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

By Alex Carchidi – Mar 30, 2026 at 8:00AM ESTKey PointsA new regulatory framework and a potential upcoming market structure bill could both be big catalysts for crypto.Institutional investors are planning to buy more crypto this year as a result.XRP and Solana will probably benefit significantly.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 (XRP +1.17%) and Solana (SOL +2.55%) are positioned to benefit from those catalysts. Here's why. Image source: Getty Images. 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. ExpandCRYPTO: XRPXRPToday's Change(1.17%) $0.02Current Price$1.35Key Data PointsMarket Cap$83BDay's Range$1.31 - $1.3652wk Range$1.14 - $3.65Volume1.9B 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. ExpandCRYPTO: SOLSolanaToday's Change(2.55%) $2.10Current Price$84.35Key Data PointsMarket Cap$48BDay's Range$79.81 - $84.5052wk Range$70.61 - $252.78Volume3.1B 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.Read NextMar 30, 2026 •By Lyle DalyXRP Has Cratered in 2026, and the Crypto Rebound Everyone's Waiting for May Never ComeMar 28, 2026 •By Will EbiefungWhere Will the Cryptocurrency XRP Be in 10 Years?Mar 26, 2026 •By Anthony Di PizioXRP (Ripple) Investors Just Received Incredible News From the Securities and Exchange CommissionMar 24, 2026 •By Lyle DalyBetter Buy During the Crypto Crash: XRP or Shiba Inu?Mar 24, 2026 •By Alex CarchidiThis Power Player Owns $154 Million in XRP ETFs.

Should You Buy It, Too?Mar 23, 2026 •By Dominic BasultoThis New Catalyst Could Send XRP Skyrocketing Higher in 2026About the AuthorAlex Carchidi is a contributing Motley Fool healthcare and cryptocurrency analyst covering biotech, pharma, cannabis, and digital asset companies. Previously, Alex was a bench scientist and science writer at several biopharma companies and began his career as a researcher at the Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT, and Harvard. He holds a bachelor’s degree in biology from Boston University and a master’s degree in business administration with a concentration in finance from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.TMFacarchidiX@alexcarchidiStocks MentionedXRPCRYPTO: XRP$1.35(+1.17%)+$0.02EthereumCRYPTO: ETH$2,073.54(+3.75%)+$74.98SolanaCRYPTO: SOL$84.35(+2.55%)+$2.10Coinbase GlobalNASDAQ: COIN$161.25(-7.00%)-$12.13*Average returns of all recommendations since inception. Cost basis and return based on previous market day close.