«On Wall Street they still operate under a deep technical lack of knowledge about how Bitcoin and its infrastructure work.» This was described by Mike Belshe, CEO of BitGo, a bitcoin (BTC) and cryptocurrency custody and security firm, during his speech at the event. Bitcoin for Corporations which takes place in Las Vegas, United States, between February 24 and 25, 2026.
Belshe’s experience during the process of opening BitGo to the public market revealed that institutional capital has remained distant from this sector. BitGo submitted its initial public offering (IPO) application to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in September 2025, as reported by NoticiasVE, a path that culminated with its official debut on the stock market on January 22, 2026.
The executive said that, before going public, they met with 125 investment funds, the largest in the world. «They are, of course, the experts in attracting trillion-dollar funds.» However, he clarified that “all of these guys have been on the sidelines for the last four years, basically due to regulatory issues; «It’s not something specific to digital assets, it’s the entire asset class.»
This prolonged absence has generated a specialization gap in asset managers. «As such, they have not studied it. And by the way, these guys will invest in anything; «Computer chips and potato chips are all chips, right? What’s the difference?» Belshe questioned to illustrate the lack of depth with which large funds analyze bitcoin and digital assets.
During the work sessions with these investors, Belshe was surprised by the level of consultations. «There was a lot of education. Interestingly, I was asked, ‘What is a private key?’. They dug deeper: ‘What does it look like?’ “It was a fascinating question,” the manager confessed.
For the CEO, this is a clear sign of the times. «When you really think about it, we are still in the early days; «With all those educational questions being asked, there are still a lot of people at the top of finance who still don’t know what we’re doing.»
An outdated mental model
For the leader of BitGo, The biggest obstacle to adoption is not a lack of data, but the gap between current financial paradigms and the nature of Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies.
«The mental model that investors have about how this works is completely broken. Not in the sense that they have a bad model, but that they do not understand what is happening in our world,» he said.
Wall Street’s expectation is to find an exact replica of the traditional brokerage system within the digital assets ecosystem. «They wait and always try to relate things to something they already know. “They think our markets work in a similar way and they assume there must be a network of brokers, exchanges, custodians and banks coming together, and they think they know how this is going to work,” Belshe explained to the audience.
The CEO concluded his participation by emphasizing that the true value proposition for companies lies in the fundamental properties of Bitcoin. «I trust that everyone here shares the principles of Bitcoin; Scarcity and transparency are essential. “We can improve the system if we apply these values throughout the digital asset ecosystem.”