Traditional financial institutions participate in 345 capital raising rounds for blockchain companies, with Goldman Sachs and Citigroup leading.
The digital transformation wave in the financial industry has reached an important milestone as traditional financial institutions have invested over $100 billion in blockchain companies from 2020 to 2024. According to a joint report by Ripple, CB Insights, and the UK Blockchain Technology Center, this figure demonstrates a fundamental change in how major banks perceive and interact with blockchain technology.
The most actively operating institutions in this investment wave include SBI Group, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, and JPMorgan, with 345 capital raising rounds conducted through over 10,000 transactions. Most are early-stage investments, indicating the banks' long-term interest in the development potential of blockchain technology.
Some of the most notable transactions include the $1 billion investment from MassMutual, New York Life, and Morgan Stanley in New York Digital Investment Group's development, $312.95 million from Banco Itaú invested in Brazilian FinTech startup CloudWalk, and $104 million raised by Germany's Solaris from Japan's SBI Group.
Investment activities are primarily concentrated in countries with developed financial systems such as the United States, Japan, Singapore, France, and the United Kingdom. Blockchain areas attracting special attention from TradFi include organizational infrastructure for transactions, staking and asset tokenization at 27%, payment solutions at 24%, and digital asset custody services at 21%.
The Leading Role of Systemically Important Banks
Globally systemically important banks play a crucial role in this investment wave, participating in 106 transactions with 14 capital raising rounds of over $100 million each. Citigroup and Goldman Sachs lead with 18 deals each, while JPMorgan Chase and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group each conducted 15 capital raising rounds.
This transformation is not limited to investment but is also demonstrated through comprehensive blockchain technology integration into business models. HSBC launched a gold tokenization project for retail customers in Hong Kong in March 2024, simultaneously deploying quantum security transactions. JPMorgan Chase completed its first public transaction using blockchain to pay for tokenized US Treasury bonds, collaborating with Chainlink and Ondo Finance.
Morgan Stanley is also making strides by implementing instant international currency payment features for institutional clients and businesses, showing a shift from experimentation to practical application in daily business operations.
The report identifies four primary factor groups driving this investment wave. First is legal transparency through legislation like the GENIUS Act in the US, MiCA in the EU, and operational licensing through VARA in Dubai, significantly reducing legal risks. Second, the strong increase in stablecoin demand with trading volumes reaching $650-700 billion monthly in Q1/2025 according to Citigroup.
Third is the potential for real asset tokenization, with analysts forecasting the market will increase 50-fold by 2030. Finally, technological breakthroughs including quantum security solutions, smart contracts, and multi-currency payment platforms help accelerate processing and reduce operational costs.
Confidence from financial leadership is also a crucial factor, with approximately 90% of global financial leaders surveyed expecting blockchain to have a significant impact on the industry in the next 3 years.
The report's highlight is JPMorgan's announcement of a strategic partnership with cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, opening up possibilities for integrating cryptocurrency asset services into the traditional banking ecosystem.
