Charles-Edouard Bilbault
Global Equities Portfolio Manager
Fund update: R-co Thematic Blockchain Global Equity — January 2026
Fund Focus
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15/01/2026
Klara Sok
R-co Thematic Blockchain Global Equity Co-Portfolio Manager
2025 was a turning point: as regulatory environment matured globally, blockchain use cases broadened to institutional adoption – now paving the way for mainstream integration.
In December, macro data kept sending mixed signals, with global equity markets remaining volatile – dropping down to lows in the middle of the month before almost recovering to beginning of the month levels. Blockchain and digital assets developments kept advancing. CFTC launched pilot program on digital assets collateral, as part of the broader agency’s “crypto sprint” program. This latest initiative seats with the overall regulatory progress we witnessed this past year.
2025 indeed saw an acceleration in regulatory clarity and legislative efforts, allowing accelerated corporate adoption making this year a turning point for the blockchain theme globally. In the US, the stablecoin related GENIUS Act marked a significant milestone sending strong signals to corporate adoption, now anticipating market structure clarification through the CLARITY Act. In Hong Kong, stablecoin ordinance was issued in August 2025 with first licenses expected early 2026. In Japan, amendments to the Payment Services Act are expected to include digital assets and stablecoin updates. In Brazil, central bank issued a set of resolutions expected to treat stablecoin as FX in Q1 2026. In the Middle-East, Abu Dhabi Global Market reviewed its digital assets framework to include staking and fiat-referenced tokens regulations. Europe had already adopted MiCA regulation in 2024.
Thus, as anticipated in our strategic note published in March 2025 [see attached], conditions have been increasingly conducive for the blockchain investment theme, with clearer rules and level-playing field. As a result, adoption accelerated and capital markets activity strengthened – more than 265 M&A transactions were completed, totaling around US$8.6bn, nearly 4x 2024 and 11 IPOs in the sector raising about US$14.6bn globally compared to US$310m for 2024[1]. Financial services incumbents like Visa, Swift, JPMorgan, BlackRock, Nasdaq sped up existing blockchain projects and launched new verticals. Coinbase was included in the S&P 500. Overall blockchain use cases broadened, namely to real-world asset tokenization, benefitting blockchain native firms able to implement solutions at institutional-grade level, such as portfolio companies Coinbase, Figure, Securitize, Galaxy, OSL to name a few. Bold and ambitious projects reached new milestones and are expected to further accelerate next year, as Sony’s blockchain ecosystem for instance – to include stablecoin payment for Playstation and anime next year. In 2025, R-co Thematic Blockchain's portfolio was strongly supported by market understanding that the blockchain theme is here to stay and accelerate. It also experienced profit taking on blockchain infrastructure and digital assets categories that had delivered strong prior outperformance. Profit taking and tax loss harvesting continued in December. Selective digital assets/fintech and software companies however outperformed this month, led by Figure and WonderFi on digital assets/fintech and Okta and Confluent on blockchain infrastructure’s software. Transportation / logistics bucket showed resilient this month, with Cosco Shipping and Zim with good performance, namely supported by freight rates ending the year stronger. More specifically, Chinese liner Cosco Shipping was supported by stronger than expected freight volume despite US tariffs and Zim benefitted from multiple company purchase proposals.
We remained disciplined in December and selectively purchased shares from digital assets / fintech categories on weakness. We also introduced gold tokenization company Streamex. At the end of the month, our equity exposure was 98.6%2.
Industry news to watch:
Morgan Stanley plans to launch digital wallet to support tokenized assets including private equity.
Lloyds tokenized banking deposits on a public blockchain.
Barclays invests in stablecoin network Ubyx.
[1] The synthetic risk indicator shows the level of risk of this product compared to others. It indicates the probability that this product will suffer losses in the event of market movements or our inability to pay you. Risk scale from 1 (lowest risk) to 7 (highest risk); the lowest category does not mean a "risk-free" investment. The risk category associated with this UCI is not guaranteed and may change over time. We have classified this product in risk class 6 of 7, which is a high risk class. This means that the potential losses associated with the future performance of the product are high and, if market conditions deteriorate, it is very likely that our ability to pay you will be affected. Other important risk factors not adequately covered by the indicator : Liquidity risk: Risk linked to the low liquidity of the underlying markets, which makes them sensitive to significant buying and selling movements.
[2] Source : Rothschild & Co Asset Management, 31/11/2025.
SRI risk indicator 6/7
The synthetic risk indicator is used to assess the level of risk of this product compared with others. It indicates the probability that this product will incur losses in the event of market movements or our inability to pay you. The risk indicator assumes that you hold the product for 5 years. The real risk may be very different if you opt to exit before maturity, and you may get less in return. We have classified this product in risk class 6 out of 7, which is a high risk class and mainly reflects a discretionary management policy seeking to invest in shares of companies active in blockchain themes. In other words, the potential losses linked to the future performance of the product are high and, if market conditions were to deteriorate, it is very likely that our ability to pay you would be affected. As this product does not provide protection against the vagaries of the market or a capital guarantee, you could lose all or part of your investment. Other materially relevant risks not taken into account by the indicator: credit risk, liquidity risk, impact of techniques such as derivatives: The use of derivatives may amplify the impact of market movements in the portfolio. For more information on risks, please refer to the fund prospectus available on our website: https://am.eu.rothschildandco.com
Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance and is not constant over time. The characteristics/objectives/strategies mentioned above are indicative and subject to change without notice. This analysis is only valid at the time of writing. The geographical and sector allocations and distributions are not fixed and may change over time within the limits of the SICAV fund’s prospectus
The information, comments and analyses in this document are provided for information purposes only and should not be construed as an investment or tax advice, or as an investment recommendation from Rothschild & Co Asset Management
[2] Source : Rothschild & Co Asset Management, 31/11/2025.
SRI risk indicator 6/7
The synthetic risk indicator is used to assess the level of risk of this product compared with others. It indicates the probability that this product will incur losses in the event of market movements or our inability to pay you. The risk indicator assumes that you hold the product for 5 years. The real risk may be very different if you opt to exit before maturity, and you may get less in return. We have classified this product in risk class 6 out of 7, which is a high risk class and mainly reflects a discretionary management policy seeking to invest in shares of companies active in blockchain themes. In other words, the potential losses linked to the future performance of the product are high and, if market conditions were to deteriorate, it is very likely that our ability to pay you would be affected. As this product does not provide protection against the vagaries of the market or a capital guarantee, you could lose all or part of your investment. Other materially relevant risks not taken into account by the indicator: credit risk, liquidity risk, impact of techniques such as derivatives: The use of derivatives may amplify the impact of market movements in the portfolio. For more information on risks, please refer to the fund prospectus available on our website: https://am.eu.rothschildandco.com
Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance and is not constant over time. The characteristics/objectives/strategies mentioned above are indicative and subject to change without notice. This analysis is only valid at the time of writing. The geographical and sector allocations and distributions are not fixed and may change over time within the limits of the SICAV fund’s prospectus
The information, comments and analyses in this document are provided for information purposes only and should not be construed as an investment or tax advice, or as an investment recommendation from Rothschild & Co Asset Management
