Ripple president Monica Long believes blockchain and digital assets are on the verge of becoming core infrastructure for global finance. According to her latest outlook, nearly half of Fortune 500 companies will either hold crypto or actively use blockchain-based financial tools by the end of 2026, marking a major shift from experimentation to full-scale adoption.
Long says the crypto industry has spent recent years building the technical and regulatory foundation needed for mainstream use. As a result, blockchain is now evolving into what she calls the “operating layer of modern finance,” supporting everything from payments and treasury management to tokenized assets and programmable financial instruments.
She predicts that corporate balance sheets will collectively hold more than $1 trillion in digital assets within the next two years, driven by increased confidence, clearer regulations, and expanding real-world use cases.
Fortune 500 Companies Accelerate Blockchain and Digital Asset Strategies
Long estimates that roughly 250 Fortune 500 companies will have formalized digital asset strategies by 2026. This goes beyond simply holding cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and includes active participation in tokenized assets, stablecoins, onchain Treasury bills, and digital asset treasuries.
Her prediction is supported by a mid-2025 Coinbase survey, which found that six out of ten Fortune 500 executives said their companies were already working on blockchain initiatives. While only a small number of Fortune 500 firms currently hold Bitcoin on their balance sheets, adoption is steadily growing.
Companies such as Tesla, Block Inc., and GameStop have already added Bitcoin to their treasuries, with GameStop purchasing 4,710 BTC in May 2025. Long also highlighted the rapid rise of digital asset treasury (DAT) companies, which have grown from just four in 2020 to more than 200 today, with nearly half formed in 2025 alone.
Stablecoins, Custody, and AI to Reshape Global Finance
Long expects stablecoins to play a central role in the future of global payments. She predicts that within five years, stablecoins will become fully integrated into global payment systems—not as an alternative, but as the primary settlement layer. Regulatory progress, along with growing involvement from major players like Visa and Mastercard, is accelerating this transition.
She also foresees banks, financial service providers, and crypto firms increasingly offering direct crypto custody, allowing institutions to move faster with their blockchain strategies while keeping assets within trusted frameworks.
Another major theme in Long’s outlook is the convergence of artificial intelligence and blockchain. She believes AI-driven systems combined with smart contracts and stablecoins will allow treasuries to manage liquidity, execute margin calls, and optimize yields in real time without manual intervention.
Privacy, she notes, will be critical. Technologies like zero-knowledge proofs will enable AI systems to assess credit risk and financial health without exposing sensitive data, reducing friction in lending and encouraging broader adoption of digital assets across regulated markets.
