Nearly 90% of Large Firms Using or Piloting Tokenized Money, DBS Survey Finds

A new survey from Singaporean bank DBS indicates that corporate adoption of tokenized money is advancing more rapidly than anticipated, with 88% of large global businesses already deploying or piloting use cases. The findings highlight a significant shift in how companies approach liquidity management and international market access.

Widespread Corporate Adoption

The survey, conducted by DBS between June and July, polled 422 business and finance leaders from organizations with annual revenues exceeding $500 million. The respondents were spread across 11 key markets, including the U.S., U.K., China, and Germany.

According to the results, approximately two-thirds of the businesses surveyed have either fully deployed tokenized money at scale or have begun using it in select locations. The most widely adopted instruments were:

• Stablecoins: 63%
• Tokenized deposits: 53%
• Tokenized money market funds: 52%

Market Drivers and Implications

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Lim Soon Chong, group head of global transaction services at DBS, noted that the data points to the tangible benefits corporations see in these new financial tools. Stablecoins, in particular, are favored for their high fungibility across different payment intermediaries, not just traditional banks.

"They are less cumbersome from a permissioning standpoint," Lim explained, highlighting a key advantage over more restricted systems. This ease of use is helping drive adoption as companies seek more efficient ways to manage capital and expand into new markets, with Southeast Asia being the top target destination identified in the survey.

Shifting Trade Settlement Currencies

The survey also revealed a growing interest in using the Chinese renminbi for international trade. More than half of the respondents in both Australia and the U.K. stated they were considering the renminbi for trade settlement within the next one to two years.

DBS attributed this trend to the renminbi's recent appreciation and Chinese exporters offering more favorable commercial terms for transactions denominated in their local currency. "The Chinese authorities are clearly pushing the internationalisation of the renminbi, so we expect this to go up," Lim said.