A new Ripple report reveals global banks are rapidly shifting to blockchain, forecasting a $19 trillion tokenized asset explosion as finance braces for its digital future.
$19T in Tokenized Assets Coming? Ripple Says Financial Rails Are Already Shifting
Ripple, CB Insights, and the UK Centre for Blockchain Technologies released a report on July 30 examining how traditional finance is investing in blockchain. The report, titled “Banking on Digital Assets,” tracked 345 investments made by global banks between 2020 and 2024, including 33 funding rounds exceeding $100 million.
The report described how investment slowed in 2022 during the crypto winter and following the FTX collapse, but funding activity rebounded in 2024. CB Insights projects stablecoin company funding will increase tenfold in 2025 compared to 2024. Over $100 billion was deployed into blockchain globally across more than 10,000 deals in the four-year period. In the U.S., 11% of community banks reported plans to launch crypto-asset services as of 2022. Ripple stated:
Boston Consulting Group projects nearly $19T in tokenized assets by 2033. Ripple’s own research found that 90% of global finance leaders expect blockchain to have a significant or massive impact on finance in the next three years.
Global Systemically Important Banks (G-SIBs) made 106 investments during the period, including 14 mega-rounds. Goldman Sachs and Citigroup led with 18 each, followed by JPMorgan Chase and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group. HSBC became the first global bank to pilot quantum-secure tokenized gold transactions in 2024.
“This technology is no longer a peripheral experiment but rather, a foundational pillar of modern financial infrastructure. Its application across a number of finance use cases is expanding rapidly, with real-world traction and institutional capital following suit,” the report stated, adding:
Forward-thinking banks are not only investing in blockchain companies, but also actively integrating this into their own systems and shifting from exploration to execution.
Regulatory clarity is also advancing, with frameworks such as ISO 24165’s Digital Token Identifier and the EU’s MiCA legislation enabling further institutional adoption. Though skeptics cite volatility and cybersecurity risks, the report concludes that innovation in cryptography and tokenized asset access positions blockchain as a long-term force in finance.
