The know-how underlying digital belongings will evolve right into a “foundational infrastructure layer” for the monetary companies trade in 2026, in response to a brand new report from score company Moody’s.
Writing in its 2026 Digital Finance Outlook, Moody’s predicts that blockchain-based tech could have a rising influence this 12 months on the capital allocation and market operations of conventional monetary companies.
Affirming that stablecoins and tokenized belongings attracted adoption in funds and liquidity administration in 2025, the report goes on to spotlight this 12 months’s possible tendencies within the evolution and adoption of digital belongings.
This contains the usage of blockchains and different new tech to foster a “unified digital ecosystem” wherein previously disparate sectors—comparable to transition finance, non-public credit score and rising markets—will change into extra built-in.
“Digital finance platforms now host tokenized US Treasurys and structured credit score merchandise,” the report says. “Use of the brand new know-how will choose up additional within the coming 12 months, and can spotlight effectivity features, though operational, regulatory, and cyber dangers stay.”
The report additionally forecasts the growing use of tokenized issuance and programmable settlement as a way to present effectivity features, serving to monetary establishments to speed up liquidity turnover (changing belongings into money), whereas additionally lowering reconciliation work and decreasing different prices.
Co-author Cristiano Ventricelli, VP-Senior Analyst of Digital Belongings at Moody’s, reiterates that evolving applied sciences comparable to stablecoins, tokenization and blockchains are going to “interconnect” areas of finance that have been as soon as separate.
“A number of establishments are positioning to undertake stablecoins for cross-border funds and liquidity administration, serving to to bridge digital and conventional finance,” he instructed Decrypt. “In the meantime, asset tokenization is gaining traction, making it simpler and less expensive to difficulty and commerce belongings, and opening up new alternatives in markets that have been beforehand arduous to entry.”
Total, Ventricelli recommended that blockchain-based know-how is already streamlining conventional monetary processes, one thing which can present impetus for extra monetary establishments and repair companies to roll out their very own options.
He predicted, “As these improvements mature, the markets will more and more compete on the energy and maturity of their infrastructure layers that aren’t solely safe and environment friendly but in addition extremely interoperable, permitting for seamless integration with current monetary techniques and narrowing the hole between outdated and new finance fashions.”
Regulatory fragmentation
Whereas the report declares that digital finance has entered “a brand new section” as we enter 2026, Ventricelli additionally accepts that progress could possibly be slowed down by a number of key challenges.
“One of many greatest is the dearth of harmonized laws throughout international locations, which ends up in fragmented infrastructure and makes establishments cautious about adopting new digital merchandise at scale,” he defined.
Whereas some areas–most notably the EU with its MiCA regulation–have been harmonising on regulation, fragmentation elsewhere makes it much less possible that completely different techniques will be capable of work collectively.
And for Ventricelli, this will increase operational dangers and makes digital belongings much less liquid, whereas he provides that rising adoption could, no less than within the shorter time period, improve the chance of cyberattacks.
There’s little doubt that mainstream monetary adoption of blockchain-based know-how is rising, as evidenced by latest ETF filings and launches, for instance, with CoinShares’ annual report revealing that digital funds attracted over $47 billion in funding final 12 months.
But when such tendencies are to proceed and broaden, Moody’s argues that robust infrastructure and broad participation is required.
Ventricelli stated, “With out clear cross-border cooperation and regulatory readability, these benefits will not be totally realized, and the general development of digital finance could possibly be restricted.”
