A New Turning Point in the Enterprise Blockchain Solutions Market: Balancing Practicality and Profitability by 2026
Editor
As of January 2026, the global enterprise blockchain solutions market is experiencing a fundamental inflection point. According to Gartner’s latest report, the global enterprise blockchain market size is expected to reach $89.2 billion by 2026, marking a 312% increase compared to 2023. Notably, this growth is based on clear business value and proven ROI, rather than past speculative hype. Deloitte’s Q1 2026 survey revealed that 73% of Fortune 500 companies have integrated blockchain technology into their core business processes, with 68% reporting positive returns on investment.
The changes are particularly pronounced in the South Korean market. Data from the Korea Blockchain Industry Promotion Association (KBIPA) indicates that the domestic enterprise blockchain market size is projected to grow by 267% from 2023, reaching 14.3 trillion won by 2026. At the center of this growth is Samsung SDS (headquartered in Seoul), which announced a 445% year-over-year increase in Q4 2025 revenue from its blockchain-based supply chain management solution, ‘NexLedger.’ Currently, 134 companies across 27 countries are utilizing this platform, with proven effectiveness in counterfeit prevention and transparency, especially in the automotive, electronics, and pharmaceutical industries.
The reasons for accelerated blockchain adoption in supply chain management are clear. According to McKinsey’s January 2026 report, companies implementing blockchain-based supply chain solutions achieved an average of 23% reduction in operating costs and a 31% improvement in transparency. Walmart (headquartered in Arkansas, USA) fully integrated blockchain into its entire food supply chain by 2025, reducing food safety incident tracking time from seven days to 2.2 seconds, resulting in an annual risk management cost saving of approximately $320 million.
Innovation in Digital Identity Verification and Financial Services
The use of blockchain in digital identity verification is growing explosively. Microsoft (headquartered in Washington, USA) has already provided digital identity verification solutions to government agencies in 47 countries and 1,247 companies worldwide through its ‘Azure Blockchain Identity’ service launched in the second half of 2025. This platform has surpassed 230 million monthly active users, improving security by 67% and reducing verification processing time by 84% compared to traditional centralized systems.
In South Korea, SK Telecom (headquartered in Seoul) is achieving unique results with its blockchain-based digital identity verification service ‘Pass.’ As of January 2026, Pass users exceeded 42 million, with an average of 18 million daily verifications. The service’s use in public services is surging, aligned with the government’s Digital New Deal policy. According to data from the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, public institutions that adopted blockchain-based digital identity verification reduced civil complaint processing time by an average of 43%, with annual administrative cost savings estimated at approximately 2.1 trillion won.
The adoption of blockchain in financial services is also entering a new phase. JP Morgan’s (headquartered in New York, USA) blockchain-based payment network ‘JPM Coin’ surpassed a daily transaction volume of $13 billion as of January 2026, an 890% increase from 2023. It is establishing itself as a strong alternative to the traditional SWIFT system in international remittances and trade finance. According to Goldman Sachs, companies using JPM Coin reduced international remittance fees by an average of 67% and shortened processing time from 72 hours to 15 minutes.
IBM’s (headquartered in New York, USA) ‘IBM Blockchain Platform’ is targeting the market with a different approach. Based on Hyperledger Fabric, this platform is used by over 2,100 companies in 65 countries, showing strength particularly in trade finance and insurance. The ‘TradeLens’ platform, developed in partnership with Maersk Trading (headquartered in Denmark), handles approximately 23% of global shipping volume, reducing participating companies’ average logistics costs by 15%.
Breakthroughs in Technological Maturity and Scalability
The most significant change in the enterprise blockchain solutions market in 2026 is the rapid improvement in technological maturity. Oracle’s (headquartered in California, USA) ‘Oracle Blockchain Platform’ achieved the capability to process 100,000 transactions per second, equivalent to about 2,000 times the performance of existing public blockchains. This performance enhancement enables real-time data processing in large-scale enterprise environments. Nestlé (headquartered in Switzerland) uses Oracle’s solution to track supply chain data in real-time across 187 countries, achieving an annual inventory optimization effect of approximately $470 million.
Innovative improvements have also been made in energy efficiency. Enterprise blockchains adopting proof-of-stake (PoS) and hybrid consensus algorithms, moving away from traditional proof-of-work (PoW) methods, reduced energy consumption by 99.7%. This is a key factor accelerating blockchain adoption among global companies emphasizing ESG management. Unilever (headquartered in London, UK) reduced its carbon footprint by 27% after implementing a blockchain-based sustainability tracking system, resulting in annual environmental cost savings of approximately $120 million.
Interoperability issues are also being significantly resolved. The cross-chain solution jointly developed by Polygon (headquartered in Mumbai, India) and Chainlink (headquartered in New York, USA) facilitates seamless data and asset movement between different blockchain networks. Currently, 27 major blockchain networks are connected through this solution, with a daily cross-chain transaction volume of approximately $3.4 billion. This improvement in interoperability creates an environment where companies can choose the optimal solution without being tied to a specific blockchain platform.
There have been groundbreaking advancements in privacy and security as well. With the commercialization of solutions utilizing zero-knowledge proof technology, companies can enjoy the transparency and integrity benefits of blockchain without disclosing sensitive data. EY (headquartered in London, UK) developed ‘EY OpsChain,’ which uses these privacy protection technologies to serve 34 Fortune 100 companies, reducing their average compliance costs by 41%.
Despite these technological advancements, challenges remain. The most significant issue is the shortage of talent. According to LinkedIn’s Q1 2026 data, global demand for blockchain experts exceeds supply by 340%. The shortage is particularly severe for enterprise-level blockchain architecture design and security audit experts. As a result, blockchain experts at major tech companies command a premium salary, averaging $150,000 to $250,000, which is 60-80% higher than that of general software developers.
Regulatory uncertainty also remains a risk factor. In the United States, jurisdictional disputes between the SEC and CFTC continue, while Europe’s MiCA (Markets in Crypto-Assets) regulations and varying regulatory directions across Asian countries add complexity to global companies’ blockchain strategy formulation. South Korea offers a relatively clear regulatory framework, strengthening its role as an Asian blockchain hub for global companies. Samsung Electronics (headquartered in Seoul) is leveraging this regulatory advantage to supply blockchain-based IoT security solutions worldwide, with projected revenue from this business segment reaching $2.3 billion by 2026.
Looking ahead, the convergence of AI and blockchain is expected to become a new growth driver from the second half of 2026. Several leading companies are already achieving results in ensuring transparency in blockchain-based AI model training and inference processes and tracking data provenance. Google’s (headquartered in California, USA) ‘Vertex AI Blockchain Integration’ and Microsoft’s ‘Azure AI + Blockchain’ solutions are prime examples. IDC projects that this AI-blockchain convergence market will grow at an annual rate of 78%, reaching $23.4 billion by 2027.
In conclusion, the enterprise blockchain solutions market in 2026 is on a new growth trajectory centered around technological maturity, practicality, and clear business value creation. After cycles of excessive expectations and disappointments, solutions focused on solving real-world problems and improving efficiency are now leading the market. South Korean companies are showing strong competitiveness in the global market, a result of systematic government support policies and innovative technology development by companies. The growth trend of this market is expected to accelerate further over the next 2-3 years, with the emergence of new business models through the convergence of new technologies such as AI, IoT, and the metaverse.
This analysis is based on publicly available market data and company announcements and is not intended as investment advice or decision-making guidance. All investment decisions should be made through individual judgment and consultation with experts.
