Grayscale Names ETH, SOL, BNB, Canton as Likely Institutional Targets

Grayscale says Ethereum, Solana, BNB Chain, and Canton Network look best placed to attract the first serious wave of institutional crypto money. The call centers on the CLARITY Act, the proposed U.S. crypto market structure bill that recently advanced through the Senate Banking Committee. My take: this is less a broad crypto endorsement and more a narrow map of where regulated capital might feel least exposed.

For crypto investors and traders, this is not just a polite nod from a large asset manager. Treat it like a watchlist. If Washington gives institutions cleaner rules, Grayscale expects that money to reach Ethereum, Solana, BNB Chain, and Canton Network before it wanders into thinner markets. Why these four? Because they already have DeFi activity, stablecoin usage, tokenized asset rails, or some mix of the three. Not just hype. Actual money moving.

The CLARITY Act still has a long road ahead. It needs more congressional approval and, eventually, a presidential signature. Cryptopolitan reported on May 21 that the timeline could slide into July because Congress has a packed calendar. Crypto in America podcast host Eleanor Terrett said the same thing. Most market-structure takes make this sound like a straight line. That is only half right. The bill may be moving, but the calendar is still the trade.

Grayscale’s case starts with where the market already sits. Ethereum leads tokenized assets with full on chain functionality. BNB Chain and Solana are next. Canton Network is less familiar to retail traders, but institutions know it. In Grayscale’s earlier tokenization report, Canton had more than $348 billion in tokenized asset value, largely because DTCC chose the network under the SEC’s No-Action Letter framework. These chains also handle much of the stablecoin supply, transaction volume, and DeFi activity behind the current $82.08 billion in TVL. That number matters. Institutions usually follow liquidity before they follow a story, and I would not overthink that part.

Grayscale also pointed to another group of possible winners. That group includes Avalanche, Ethereum Layer 2 networks Base and Arbitrum, Hyperliquid, and Tron. Hyperliquid has its perpetuals market. Tron has a large stablecoin footprint. Zach Pandl, Grayscale’s head of research, also said Bitcoin should benefit from clearer rules even though it does not support smart contracts natively. Counter to the usual advice, this does not make Bitcoin irrelevant to the institutional trade. BTC is still crypto’s hardest collateral asset. No need to dress that up. Institutions may branch out, but Bitcoin is still the asset many of them trust first.

Regulators are already moving, even without the CLARITY Act. On March 17, the SEC and CFTC issued a joint interpretation covering digital commodities, collectibles, tools, stablecoins, and digital securities. They also gave guidance on when non-security crypto assets can become, or stop being, investment contracts. The discussion included airdrops and protocol mining. It also covered staking and asset wrapping. SEC Chairman Paul S. Atkins called it an “important bridge for entrepreneurs and investors” while Congress works on bipartisan market structure legislation. Is that enough for major institutions? Not really. But messy guidance beats pure guesswork, especially when lawyers have to approve the capital move before a trader can even press buy.

DeFi groups want those temporary signals written into law. The DeFi Education Fund and 35 co-signers are pushing the SEC to codify its staff guidance on DeFi interfaces. That guidance says some operators of crypto trading interfaces do not have to register as broker-dealers. For now, it is only an interim statement. If it becomes law, a future administration would have a harder time reversing it. I will be honest: this is the dry part that could matter most. Nobody wants to build around a rule that can vanish after the next election.

What this means

Grayscale is saying the next institutional crypto trade may not stop at Bitcoin. Ethereum, Solana, BNB Chain, and Canton Network all have infrastructure that institutions can discuss without sounding unserious in an investment committee meeting: tokenized assets, DeFi usage, stablecoin volume, and working applications. For traders, that puts ETH, SOL, and BNB near the front of the screen. Yes, this cuts against the clean “Bitcoin first, everything else later” story. Bear with me. If the CLARITY Act gains momentum, these assets could see fresh inflows. Maybe quickly. Markets tend to trade the paperwork before the paperwork is finished.

The CLARITY Act calendar is worth watching closely. Senator Cynthia Lummis said a June floor vote is “probably pretty optimistic,” so investors should expect delays. The bill’s progress will affect when institutions feel comfortable deploying more capital. Watch floor vote announcements. Watch negotiation updates. Watch any language changes that touch market structure. TVL in DeFi, now around $82.08 billion, is another useful signal. So are stablecoin volumes on Ethereum, Solana, BNB Chain, Canton, Tron, and the major Layer 2s. The law is not finished. The market will not sit around waiting for the ink to dry.