73% of Institutional Investors Are Bullish About This Set of Catalysts for XRP and Solana

Big money tends to telegraph its next move before it makes it. In keeping with that dynamic, a new survey from Coinbase and EY-Parthenon of 351 institutional decision-makers found that 73% of them plan to increase their portfolio's crypto allocations in 2026, and 74% expect crypto prices to rise over the next 12 months. Their optimism about crypto is driven in large part by their expectations for both regulatory clarity and new legislation governing the sector's market structure.

Both XRP (CRYPTO: XRP) and Solana (CRYPTO: SOL) are positioned to benefit from those catalysts. Here's why.

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The regulatory landscape is changing, and for the better

On March 17, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) issued a new guidance clarifying that 16 of the leading crypto assets are now officially classified as "digital commodities," which is a category explicitly outside the definition of securities. XRP and Solana both made the list, alongside their major competitors, particularly Ethereum.

That new classification scheme is meaningful because digital commodities fall under the CFTC's oversight, which is a substantially lighter regulatory regime than the SEC's securities regulations. Therefore, banks, asset managers, hedge funds, and other institutional users who avoided XRP and Solana due to regulatory uncertainty about their classification can now hold them under many of the same commodity rules they already follow for gold.

According to the survey, among businesses increasing their crypto allocations, 65% cited regulatory clarity as the top reason. Given that spot crypto exchange-traded funds (ETFs) are the most popular way institutional investors get exposure to the sector, when they make their allocations over the coming year, it'll likely drive ETF issuers to buy more of the underlying coins, thereby driving prices up.

Market structure could be changing next

Legislation is the second major catalyst at work.

As of March 26, the Clarity Act, the crypto market structure bill, remains stuck in a committee in Congress. If it passes, it'll set the stage for the future of crypto and likely send asset prices higher across the board. If it doesn't pass committee by late April, it might get delayed past the 2026 midterm elections.

Nonetheless, even if the Clarity Act isn't passed, Solana and XRP are still among the coins the investors in the Coinbase survey said they're planning to increase their allocations to over 2026. Furthermore, large majorities of those surveyed are looking to prioritize asset tokenization capabilities, including trading and issuing tokenized assets in the near term. XRP and Solana are both well equipped for those purposes today, and they're highly likely to benefit from the tokenization trend moving forward, too.

So even if the market structure bill doesn't pass, it's no surprise that institutional investors are bullish about crypto; many of the biggest pieces they care about are finally falling into place.

Alex Carchidi has positions in Ethereum and Solana. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Ethereum, Solana, and XRP. The Motley Fool recommends Coinbase Global. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.