The crypto sector, which is currently valued at around $2.46 trillion, is beginning to garner interest from profitable institutional investors. In its latest report titled ‘The State of Crypto’, Coinbase states that 56 percent of the Fortune 500 companies are in some way or the other, testing the blockchain technology. Making for the underlaying technology for cryptocurrencies, NFTs, and the metaverse – the blockchain technology is also called the distributed ledger technology that saves data and facilitates tech procedures through small separate nodes, replacing traditional servers.
Coinbase highlights key factors attracting big firms to Web3
The research has been conducted for Coinbase by The Block, which surveyed executives working at Fortune 500 companies. The findings of this report suggests that on-chain projects, including consumer-facing payments applications, have started to garner attention of these large companies.
“Many of the most trusted names and products in finance are embracing blockchain technology and crypto, driving innovation and providing on-ramps for widespread adoption,” the report said.
This year, the US SEC approved ETFs for Bitcoin and Ether in a historic move. This allows interested investors to engage with crypto assets through traditional stock market platforms rather than having to sign up on crypto exchanges. As per the report, the approval of these ETFs have eased the access to cryptocurrencies, spurring adoption.
Institutional investors are also looking at real-world asset tokenisation – which is a process of creating digital units of a physical or virtual property where each of the tokens amount for some percentage of the entity. As per the report, “beyond ETFs – on-chain government securities are driving new interest in real-world asset tokenisation. Recent high interest rates have boosted demand for safe, high-yielding treasury bills on-chain.” The rise in the value of tokenised treasury bills have come to the valuation of $1.29 billion (roughly Rs. 10,776 crore).
Catalysts in favour of merging big firms with Web3
A number of online payment apps in the US are integrating crypto transfer services to their existing offerings. These platforms include PayPal and Stripe among others. These platforms allow the use of fiat currencies, as well as stablecoins and select cryptocurrencies to facilitate instant payments, including cross-border.
“PayPal is supporting cross-border transfers of stablecoin users across about 160 countries – with no transaction fees, versus 4.45 percent to 6.39 percent in average charges in the $860 billion global remittance market. The annual settlement volume of stablecoins hit $10 trillion in 2023, more than 10x the amount of remittances worldwide,” the report noted.
With online payment companies also taking a positive approach towards crypto and blockchain, big firms are not hesitating from experimenting with crypto-based financial settlements.
Future of Web3 in legal, corporate sectors
With more funding being poured into Web3 on an institutional level, the report said, this could become a big factor that would push global financial regulators to bring in clear laws to oversee the digital assets sector.
“The US needs to exert leadership in this space. F500 executives show significant interest here: 79 percent would want to work on initiatives with a partner in the US. The increased activity increases the urgency for clear rules for crypto that help keep crypto developers and other talent in the US, fulfill its promise of better access, and enable U1 leadership on crypto globally,” the report noted.
The report estimates that small businesses are also considering hopping on the Web3 wagon. Seven out of ten small businesses that were surveyed for this research claimed that cryptocurrencies can help “at least one of their financial pain points, the biggest of which are transaction fees and processing times.”
Drawbacks with Crypto
While the blockchain technology has intrigued several nations, cryptocurrencies have been met with sceptical approach. This is mainly because while blockchain offers improved data security and transactional transparency, cryptocurrencies are volatile in nature and subject to misuse for unlawful facilities.
In March 2024, the FBI claimed that crypto investment scams rose by 53 percent in the last year.
To curb instances of the misuse of these advanced technologies, players from the Web3 industry like Meta, Ripple, and Kraken, and Coinbase have launched awareness initiatives.