- More than fifty percent of the 25 largest US banks are currently experimenting with tokenization, custody and stablecoins.
- Barclays, JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs are building fundamental settlement systems on blockchain rails, not just operating them.
- With stablecoin volumes surpassing 1 trillion every month, banks are under pressure to modernize or soon become irrelevant
Tokenization is forcing the world’s largest banks to confront an uncomfortable truth: the infrastructure on which they built their businesses is rapidly aging. Payment rails that take days to clear, cross-border transfers that incur fees, and asset systems without programmability are starting to look like liabilities.
Now major institutions from London to New York are pouring real money and resources into blockchain technology. This is not a trend they are chasing. It’s a problem they’re trying to solve before someone else solves it for them.
The cracks in the old infrastructure are becoming increasingly difficult to ignore
Banks have been using the same basic settlement logic for decades. A transaction is initiated, it goes through intermediaries and is completed – sometimes within hours, sometimes within days. For most of banking history, that was acceptable. It’s getting less and less.
The rise of digital financial services has changed customer expectations. Companies that move money across borders want speed and cost transparency. Institutional investors want assets that can be transferred or fractionated without lengthy back-office processes. Older systems were simply not designed to meet these demands.
A February 27 BitGo report found that more than half of the twenty-five largest U.S. banks are already piloting digital assets.
More than half of the twenty-five largest U.S. banks are now testing digital asset initiatives such as custody and tokenization. The tokenization market is expected to reach $23 trillion by 2033.
Younger demographics are already allocating ~14% of their portfolios to crypto, making…
— BitGo (@BitGo) February 26, 2026
Custody, tokenization and stablecoin usage are the main areas of focus. That level of activity at the top of the US banking industry is no longer an experiment; it reflects a genuine quest for better infrastructure.
The industry is moving, not just talking
Barclays made headlines When it recently emerged that the bank had sent a request for information to technology suppliers about building a blockchain platform.
Payments and deposits are the target areas, with both stablecoins and tokenized deposits considered. The bank aims to select providers by April, which is a tight timetable for a project of this size.
What makes this remarkable is the business that Barclays is in. JPMorgan has already built Kinexys, a platform that integrates tokenization into payment and financial messaging workflows that institutions use every day.
Societe Generale has made progress with tokenized bonds and stablecoin infrastructure across Europe. Each of the four companies, Goldman Sachs, UBS, Citigroup and BNY Mellon, has opened or expanded its own programs covering deposits, funds, commercial paper and personal market assets.
Together, this is a coordinated change at some of the most influential financial institutions in the world. Both are building toward a version of capital markets in which assets move across the chain, ownership is programmable, and settlement occurs in real time rather than with a two-day delay.
The expansion is already underway
What sets this moment apart from previous blockchain hype cycles is that the infrastructure is actually being built. Banks no longer conduct isolated proofs of concept. They are redesigning core systems – issuance, settlement, asset management – from the ground up with the blockchain architecture in mind.
Citi’s token services platform focuses on continuous settlement and liquidity management, addressing one of the oldest frustrations in institutional finance.
The Canton Network provides regulated entities with a way to transact on shared ledgers without exposing confidential data to counterparties. Chainlink ensures interoperability, allowing tokenized assets to move across different blockchain systems without breaking.
IBM is building digital asset management tools that cover the full lifecycle of tokenized securities across multiple chains. Oracle-powered solutions are finding their way into the financial workflows that banks already rely on. The technology layer is maturing rapidly and banks are no longer waiting for it to be perfect before committing.
Regulation has removed the last great excuse
For years, regulatory uncertainty gave cautious institutions an easy reason to exercise restraint. That coverage has largely disappeared. In 2025, the United States passed the GENIUS Act which provides a legal avenue for both banks and non-bank issuers to issue regulated stablecoins.
Lawmakers in Congress have agreed to the CLARITY Act to formally define digital commodities and securities, eliminating a long-standing gray area in U.S. financial regulation.
Abroad the picture is similar. The European Union is rolling out its Markets in Crypto-Assets framework across all member states: bringing rules under one system with a single, consistent set of guidelines.
Hong Kong and Singapore have increased their licensing standards for exchanges and custody providers. The United Kingdom is folding crypto regulation into its regular financial rules.
Against that background, the market figures speak for themselves. Stablecoin’s transaction volumes have surpassed one trillion dollars per month – numbers that put them in the same conversation as traditional payment networks.
Tokenized assets could reach $23 trillion in value by 2033. After years of questioning the role of blockchain in the serious financial world, banks are now rushing to secure their position before it becomes the default infrastructure.
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