The State of Blockchain Technology and Digital Assets in Financial Services
A Benchmark on the Disruption of an Industry
Measure Yourself Against Peers
Download the Full Report
The majority of leaders in financial services organizations consider investment in blockchain technologies a high priority for their business in the next 12 months - 85% of leaders have a positive overall outlook on the future impact of these technologies.
Amid rapid and widespread disruption in the blockchain and cryptocurrency space, staying in touch with industry players is a key element of any business’ strategy. This report highlights trends, explores potential risks and uncovers opportunities for the future of the industry.
Take our interactive survey below to measure yourself against your peers and then download a complimentary copy of the report to examine the data and its implications in detail.
Who Answered this Survey?
FTI Consulting surveyed 150 U.S.-based decision makers at financial institutions that have considered or are considering investing in blockchain, digital assets or cryptocurrency technology.
Industry Segment
Interactive Survey
Below is a small sample of questions posed in the complete survey. Choose your response to each question below to compare yourself against your peers.
How successful or unsuccessful do you feel your investments in blockchain or cryptocurrency have been?
- Very successful
- Somewhat successful
- Somewhat unsuccessful
- Very unsuccessful
All respondents who have a blockchain program in their company consider it successful, with three-quarters considering their Blockchain Technology program very successful.
*For Company Success: Answer choices "Somewhat Unsuccessful" and "Very Unsuccessful" were listed but received no responses.
What aspects of blockchain, digital assets and cryptocurrency do you anticipate having the most significant effect on the future of banking and financial services over the next five years?
- Clearance and Settlements
- Custody / Hot and Cold Wallets
- Fundraising
- Increased clarity, globally, about the use of stable coins
- Increased traction of Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs)
- Loans and Credit
- Payments and Transactions
- Regulatory Compliance (AML, KYC, Travel Rule)
- Traceability
- Trade Finance
- Use of tokenized assets to raise financing or as a way to manage client issuances
56% of survey respondents predict that CBDCs will have a major future impact on banking and financial services over the next five years.
With most decision makers agreeing blockchain technology will have long term ramifications, the majority see those ramifications coming from aspects such as increased traction on CBDCs and payments and transactions.
How much of a priority is blockchain technology or cryptocurrency to your business over the next 12 months?
- High priority
- Significant priority
- Moderate priority
- Not much of a priority
- Not at all a priority
*Answer choices “Not much of a priority” and “Not at all a priority” were listed but received no responses.
Findings show that investing in blockchain technology is a top priority for descision makers.
Almost all decision makers consider blockchain technology to be a high or significant priority to their business over the next 12 months, especially large businesses (52% consider blockchain a high priority, and 45% consider blockchain a significant priority).
Where do you think your company falls in relation to peers in terms of your implementation of programs for blockchain or cryptocurrency?
- Ahead of the curve
- In line with peers
- Behind our peers
*Answer choice “We are behind our peers in this area” was listed but received no responses.
All decision makers surveyed believe they are in line or ahead of their in investing in or researching blockchain.
None believe that they are behind others, likely due to the “newness” of blockchain technology. Large companies are more likely to believe they area head of the curve (77%).
Which of the following best describes your company’s blockchain technology program?
- We have a small startup program for blockchain technology
- We have a dedicated team working on blockchain technology and infrastructure to support cryptocurrency and digital assets
- We have a full client offering focused on investment in or transactions/payments with cryptocurrency and have developed blockchain infrastructure to support this
The scale of blockchain programs vary, while multiple teams are involved in adoption discussions.
Businesses have all levels of blockchain technology program offerings, with businesses almost equally as likely to have a start up program or a full client offering. In most cases, adoption of blockchain technology involves multiple departments to drive implementation.
Which types of digital asset or cryptocurrency projects is your company exploring over the next 12 months?
- Asset Servicing
- Banking and Lending
- Clearing and Settlement
- Digital Asset Custodial Services
- Issuance
- Payments and Transactions
Looking ahead, decision makers are exploring payments, remittance, and transactions along with banking and lending as they look into further investments.
Investment in payments, remittance, & transactions and banking & lending are considered most likely over the next 12 months. Other types, such as digital asset custodial services and asset servicing also rank highly.
What are the key drivers for your company to invest in blockchain technology or cryptocurrency?
- A lack of regulation
- Consumer demand of higher levels of transparency, trust and accuracy
- Consumer demand to support crypto payments
- Infrastructure, transaction, and administrative cost savings
- Investments have high growth potential
- Most transactions are going to shift to blockchain technology or cryptocurrency in the future
- None
When asked what’s driving companies to invest in blockchain technology, top responses center around the shift towards blockchain technology in the future, consumer demand, and the growth potential surrounding investments.
When weighing investment into blockchain, digital asset and cryptocurrency projects, which of the following do you consider?
- Acquiring the technology
- Building our own technologies
- Using third-party vendors/partners to white label a solution
When investing, most decision makers consider building their own technologies, using third-party vendors, and acquiring the technology when considering investment into blockchain technology.
The most popular consideration was building one’s own technologies (as indicated by 81% of those surveyed).
Have any of the following issues negatively impacted your company's speed of investment into blockchain technology or cryptocurrency over the last 12 months?
- Privacy concerns
- Regulatory uncertainty
- Scalability
- Security Concerns
- Subject matter expertise limitations
- Nothing has slowed my organization’s investment
Concerns over blockchain technology’s security and privacy rank high on reasons company’s have slowed on investing.
Security and privacy concerns are the top concerns for large businesses, while med/small businesses are most concerned over regulatory uncertainty, subject matter expertise limitations, and security concerns.
What information do you want to hear before making an investment decision in blockchain or cryptocurrency?
- Customer service
- Market potential/confidence in the technology
- Multiuse cases
- Regulatory clarify
- How the technology works
- Integration abilities
- Proof of concept
Among decision makers whose businesses have not yet invested, information required centers around how it works and how blockchain technology will integrate into their business.
Top information requests for large buesinses include how technology works, while top information requests for med/small business include regulatory clarify.
Learn More
Take a deeper dive into the data and explore the survey results and major themes such as:
- The increasing prioritization of blockchain investment
- Consumer demand driving adoption and investment
- The need for education to address persistent misconceptions
- The focus on infrastructure stability and security for organizations