The involvement of major banks in digital asset investment products isn’t just a trend – it’s accelerating. After years of building internal expertise and waiting for regulatory clarity, Canadian banks are now actively integrating digital asset solutions into their platforms.
Two approaches are taking shape: banks onboarding existing crypto ETFs, and banks building their own products, often in partnership with established digital asset managers.
The recently launched Dynamic Active Global Crypto ETF (DXMC) – developed by Scotiabank, Dynamic Funds, and 3iQ – is a milestone example. It is Canada’s first actively managed, bank sponsored crypto ETF, signaling that institutions now see the ETF wrapper as a secure, transparent way to offer exposure to this emerging asset class.
“Five years ago, the conversations were focused on education. Now banks are asking: We’re ready, what should we launch?” says Benhaim.
Canada led the world in 2021 with the first physically backed Bitcoin and Ether ETFs. But as global markets adopt similar products, the next phase won’t be about launching more single asset offerings. Instead, innovation will revolve around portfolio construction.
Future ETF design will incorporate digital assets within broader allocations, such as balanced funds that include Bitcoin, alternative strategies with digital asset components and equity indices enhanced with crypto exposure.
The future isn’t about quantity, it’s about relevance. “We don’t need dozens of small crypto ETFs. We need products that sit naturally inside a modern portfolio framework,” says Benhaim.
While often misunderstood, tokenization isn’t a product trend, it’s a technology shift that will reshape how markets operate.
In the short term, tokenization will focus on tokenized versions of familiar instruments (funds, credit, treasuries), operating within existing regulatory and compliance frameworks and preserving investor protections.
In the long term, financial products will be issued natively on chain, enabling near-instant settlement programmable financial contracts, global, democratized access to collateralized lending and increased liquidity and improved price discovery.
“The industry is maturing,” Benhaim notes. “And the institutions that embrace digital assets strategically, not defensively, will be best positioned for the next decade of growth.”