Smith Brought Lane Kasselman Into Crypto
The Beluga conversation also surfaced something harder to find in most executive interviews: an honest origin story. Lane Kasselman didn’t arrive in crypto as a believer. About 11 years ago, he was introduced through mutual connections to Peter Smith, Blockchain.com’s founder, the person Kasselman now credits with pulling him into the industry entirely.
The pitch didn’t immediately land. “I don’t believe in your fake internet money thing, man, but you seem like a nice guy, so I’d be happy to help you,” Kasselman recalled telling Smith at that first meeting.
Shifting his focus from trading upside to global utility, Kasselman now champions crypto as a vital store of value for emerging markets. He noted that in regions plagued by currency instability, crypto provides a path to financial security. “I’m here for the people really trying to make their lives better and using crypto as a way to get there,” said Kasselman.
Emerging Markets Signal Where Crypto’s Staying Power Lives
That conviction has shaped Blockchain.com’s expansion strategy in ways that don’t always make the headlines. During the 2022–2023 market downturn, which saw Terra Luna implode, FTX collapse, and crypto companies fail across the sector, the company’s own data told an unexpected story. Activity in markets like Nigeria wasn’t slowing down. Users there were transacting in USDT for everyday purposes: groceries, services, small transfers. Crypto wasn’t speculation for them. It was infrastructure.
Kasselman described the ingenuity of users in emerging markets as a catalyst for the company’s shift in focus. After seeing how Nigerian consumers “find a way” to execute seamless, low-cost transactions, the company realized these regions weren’t just mission-driven projects. “They are extremely revenue-positive,” Kasselman noted, marking a signal to invest more heavily where crypto utility is highest.
Highlighting the inefficiencies of traditional finance, Kasselman pointed to the high cost of international remittances as a prime candidate for displacement. “With fees reaching $24, legacy wire transfers are no longer justifiable,” he explained. “It simply doesn’t make sense anymore.”
For Blockchain.com, the current retail pause isn’t a warning sign. The company, founded in 2011 as a blockchain explorer, and that Lane Kasselman has helped grow into a global prime brokerage operating across more than 100 countries, is now positioned at the intersection of two trends defining this market cycle: institutional accumulation and the persistent, under-covered demand from users in emerging economies. Retail volume will return. The question Kasselman seems to be betting on is which infrastructure those users return to.