“On Wall Street, they are still operating with a significant lack of technical knowledge about how Bitcoin and its infrastructure work,” Mike Belshe, CEO of Bitcoin (BTC) and cryptocurrency custody and security company BitGo, explained in a speech at the event. Bitcoin for businesses It will be held in Las Vegas, USA from February 24th to 25th, 2026.
Belshe’s experience in the process of bringing BitGo to the public market revealed that institutional investors remain away from the sector. According to a report by CriptoNoticias, BitGo filed an initial public offering (IPO) application with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in September 2025, and the process culminated in its official debut on the stock market on January 22, 2026.
The executive said he met with 125 of the world’s largest investment funds before going public. “They are, of course, experts in attracting trillions of dollars in capital.” However, he clarified that “all of these guys have been on the sidelines for the last four years basically because of regulatory issues. This is not specific to digital assets, it’s an issue across asset classes.”
This long absence There is a gap in expertise among asset management companies.. “So they don’t study it. By the way, they invest in anything. “Computer chips and potato chips are chips, right? What’s the difference?” Belshe asked to explain the lack of depth in big funds’ analysis of Bitcoin and digital assets.
During work sessions with these investors, Bershe was surprised by the level of consultation.. “There was a lot of education. Interestingly, I was asked, ‘What is a private key?’ They dug deeper: “What does it look like?” “That was an interesting question,” the manager confessed.
For CEOs, this is a clear sign of the times. “If you think about it, we’re still in the early stages. Despite all these educational questions being asked, there are still a lot of people at the top of the financial world who don’t understand what we’re doing.”
outdated mental models
For BitGo leaders, The biggest barrier 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 investors have about how this works is completely broken. It doesn’t mean they have a bad model, it just means they don’t understand what’s going on in our world,” he said.
Wall Street’s expectations is to find an exact replica of traditional intermediary systems within the digital asset ecosystem.. “They wait and always try to relate things to what they already know. “They think our markets work the same way, they think the network of brokers, exchanges, custodians and banks must work together, and they think they know how this works,” Bershe explained to the audience.
The CEO concluded his participation by emphasizing that the true value proposition for businesses lies in Bitcoin’s fundamental properties. “I believe everyone here shares the Bitcoin principles: scarcity and transparency are essential. “If we apply these values across the digital asset ecosystem, we can improve the system.”
