Digital asset reserve institutions will face a period of differentiation in 2026: integration, mergers and acquisitions, or fragmentation?

【CryptoWorld】2025 is a pivotal year for the digital asset reserve sector — not only bringing this strategy into the spotlight, but also teaching participants a lesson through market volatility at the end of the year. As we enter 2026, industry insiders generally expect that if the regulatory environment continues to improve, this field will undergo a reshuffle.

Tyler Evans, Chief Investment Officer of Bitcoin reserve company KindlyMD, candidly stated: “Consolidation and mergers will be one of the themes in 2026. The market will have a clearer judgment of the winners.” KindlyMD is a Nasdaq-listed institution that officially transformed into a digital asset reserve organization after merging with Nakamoto Holding Company in August last year.

Hyunsu Jung, CEO of Hyperion DeFi, also sees the same trend. He believes that as investors become more cautious, they will view these types of institutions with a new perspective. “The market will continue to scrutinize the intrinsic value of these institutions — how strong their ability to generate income and drive ecosystem development really is,” Jung said, which will determine who survives.

However, Rudick, Chief Strategy Officer of Upexi, which holds $250 million in Solana assets, adopts a more cautious stance. He believes large-scale consolidations are unlikely to occur; instead, he sees differentiated value creation — through yield farming, new revenue models, and selective acquisitions to find growth points.

Rudick’s logic is straightforward: why would sellers sell at less than 1x mNAV? They can simply sell assets directly at market price. And buyers? There’s no reason to pay a premium above 1x mNAV to acquire, since assets can be purchased directly on the market.

But here’s a turning point — many digital asset reserve institutions’ trading prices are significantly discounted. If aggressive investment funds sniff out opportunities in 2026, Rudick wouldn’t be surprised. In other words, the market’s restructuring may not come from industry consolidation, but from external capital hunting.