Wall Street's banking divisions are printing money this year—literally crushing last year's numbers. Underwriting fees from US IPOs, equity offerings, and convertible bonds? Already ahead of the full 2024 tally. And we're not even halfway through 2025.

What makes this surge wild is the backdrop. Tariff uncertainty keeps CEOs second-guessing expansion plans. The government shutdown earlier this year froze regulatory pipelines. Classic deal-killers, right? Yet somehow, investment banks are thriving.

Maybe companies rushed to raise capital before conditions got worse. Or perhaps investor appetite stayed hungry despite the noise. Either way, the fee bonanza tells us capital markets aren't waiting for perfect clarity—they're moving with or without it.

For crypto and Web3 projects eyeing traditional funding routes or hybrid structures, this trend signals something: institutional money is still flowing, even when headlines scream chaos. The question is whether that momentum spills over into digital asset fundraising, or if it stays walled off in TradFi land.