The Turning Point of the Blockchain Industry in 2025: Accelerated Corporate Adoption and Shift to Practicality
Editor
A New Turning Point in Corporate Blockchain Adoption
As of late 2025, the global blockchain market is experiencing a fundamental paradigm shift. According to the latest report by Gartner, the global blockchain market size is expected to reach $67.6 billion by 2025, a 68.4% increase from the previous year. Notably, this growth no longer relies on cryptocurrency price volatility but is based on actual corporate adoption and the spread of practical applications. Deloitte’s 2025 Global Blockchain Survey indicates that 73% of responding companies classify blockchain as a “strategic priority,” a significant rise from 55% in 2023.
At the center of this change is the maturation of enterprise blockchain. IBM’s Hyperledger Fabric-based solutions are currently utilized by over 500 companies worldwide, creating substantial business value in areas such as supply chain management, digital identity verification, and smart contract execution. IBM’s blockchain division recorded a 127% growth in Q3 2025 compared to the same period last year, significantly outpacing IBM’s overall revenue growth rate of 8.2%. Adoption is accelerating in the financial services, manufacturing, and healthcare sectors, with an average ROI of 235% within 18 months.
South Korea’s Samsung Electronics is also actively adopting blockchain technology. Through Samsung SDS, the blockchain platform ‘Nexledger’ is currently serving over 120 companies domestically and internationally, particularly excelling in semiconductor supply chain tracking and smart factory operation optimization. In the first half of 2025 alone, Samsung Electronics filed 47 blockchain-related patents, a 312% increase from the same period last year. A company representative stated, “Blockchain technology will become the core infrastructure of the Manufacturing 4.0 era,” expressing a commitment to continued investment expansion.
The diversification of Coinbase’s (San Francisco-based) business model is also noteworthy. In 2025, Coinbase is focusing on custody services and blockchain infrastructure solutions for institutional investors, stabilizing its revenue structure. In its Q3 earnings report, it revealed that revenue from non-transaction fees accounted for 42% of total revenue, a significant increase from 23% in the same period last year. The ‘Coinbase Cloud’ service for corporate clients recorded quarterly revenue of $230 million, growing 89% year-over-year, demonstrating the rapidly increasing demand for blockchain infrastructure among enterprises.
Improvement in Regulatory Environment and Institutional Framework Establishment
One of the most significant changes in the blockchain industry in 2025 is the drastic improvement in the regulatory environment. In June 2025, the United States passed the ‘Digital Asset Clarity Act,’ providing a clear legal framework for blockchain-based digital assets. This has significantly lowered the barriers for companies to adopt blockchain technology, with a notable increase in its use in the financial sector. Major banks like Citigroup, JP Morgan, and Bank of America began implementing blockchain-based payment systems in the second half of 2025, announcing an average 73% reduction in international remittance costs.
The full implementation of the European Union’s ‘Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA)’ is also significantly impacting industry development. With regulatory clarity secured, investment in blockchain startups within Europe increased by 156% year-over-year in the first half of 2025, with total investments reaching €8.9 billion. The fintech ecosystem centered around Germany, France, and the Netherlands is rapidly growing, with a surge in partnerships between traditional financial institutions and blockchain companies. Deutsche Bank announced processing €12 billion in transactions in Q3 2025 through its blockchain-based trade finance platform.
South Korea is also actively fostering the blockchain industry with the implementation of the ‘Virtual Asset User Protection Act.’ The Ministry of Science and ICT announced an investment of 120 billion won in 2025 to establish a ‘Blockchain Innovation Hub,’ a 67% increase from the previous year. In the ‘Blockchain Regulatory Free Zone’ centered in Busan, 47 companies are currently conducting various pilot projects, with 23 projects entering the commercialization stage. A Busan city official stated the vision to “emerge as a global blockchain hub by 2026,” preparing additional incentive policies.
China’s policy changes in blockchain are also significantly impacting the global market. The Chinese government is focusing on the development of industrial blockchain technology alongside the spread of the digital yuan (DCEP) through the ‘Five-Year Plan for Blockchain Industry Development’ in 2025. Currently, China accounts for 47% of global blockchain patent applications, securing a leading position in supply chain management and smart city sectors. Alibaba Group’s blockchain division announced a revenue of $3.4 billion in 2025, an 89% increase from the previous year.
This improvement in the regulatory environment is accelerating institutional investors’ entry into the blockchain market. Global asset management firms like BlackRock, Fidelity, and Vanguard are launching blockchain-related ETFs and investment products in 2025, with total assets under management reaching $240 billion. MicroStrategy (Virginia-based) continues to expand its Bitcoin holdings, pursuing a “digital gold” strategy, with its Bitcoin holdings accounting for 78% of the company’s market capitalization. This exemplifies how blockchain assets are becoming a core element of corporate financial strategies.
Technological Innovation and Expansion of Practicality
The most notable feature of blockchain technology in 2025 is the simultaneous improvement in scalability and energy efficiency. With the complete transition to Ethereum 2.0, the transactions per second (TPS) have increased dramatically from 15 to 100,000, and energy consumption has decreased by 99.95%. This is seen as resolving the environmental and processing speed issues, which were the biggest obstacles to corporate adoption. Vitalik Buterin recently stated in an interview, “Blockchain is now ready to be utilized as a global financial infrastructure.”
NVIDIA’s (California-based) development of blockchain-specific chipsets is also accelerating technological advancement. NVIDIA announced the release of the ‘H200 Blockchain Edition’ in Q3 2025, enhancing the processing performance of blockchain network consensus algorithms by 340% compared to previous versions. Blockchain nodes using this chipset can achieve the same performance with 67% less power, directly reducing operational costs for companies. NVIDIA’s data center division’s blockchain-related revenue reached $2.3 billion in 2025, a 145% increase from the previous year.
The maturation of Layer 2 solutions is also a noteworthy change. The total value locked (TVL) in major Layer 2 networks like Polygon, Arbitrum, and Optimism reached $89 billion by the end of 2025, a 234% increase from the same period last year. Usage is surging, particularly in gaming and social media sectors, with daily active users (DAU) reaching 12 million. This is an important indicator of blockchain technology’s expansion into the general consumer domain.
The convergence of artificial intelligence and blockchain is also creating new market opportunities. AI companies like OpenAI and Anthropic are developing AI model verification and data integrity assurance systems through blockchain, emerging as key technologies for solving AI reliability issues. Efforts to address copyright and provenance tracking issues of generative AI using blockchain are active, with the related market size expected to reach $15.6 billion by 2025.
Looking at real business cases, Walmart announced that its blockchain-based food tracking system reduced foodborne illness response time from 7 days to 2.2 seconds. This system is now implemented in 89% of all Walmart stores, achieving a 34% reduction in annual operating costs. Additionally, De Beers in the diamond industry reported that its blockchain-based diamond certification platform ‘Tracr’ blocked 99.9% of conflict diamond transactions. Currently, 67% of the global diamond trade volume is registered on this platform, with consumer trust reaching 92%.
In the financial sector, JP Morgan’s ‘JPM Coin’ is cited as a representative success story. This digital currency, specialized for corporate payments, recorded an average daily transaction volume of $13 billion in 2025, reducing international remittance times from 3-5 days to mere seconds. JP Morgan announced annual operational cost savings of $1.2 billion through this, and other global banks are considering adopting similar systems. Goldman Sachs announced plans to launch its own digital currency in the first half of 2026, and Citigroup announced a $500 million investment in building a blockchain-based trade finance platform.
However, despite this growth, the blockchain industry still faces challenges to overcome. The biggest issue is the lack of interoperability. Currently, the compatibility between major blockchain networks is limited, making it difficult for companies to provide consistent services in a multi-blockchain environment. Cross-chain protocols like Cosmos and Polkadot are being developed to address this, but a complete solution has yet to emerge. Additionally, the shortage of skilled professionals is a serious issue, with global demand for blockchain developers being 3.4 times the supply.
Security issues also remain a persistent concern. In the first half of 2025 alone, damages from hacking amounted to $1.8 billion, a 23% increase from the same period last year. Attacks targeting vulnerabilities in decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols’ smart contracts are increasing, necessitating the advancement of security audits and verification systems. Consequently, investment in blockchain security companies is active, with the related market size reaching $6.7 billion in 2025, a 112% increase from the previous year.
As of late 2025, the blockchain industry stands at a definitive turning point. With the paradigm shifting from speculative growth to creating tangible business value, the maturity of technology and market acceptance are rising simultaneously. As the improvement in the regulatory environment, accelerated corporate adoption, and technological innovation align, blockchain is now establishing itself as essential infrastructure rather than experimental technology. If this trend continues over the next 2-3 years, blockchain is expected to fully settle as foundational technology akin to the internet. However, addressing challenges like technical limitations, security issues, and workforce shortages will be key factors for sustained growth.
This analysis is based on publicly available market data and corporate announcements and is not intended as investment advice or stock recommendations. All investment decisions should be made at the discretion and responsibility of individual investors.
