The BeInCrypto Institutional 100 Awards wrapped up its Capital Markets & Infrastructure pillar yesterday at Proof of Talk in Paris, with 20 shortlisted firms competing across five categories. Winners were announced on June 2, 2026, capping a final week of deliberation that saw heavyweights like BlackRock, FalconX, and Wintermute make the cut.
The shortlists
Finalists were narrowed from a broader field, with each category reflecting a different slice of institutional crypto — asset management, trading infrastructure, liquidity, custody, and ratings. The lists read like a who’s who of the space: 21Shares (now part of FalconX after a November 2025 acquisition) alongside BlackRock and Fidelity in digital asset management; FalconX itself up against Ripple Prime and Wintermute in trading infrastructure.
Notable new entrants include Ripple Prime, which bought Hidden Road for $1.25 billion and now clears roughly $3 trillion annually. Wintermute, meanwhile, rolled out zero-fee OTC on its NODE platform across more than 250 assets, and the firm expanded into tokenized commodities this year.
The liquidity and custody race
Best Liquidity Provider saw B2C2 — majority-owned by SBI — push Solana as a primary stablecoin settlement rail in 2026, while Cumberland/DRW touted its status as the longest-running institutional OTC desk. GSR landed an investment from Standard Chartered’s SC Ventures in May at a valuation north of $1 billion. Wintermute claims roughly $5 billion in average daily flow and moved into tokenized gold this year.
On the custody side, BitGo became the first crypto-native custody firm to list on the New York Stock Exchange in January, with about $104 billion in assets. Coinbase Custody holds more than 80% of U.S. spot Bitcoin and Ethereum ETF assets. Fireblocks now processes over $4 trillion in annual digital asset transfers and has expanded into embedded wallets and crypto accounting. Ripple Custody (formerly Metaco) combined Metaco with Palisade to target banks and fintechs.
Ratings and analytics
The Best Digital Asset Ratings & Analytics Provider shortlist included Chainalysis, which crossed 1,000 customers and introduced new AI-agent tools; Elliptic, which raised a $120 million Series D in May and screens over 1 billion transactions weekly; Moody’s, which published the first stablecoin deposit-rating methodology in March; and S&P Global, which now delivers Stablecoin Stability Assessments on-chain via Chainlink DataLink.
The awards highlight just how far institutional infrastructure has come — a far cry from the days when a custodian meant a cold wallet in a basement. With winners now announced, the focus shifts to how these firms will leverage the recognition to win mandates in an increasingly competitive market.
