Practical Transition of Enterprise Blockchain: Corporate Adoption Status and Market Outlook in 2026
Editor
At the beginning of 2026, the blockchain industry is experiencing a clear turning point. It is moving away from the volatility and speculative nature of the cryptocurrency market, highlighting its value as a practical enterprise solution. According to the latest report from Gartner, the global enterprise blockchain market size is expected to grow from $67.2 billion in 2025 to $89.1 billion in 2026, a 32.6% increase. This indicates that companies are beginning to recognize blockchain not as a mere technical experiment but as a core business infrastructure.
Particularly, the adoption of blockchain in the supply chain management sector is rapidly increasing. Walmart (Bentonville, Arkansas, USA) announced that by the end of 2025, it had completed the transition of 78% of its entire food supply chain to a blockchain-based tracking system. This reduced the time to trace the cause of food safety incidents from the previous 7 days to 2.2 seconds and cut annual supply chain operating costs by 14%. Global consumer goods companies like Nestlé (Vevey, Switzerland) and Unilever (London, UK) are reporting similar achievements, proving the practical value of blockchain.
Notable changes are also occurring in the Korean market. Samsung SDS (Songpa-gu, Seoul) reported that its blockchain platform ‘Nexledger’ saw a 187% increase in sales in Q4 2025 compared to the same period the previous year. The surge in demand from the manufacturing and logistics industries was a major growth driver. Hyundai Motor Group achieved a 99.7% reduction in counterfeit parts distribution through a parts history management system using Nexledger. SK Telecom (Jung-gu, Seoul) also commercialized a customer data sovereignty service through its own blockchain platform ‘Initial,’ processing an average of 230,000 authentication services per month from the second half of 2025.
The digital identity verification sector has emerged as another key application area for blockchain technology. Microsoft’s (Redmond, Washington, USA) decentralized identity verification solution ‘Azure Active Directory Verifiable Credentials’ was used by 1,247 companies and 142 government agencies worldwide as of 2025. This system reduced the risk of personal information leakage by 84% while shortening the average authentication processing time to 3.7 seconds. The Estonian government saved €23 million annually in administrative costs through its blockchain-based digital identity system, and Singapore and Dubai, which benchmarked this system, have completed the adoption of similar systems.
Innovation in Financial Services and Smart Contracts
The adoption of blockchain by traditional financial institutions is also accelerating. JPMorgan Chase’s (New York, USA) blockchain-based payment network ‘JPM Coin’ recorded an average daily transaction volume of $13.4 billion in 2025, a 312% increase from the previous year. In particular, it reduced processing time by 75% compared to the existing SWIFT system in international corporate remittances while achieving an average fee reduction of 40%. Goldman Sachs (New York, USA) issued a total of $8.7 billion in digital bonds through its blockchain-based bond issuance platform in 2025, reducing issuance costs by 23% compared to previous methods.
Blockchain adoption is active in the Asian financial market as well. The Digital Yuan (DCEP) project led by the People’s Bank of China surpassed a cumulative transaction amount of 1.84 trillion yuan by the end of 2025. Mitsubishi UFJ Bank (Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, Japan) increased its annual processing volume by 340% through its blockchain-based trade finance platform ‘MUFG Coin,’ reducing document processing time from an average of 5.2 days to 1.3 days. In Korea, Shinhan Bank launched a blockchain-based digital asset custody service, with the entrusted asset size reaching 210 billion won in Q4 2025.
The maturity of smart contract technology has also significantly improved. The Ethereum network recorded an average of 3.4 million smart contract executions per day in 2025, with 67% used for actual business purposes. In the insurance industry, AXA (Paris, France) applied smart contracts to flight delay insurance, fully automating the insurance payout process. Of the 32,000 insurance claims processed in 2025, 99.4% were automatically handled, reducing the average payout time from 14 days to 2 hours.
The use of smart contracts is also expanding in real estate transactions. The Dubai government processed 34% of all real estate transactions using blockchain by 2025, reducing transaction fees by an average of 1.2% while decreasing fraudulent transactions by 97%. The state of Delaware in the USA introduced blockchain in the corporate formation and stock issuance process, reducing the average processing time from 11 days to 3 days, with 28% of new corporate formations utilizing this system in 2025.
Competition in Blockchain Platforms as Enterprise Infrastructure
In the enterprise blockchain platform market, competition among existing IT giants is fierce. IBM’s (Armonk, New York, USA) ‘IBM Blockchain Platform’ was used by 2,847 companies worldwide as of 2025, generating annual revenue of $3.2 billion. The ‘Food Trust’ food safety tracking network, in which major food companies like Walmart, Nestlé, and Tyson Foods participate, manages the history of 14 million products. IBM achieved a 67% reduction in food recall costs compared to the industry average through this platform.
Microsoft’s ‘Azure Blockchain Service’ is showing rapid growth with its cloud-based accessibility as a strength. As of Q4 2025, it recorded 890,000 monthly active users, a 156% increase from the same period the previous year. The high proportion of small and medium-sized enterprise customers at 42% is contributing to the popularization of blockchain technology. Starbucks improved consumer satisfaction by 23% through its coffee bean tracking system ‘Bean to Cup’ using Azure Blockchain, significantly enhancing the transparency of the fair trade certification process.
Oracle (Austin, California, USA) has taken a unique position in enterprise blockchain cloud services. It offers seamless integration with existing ERP systems, receiving high evaluations from large enterprise customers. Oracle’s blockchain revenue reached $1.8 billion in 2025, with a customer retention rate of 94%, the highest in the industry. Nike used Oracle Blockchain for its product authenticity verification system, reducing counterfeit product distribution by 89% and significantly contributing to brand value protection.
In the Asian market, Alibaba Cloud (Hangzhou, China) is showing strength with its ‘Ant Chain’ platform. By 2025, the average daily transaction processing volume exceeded 1 billion, with 34% of e-commerce transactions in China conducted through this platform. Tencent’s (Shenzhen) ‘TrustSQL’ is also expanding its user base through integration with the WeChat ecosystem, with 47 million monthly active users in 2025.
Korean companies are also actively participating in global competition. LG CNS (Jung-gu, Seoul) is accelerating its entry into the Southeast Asian market through its self-developed blockchain platform ‘Monachain.’ It signed a contract worth $230 million for a digital identity verification system construction project with the Vietnamese government, aiming to launch commercial services in the first half of 2026. Kakao (Jeju City, Jeju) is expanding NFT and digital asset trading services through its blockchain-based digital wallet ‘Klip,’ with transaction volume reaching 120 billion won in 2025, a 423% increase from the previous year.
However, significant challenges remain in the adoption of enterprise blockchain. According to Deloitte’s 2025 Global Blockchain Survey, 68% of responding companies cited technical complexity as a major barrier, and 61% expressed concerns about regulatory uncertainty. Compatibility issues with data protection regulations like GDPR are delaying adoption in the European market. Energy consumption remains a challenge, with the Bitcoin network’s annual power consumption reaching 121 TWh, similar to Argentina’s total consumption, raising sustainability concerns.
Lack of interoperability is also a major issue companies face. Data exchange between different blockchain platforms is difficult, leading to silo effects, which limit the network effects of blockchain. Cross-chain solutions like Polkadot and Cosmos have emerged, but a complete solution has yet to be presented. The shortage of skilled personnel is also severe. According to LinkedIn data, blockchain-related job postings increased by 78% in 2025 compared to the previous year, but qualified applicants only increased by 34%.
The outlook for the blockchain industry in 2026 is generally positive. IDC (International Data Corporation) predicted that global blockchain spending will reach $19.5 billion in 2026, with the enterprise sector accounting for 73%. Growth in supply chain management, digital identity verification, and smart contract sectors is expected to continue. The adoption of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) is also expected to accelerate. According to the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), 24 countries worldwide are expected to officially adopt CBDCs by the end of 2026, further promoting the mainstream adoption of blockchain technology.
A paradigm shift is also occurring in terms of investment. Venture capital investments in blockchain are shifting from speculative cryptocurrency projects to practical enterprise solutions. In 2025, 68% of blockchain startup investments focused on B2B solutions, a significant increase from 34% in 2022. In Korea, under the government’s ‘Digital New Deal 2.0’ policy, 2.3 trillion won will be invested in the blockchain sector by 2026, expected to be an important driver for the development of the domestic blockchain ecosystem. As the practical value of enterprise blockchain is proven, this technology is no longer a possibility of the future but a reality of the present.
*This article is for informational purposes only and is not intended as investment solicitation or advice. Investment decisions should be made at one’s own discretion and responsibility.*
