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, according to a new report.
More than 50% already provide or support digital wallets, custody, and/or trading, noted Blockchain Coinvestors its bi-annual Institutional Digital Finance Adoption Report. More than 40% already support digital monies, such as CBDCs and/or stablecoins, the report revealed. In addition, over 25% are investors, providers, or operators of digital assets commodities and ETFs, and 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.
Nelson noted that Fidelity’s extensive involvement was not widely recognized until they publicly launched their digital asset subsidiary in 2018. However, they had already partnered with Coinbase by 2016 and had begun mining Bitcoin in mid-2014.
Blackrock, meanwhile, already had approximately $400 million invested in public Bitcoin miners by 2021 and had handled “billions” of transactions on their own blockchain-based products through partnerships with Coinbase and Circle, he added.
The company observed that some jurisdictions are well ahead of the curve in terms of digital banking, with 100% of major Chinese banks and most Japanese banks already actively using and deploying digital wallets and digital currencies such as 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 more than 40% participating in issuance and distribution,” the report said.
Blockchain Coinvestors maintains a database of the world’s top financial institutions using data from Lexis Nexis, S&P Global, and WTW.
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