The golden age of financial esoterica beckons

DO you smell that? No, not the acrid stench of the world burning while we fiddle, but that other smell – the heady aroma of opportunism and bullishness returning to the world of financial esoterica. This year, all manner of fringe financial undertakings are gliding towards lucrative legitimacy.

The turnaround has been especially dramatic for some players. Within 24 months, cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has gone from being sued by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over the trading of unregistered crypto tokens to being a member company of the S&P 500 index. Its share price, revenue and monthly transacting users have also soared this year, while the SEC lawsuit has evaporated like a novelty memecoin.

The year 2025 has ushered in the friendliest regulatory environment that the crypto industry has ever seen in its young life. In the US, a Bill called the Genius Act will provide regulatory scaffolding for stablecoins that will increase the asset class’s legitimacy if it is passed into law. (Stablecoins are a type of cryptocurrency that is pegged to a fiat currency, usually the US dollar.)