- Among the top 50 financial institutions globally, over 50% already support or provide digital wallets, custody or trading and 40% support various forms of digital monies
- More than 40% of the world’s top 50 institutions are active in digital asset issuance, distribution
- Nearly all major Asian institutions already support digital wallets and digital dollars
- American institutions, fueled by spot ETF approvals, now largely offer or support digital wallets, custody, trading, or ETFs
Blockchain Coinvestors, a leading blockchain venture fund-of-funds and coinvestment program with a combined portfolio of more than 1,250 blockchain enterprises and crypto projects, including 95 blockchain unicorns, today unveiled the mid-year edition of its bi-annual Institutional Digital Finance Adoption Report. The report tracks digital finance adoption among the 50 largest financial institutions globally.
“Like communications and content, the future of finance is inevitably digital, and the majority of the world’s largest financial players are building products to enable natively digital monies, commodities, and assets,” said Matthew Le Merle, Managing Partner at Blockchain Coinvestors. “In the next decade, institutions that lead in adopting blockchain technology will be the ones that redefine trust, security, and confidence in the global financial system.”
Most of the 50 largest financial institutions – managing a total of more than $130 trillion – are already active in digital finance with a handful emerging as leaders in blockchain adoption:
- More than 50% already provide or support digital wallets, custody, and/or trading
- More than 40% already support digital monies, such as CBDCs and/or stablecoins
- More than 25% are investors, providers, or operators of digital assets commodities/ETFs
- Nearly 40% have explored digital asset issuance and distribution
“Despite perceptions of slow adoption, this transition tracks back nearly a decade,” said Blockchain Coinvestors Head of Digital Asset Research Topher Nelson. “Fidelity’s deep involvement wasn’t well known until they launched their digital asset arm publicly in 2018, but they began mining Bitcoin as early as mid-2014 and had already partnered with Coinbase by 2016. Blackrock, already had nearly $400m invested in public Bitcoin miners by 2021 and has since processed billions in transactions on their own blockchain-based products like Onyx and via partnerships like Coinbase and Circle.”
Some jurisdictions are notably further ahead in this race for the future of finance:
100% of major Chinese banks and a majority of Japanese banks already actively using and deploying digital wallets and digital dollars like the digital Yuan.
Leading American institutions, fueled by the BTC and ETH spot ETF approvals in Q1, now largely offer or support digital wallets, custody, trading, or ETFs in some form and are becoming active now in digital asset issuance and distribution, while in Europe, CBDC pilots are maturing quickly and nearly 60% of leading institutions support digital asset wallets/trading, with 40%+ participating in issuance and distribution.
Political leaders and lawmakers are also starting to come out in support of blockchain technology. In the US, republican candidate Donald Trump has come out staunchly in support of crypto and large institutions are adopting digital assets, with tokenized US treasuries surpassing $1bn this year.
Headlines like the marquee partnership between Blackrock and Securitize, have characterized this flight to tokenization as money managers realize the inherent benefits of a faster, cheaper, and more transparent option than traditional securities.