The Great Transformation of the Blockchain Industry in 2026: New Growth Drivers in Enterprise Adoption and the Tokenized Economy
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The blockchain industry in 2026 is widely regarded as having entered its ‘mature phase’. According to the latest report by Gartner, the global blockchain market size is projected to surge by 256%, from $67.4 billion in 2025 to $240 billion in 2026. This explosive growth is driven by the full-scale commercialization of enterprise blockchain solutions and the mainstream adoption of tokenization for real assets such as real estate, intellectual property, and carbon credits. Notably, by the end of 2025, speculative cryptocurrency trading had decreased to 23% of total blockchain transactions, while real asset tokenization and business-to-business (B2B) transactions accounted for 77%.
Korean blockchain companies are also making their mark at the forefront of this transformation. Samsung SDS (Headquarters: Seoul) announced that its blockchain business division achieved a revenue of 124 billion KRW in Q4 2025, marking a 340% year-over-year growth. The company’s ‘Nexledger’ platform is currently utilized by over 2,300 companies in 47 countries for supply chain management, digital identity verification, and smart contract execution. Kakao (Headquarters: Jeju) has also seen its subsidiary GroundX’s ‘Klaytn’ blockchain surpass 4.2 million daily transactions in 2025, overtaking Ethereum to become the largest blockchain network in Asia.
In the global market, American companies continue to lead technological innovation. JPMorgan Chase, headquartered in New York, reported processing $2.8 trillion in inter-institutional payments in 2025 using its proprietary ‘JPM Coin’, a 190% increase from the previous year, highlighting the accelerated adoption of blockchain by traditional financial institutions. IBM (Headquarters: Armonk, New York) is playing a key role in building food traceability systems for global retailers like Walmart, Nestlé, and Unilever through the ‘IBM Blockchain Platform’, with 34% of the global food supply chain now utilizing IBM’s blockchain solutions.
The Full-Scale Expansion of Enterprise Blockchain and Business Model Innovation
The most notable change in the blockchain industry in 2026 is the explosive growth of enterprise solutions. According to Deloitte’s ‘2026 Global Blockchain Survey’, 79% of global companies with annual revenues exceeding $1 billion have already integrated blockchain technology into their core business processes, with the remaining 21% planning to adopt it within 2026. This represents a 148% increase from 31% in 2023. Adoption rates in manufacturing, logistics, finance, and healthcare are particularly high, at 85%, 92%, 88%, and 71%, respectively, as industry-specific solutions become firmly established.
Microsoft (Headquarters: Redmond, Washington) is actively targeting the enterprise market through its ‘Azure Blockchain Service’. The company’s blockchain-related revenue is projected to grow by 167%, from $4.5 billion in 2025 to $12 billion in 2026. Microsoft’s strength lies in offering hybrid solutions that seamlessly integrate existing enterprise legacy systems with blockchain technology. Currently, 340 of the Fortune 500 companies use Microsoft’s blockchain solutions for tasks such as supply chain transparency, contract automation, and digital identity management.
Naver (Headquarters: Seongnam) is establishing a unique position in the Asian market with its ‘LINE Blockchain’, developed through its subsidiary Line. Leveraging a strong messenger user base in Japan and Thailand, it successfully operates blockchain-based digital payment and NFT trading platforms. In 2025, Line’s blockchain-related transaction volume exceeded $18 billion, with 73% used for actual goods and services purchases, earning high marks for practicality. The ‘LINK’ token operated by Line is now accepted as a payment method at 23,000 merchants in Japan, leading the popularization of blockchain-based payment systems.
In the supply chain management sector, Walmart’s case is exemplary. The American retail giant, in collaboration with IBM, has achieved a reduction in food safety incident trace times from 7 days to 2.2 seconds using a blockchain-based food tracking system. This system is now implemented in 89% of Walmart’s global stores, with annual operational cost savings amounting to $1.2 billion. Global food companies like Nestlé, Unilever, and Cargill have also adopted similar systems, significantly improving brand trust and risk management efficiency.
Explosive Growth of the Tokenized Economy and a New Investment Paradigm
The most innovative change in the blockchain industry in 2026 is the explosive growth of the real asset tokenization market. According to the latest analysis by Boston Consulting Group (BCG), the global tokenized asset size is expected to skyrocket by 667%, from $2.1 trillion in 2025 to $16.1 trillion in 2026. This growth is driven by traditionally illiquid assets like real estate, intellectual property, art, commodities, and carbon credits becoming divisible into smaller ownership units through blockchain.
The real estate tokenization market is particularly noteworthy. The U.S.-based real estate tokenization platform ‘RealT’ announced that the total value of real estate tokens traded on its platform reached $8.7 billion in 2025, a 420% increase from the previous year. This surge is attributed to individual investors being able to invest in commercial real estate in New York’s Manhattan or San Francisco with as little as $50. Tokenized real estate has recorded an average annual return of 12.7%, significantly outperforming traditional Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) at 8.3%. The ability to trade 24/7 and freely sell portions adds a liquidity premium.
Intellectual property tokenization is also emerging as a new investment area. Through the music copyright tokenization platform ‘Royal’, music copyrights of global artists like Beyoncé, Taylor Swift, and BTS are being tokenized and traded. In 2025, the total value of music copyright tokens traded on the Royal platform reached $3.4 billion, with investors receiving a portion of streaming revenue as dividends. The copyright token for BTS’s hit song ‘Dynamite’ has recorded an average annual return of 28%, proving its potential as an alternative investment asset.
NVIDIA (Headquarters: Santa Clara, California) is one of the biggest beneficiaries of this tokenized economy growth as a key GPU supplier for blockchain infrastructure. The proportion of blockchain-related sales in NVIDIA’s data center GPU revenue is expected to increase from 23% in 2025 to 41% in 2026. NVIDIA’s ‘H200’ GPU is optimized for processing consensus algorithms and executing smart contracts in blockchain networks, making it essential hardware among tokenization platform operators. NVIDIA is expected to record $18 billion in blockchain-related revenue in 2026, accounting for 14% of its total revenue.
The carbon credit tokenization market is also rapidly growing. With the full implementation of the European Union’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), the demand for carbon credit trading among companies is soaring, bringing blockchain-based carbon credit exchanges into the spotlight. The Switzerland-based ‘Toucan Protocol’ announced that it tokenized and traded 1.2 billion tons of carbon credits through its platform in 2025. Tokenized carbon credits have reduced transaction costs by 67% compared to traditional methods, with significantly enhanced transparency and traceability, making them a key tool for companies’ ESG management.
In Asia, Singapore is emerging as a hub for the tokenized economy. Through the ‘Project Guardian’ initiative announced by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), institutional investors are actively investing in tokenized assets. In 2025, the volume of tokenized bonds issued in Singapore reached $234 billion, with 78% sold to overseas investors, serving as a global distribution channel for Asian tokenized assets. Major Asian institutional investors like Japan’s SoftBank, Korea’s Samsung Asset Management, and China’s Tencent are pursuing portfolio diversification through Singapore’s tokenization platforms.
However, alongside the rapid growth of the tokenized economy, new risks are also emerging. Regulatory uncertainty is the biggest concern, with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) planning to announce a comprehensive regulatory framework for tokenized assets in the first half of 2026. Additionally, the lack of international consensus on valuation standards and accounting methods for tokenized assets remains a barrier to full institutional participation. Cybersecurity risks are also a critical consideration, with hacking attempts on tokenization platforms increasing by 340% year-over-year in 2025, highlighting the need for enhanced security.
In 2026, the blockchain industry is completing its full transition from a speculative asset to practical infrastructure, driving fundamental changes in traditional finance and corporate operations. While the acceleration of enterprise adoption and the explosive growth of the tokenized economy are creating new business models and investment opportunities, they also present challenges in terms of regulation and security. The future success of blockchain technology is expected to depend on how well it balances technological innovation with institutional stability.
This article is an analytical piece based on market conditions and publicly available information as of January 2, 2026. It is recommended to conduct additional research and consult experts before making investment decisions.
