72% of Finance Leaders Now See Digital Assets as Business-Critical, Ripple Survey Finds

A new global survey from Ripple has delivered one of the clearest signals yet that digital assets have moved from the fringes of finance into the boardroom agenda. Of more than 1,000 finance leaders polled worldwide, 72% believe that offering digital asset solutions is no longer optional — it is a competitive necessity.

The findings, released Thursday, cover banks, asset managers, fintechs and corporates across multiple regions, and paint a picture of an industry that has largely stopped debating whether to engage with digital assets and started asking how.

Stablecoins Emerge as the Dominant Use Case

If there is one theme running through the survey, it is stablecoins. Three in four respondents — 74% — said stablecoins have the potential to improve cash flow and unlock capital that would otherwise sit idle within traditional financial infrastructure.

This goes beyond payments. Finance leaders are increasingly treating stablecoins as instruments for treasury management: tools that can move money faster, reduce settlement friction and give organisations tighter control over liquidity. Ripple noted the near-unanimous enthusiasm as evidence that stablecoins have graduated from a crypto novelty to a serious institutional consideration.

The forces pushing this shift are well-documented: regulatory frameworks are gradually maturing in key markets, major banks are signalling openness to digital asset services, fintech adoption is accelerating, and stablecoins themselves are seeing record volumes. Together, these create an environment where standing still carries its own risk.

Fintechs Lead the Charge — Corporates Prefer to Partner

Not every type of organisation is approaching adoption the same way. The survey reveals a sharp divide in strategy depending on firm type.

Fintech companies are most likely to build their own digital asset infrastructure, with 47% saying they plan to develop in-house solutions. That ambition reflects both their technical DNA and their appetite to own the customer relationship end-to-end.

Corporates, by contrast, are far more cautious builders. Only 14% of corporate respondents said they intend to develop their own solutions, while 74% plan to work with external providers. For most large companies outside finance, digital asset infrastructure is not a core competency they want to cultivate from scratch — it is a capability they want to access.

Banks and asset managers fall somewhere in between, with a notable appetite for advisory support during implementation rather than purely plug-and-play technology.

Custody and Tokenisation Rise Up the Priority List

Beyond stablecoins, the survey points to growing institutional interest in tokenisation — the process of representing real-world assets on a blockchain. For banks and asset managers exploring this space, secure custody of digital assets is the top concern, cited by 89% of those evaluating tokenisation partners.

Token lifecycle management came in at 82%, and primary distribution at 80%, suggesting institutions are thinking about the full journey of a tokenised asset — not just how to hold it, but how to issue, manage and distribute it over time.

Banks are also seeking hands-on guidance. Some 85% of bank respondents flagged pre-issuance structuring support as important, compared to 76% of asset managers. This demand for experienced implementation partners, rather than raw technology alone, suggests many institutions recognise the gap between understanding digital assets conceptually and actually deploying them at scale.

Security Certifications Are Non-Negotiable

One data point stands out for any company positioning itself as a digital asset infrastructure provider: 97% of respondents said security certifications such as ISO and SOC II are important when selecting a partner.

That near-unanimous figure is not a surprise given the stakes — institutions handling client assets cannot afford to work with providers whose security posture is unverified. But it does set a high bar for market entry and signals that trust, compliance and auditability will define who wins infrastructure partnerships in the years ahead.

The Debate Is Over — Execution Is What Matters Now

Perhaps the most telling line from the survey is the simplest. “Most finance leaders aren’t debating digital assets anymore,” Ripple said. “They’re figuring out how to build with them and who to build with.”

That shift in framing — from if to how — marks a genuine turning point. For years, digital asset adoption in traditional finance moved slowly, weighed down by regulatory uncertainty, reputational caution and a lack of institutional-grade infrastructure. Those barriers have not disappeared, but they have diminished enough that the question of participation has largely been settled.

What remains open is the question of execution: which firms will build the right capabilities, choose the right partners and move quickly enough to secure meaningful positions in a financial system that is quietly, steadily being rebuilt around digital rails.