The Turning Point of the Blockchain Industry in 2025: New Growth Drivers from Accelerated Corporate Adoption and Regulatory Clarity
Editor
As of December 2025, blockchain technology is demonstrating its industrial value more clearly than ever. According to Deloitte’s latest ‘2025 Global Blockchain Survey,’ 74% of companies worldwide consider blockchain a “business priority,” a significant increase from 53% in 2024. Notably, 42% of companies are operating blockchain in actual production environments, up 18 percentage points from 2024. This shift indicates that blockchain is now recognized as a proven enterprise solution rather than an experimental technology.
In terms of market size, the maturity of the blockchain industry is also evident. Gartner projects the global blockchain market size to reach $67.4 billion in 2025, a 68.4% increase from the previous year. More impressive is the change in growth drivers. While cryptocurrency and DeFi-related transactions accounted for about 80% of all blockchain activities until 2023, by 2025, practical applications such as supply chain management (23%), digital identity verification (19%), and smart contract automation (17%) will constitute 59% of the total. This signifies a shift in the blockchain ecosystem from speculative nature to focusing on creating real business value.
This trend is also clearly observed in the Korean market. According to the ‘2025 Domestic Blockchain Industry Status Report’ by the Korea Blockchain Association, the domestic blockchain market size grew by 89% year-on-year to 1.24 trillion won. Notably, large corporations are making significant investments. Samsung SDS (Headquarters: Seoul) increased its blockchain-related R&D investment by 156% year-on-year to 34 billion won in 2025 and is providing blockchain services to 127 domestic and international corporate clients through its self-developed ‘Nexledger’ platform. SK Telecom (Headquarters: Seoul) has also introduced an NFT-based digital asset trading system on its ‘ifland’ metaverse platform, achieving 2.8 million monthly active users as of the third quarter of 2025.
Rapid Expansion of Enterprise Blockchain Solutions
The most notable change in the blockchain industry in 2025 is the explosive growth of enterprise solutions. IBM’s (Headquarters: Armonk, New York) Hyperledger Fabric-based solution is currently used by over 2,400 companies worldwide, with new customers increasing by 340% in the first half of 2025 alone. Particularly in the supply chain management sector, IBM’s ‘Food Trust’ platform is being adopted on a large scale by global food distributors like Nestlé, Walmart, and Carrefour to ensure food safety and transparency. This platform generates over 150 million food trace records annually, reducing the time to trace the cause of food safety incidents from 7 days to 2.2 seconds.
Microsoft (Headquarters: Redmond) is taking a different approach with its Azure Blockchain Service. As of 2025, the number of blockchain nodes operating on the Azure cloud has exceeded 140,000, a 230% increase from the previous year. Microsoft’s strategy focuses on seamless integration with existing enterprise systems. It allows general business users to easily utilize blockchain features through integration with Office 365 and Power Platform. German auto parts manufacturer Bosch has implemented Microsoft’s solution to manage the entire lifecycle of auto parts from production to disposal using blockchain, improving parts tracking accuracy to 99.7%.
Oracle’s (Headquarters: Austin) blockchain platform is also achieving notable success. The Oracle Blockchain Platform is utilized by over 850 companies across various industries, including finance, manufacturing, and logistics, with a particular emphasis on trade finance. HSBC has used Oracle’s solution to reduce the processing time for letters of credit from 5-10 days to within 24 hours, with cumulative transaction volume surpassing $12 billion in the first half of 2025. This exemplifies the accelerated digital transformation of traditional trade finance processes.
Korean companies are actively responding to these global trends. LG CNS (Headquarters: Seoul) is providing blockchain-based quality management solutions to domestic manufacturers through its self-developed ‘Monachain’ platform. Hyundai Motor Group has adopted LG CNS’s solution to establish a system for real-time sharing of parts quality information with over 1,200 suppliers, reducing response time to quality issues by 68%. Additionally, LG CNS is set to expand into the Southeast Asian market from the second half of 2025, promoting the adoption of blockchain solutions among manufacturers in Vietnam and Thailand.
Maturation of Regulatory Environment and Institutional Framework Establishment
Another key driver of blockchain industry growth in 2025 is the establishment of clear regulatory frameworks worldwide. Following the full implementation of the European Union’s ‘Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA)’ regulation at the end of 2024, legal certainty has been provided to blockchain companies, leading to significant capital inflows from institutional investors. According to PwC’s ‘2025 Global Crypto Hedge Fund Report,’ the asset size of blockchain-related funds in Europe increased by 340% year-on-year to €28 billion, with over 80% of the funds coming from institutional investors.
In the United States, regulatory clarity has also significantly improved. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) released the ‘Digital Asset Classification Guidelines’ in the first half of 2025, clearly distinguishing between utility tokens and security tokens. As a result, funding for blockchain startups in the U.S. has been revitalized, with CB Insights data indicating that investment in U.S. blockchain startups reached $18.7 billion from January to November 2025, a 156% increase from the same period the previous year. Notably, investments in the enterprise blockchain solution sector accounted for 43% of the total, indicating a clear shift in investment patterns from B2C to B2B.
The Korean government is also continuously strengthening the institutional framework for fostering the blockchain industry. The Ministry of Science and ICT announced an investment of 320 billion won in blockchain technology development as part of the ‘Digital New Deal 2.0’ policy in 2025, a 78% increase from the previous year. Notably, the government is actively expanding the use of blockchain in the public sector. The Ministry of the Interior and Safety launched the ‘Digital Civil Service Blockchain’ project in the second half of 2025, introducing blockchain technology into the civil complaint processing systems of local governments nationwide to prevent document forgery and ensure transparency in processing. Currently, seven metropolitan cities, including Seoul, Busan, and Daegu, are participating in the pilot program, with plans for nationwide expansion by 2026.
On a global scale, the standardization of blockchain technology is accelerating. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) approved the ‘ISO/IEC 23257’ standard in October 2025, ensuring interoperability of blockchain technology, marking a significant milestone that enables data exchange and smart contract execution between different blockchain platforms. This standardization is particularly meaningful in global supply chain management. Maersk (Copenhagen, Denmark) launched the blockchain-based container tracking system ‘TradeLens 2.0,’ compliant with ISO standards, and currently, 150 ports and over 600 logistics companies worldwide are using this platform to share real-time location and status information of 120 million containers annually.
These improvements in the regulatory environment and advancements in standardization are further accelerating the corporate adoption of blockchain technology. According to Accenture’s (Headquarters: Dublin) latest research, blockchain adoption rates in regions with clear regulatory frameworks are on average 2.7 times higher than in regions with unclear regulations. This difference is particularly pronounced in the financial services sector, with financial institutions in Europe and Singapore being the most proactive in launching blockchain-based services.
As of the end of 2025, the blockchain industry has entered a new growth trajectory, harmonizing technological maturity and institutional foundations. In place of speculative bubbles, solutions that create real business value have emerged, and a clear regulatory environment is driving active corporate investment. Korean companies are also accelerating technology development and market expansion in line with these global trends, with rapid growth in use cases, particularly in manufacturing and the public sector. Blockchain technology is expected to establish itself as a core infrastructure of the digital economy, providing new growth opportunities for related companies.
The future growth prospects for the blockchain industry are very positive. McKinsey projects that the global blockchain market will grow at an average annual rate of 67.3% to reach $3.1 trillion by 2030, with enterprise solutions expected to account for over 70% of the total. Explosive growth is anticipated in areas such as supply chain transparency, digital identity management, and smart contract automation, offering long-term investment value for related companies.
This post is for informational purposes only and should not be interpreted as investment advice or a recommendation. All investment decisions should be made at the individual’s discretion, and thorough research and consultation with experts are advised before investing.
