Ripple President Monica Long has made a bold prediction for the near future of institutional crypto adoption. In a blog post, she stated that by the end of 2026, roughly half of Fortune 500 companies—approximately 250 of the United States' largest corporations—will have formalized digital asset strategies. This adoption will extend beyond simple crypto exposure to include active participation in tokenized assets, digital asset treasuries, stablecoins, on-chain Treasury bills, and programmable financial instruments.
Long argued that the crypto and blockchain industry has spent recent years laying the necessary technical and regulatory groundwork, positioning blockchain as the "operating layer of modern finance." She forecasts that corporate balance sheets will collectively hold over $1 trillion in digital assets by the end of 2026. This projection is supported by a Coinbase survey from mid-2025, which found that 6 out of 10 Fortune 500 executives indicated their companies were already working on blockchain initiatives.
The trend of public companies holding Bitcoin on their balance sheets is cited as a precursor. While the number of Fortune 500 companies currently holding BTC is limited, examples include GameStop, which purchased 4,710 BTC in May 2025, as well as Block Inc. and Tesla. Long also highlighted the rapid growth of digital asset treasury (DAT) companies, which have increased from just four in 2020 to over 200 today, with nearly 100 formed in 2025 alone.
Long's predictions extend to the stablecoin market, which she expects to become a primary tool for global settlement within the next few years, driven by regulatory progress and adoption by heavyweights like Visa and Mastercard. "Within the next five years, stablecoins will become fully integrated into global payment systems—not as an alternative rail, but as the foundational one," she stated.
Furthermore, she anticipates a wave of financial institutions, including banks and crypto companies, beginning to directly custody crypto to accelerate their blockchain strategies. Long also emphasized the convergence of artificial intelligence and blockchain, suggesting that smart contracts and zero-knowledge proofs will enable real-time treasury management and secure data assessment, unlocking broader adoption in regulated markets.
