A DBS Bank survey conducted by EY between June and July 2026 shows that 88% of large global corporations generating over $500 million in annual revenue are using or testing tokenized money, with 67% deploying it in live environments. Fiat-pegged stablecoins lead corporate adoption at 63%. Businesses are turning to tokenized assets to improve liquidity management and enable round-the-clock cross-border payments amid market volatility, while seeking traditional banks as single integration anchors.
Widespread corporate adoption of tokenised money
- ▪A DBS survey conducted by EY between June and July 2026 found that 88% of major companies generating over $500 million annual revenue use or test tokenized money: 24% at scale, 43% in selected markets, 21% in pilots.
- ▪DBS executive Lim Soon Chong stated on October 27, 2026 that corporate adoption of tokenized money is going mainstream much faster than the bank anticipated.
Preferences and trade-offs for stablecoins
- ▪DBS executive Lim Soon Chong noted that stablecoins offer higher fungibility across payment intermediaries but present greater challenges for anti-money laundering compliance compared to bank deposits.
- ▪The DBS survey found that fiat-pegged stablecoins are the most widely adopted tokenized instrument among corporate respondents at 63%, ahead of tokenized deposits at 53% and tokenized money market funds at 52%.
Treasury and payment efficiency gains
- ▪In the DBS survey, 71% of corporate respondents reported experiencing or expecting real-time cross-border payment improvements within two years, while 72% cited expected gains in transaction traceability.
- ▪The DBS survey showed that 65% of surveyed corporate finance executives experience or expect improved treasury liquidity management from utilizing tokenized money.
Corporate expectations of banks
- ▪The DBS survey revealed that corporate respondents increasingly expect banks to support round-the-clock payments and settlement.
- ▪In the DBS survey, 64% of corporate respondents expressed a desire for banks to provide a single access point for tokenized money, while 63% sought bank assistance with pilots and implementation.
Market expansion and settlement currency trends
- ▪The DBS survey indicated that 65% of corporate respondents expanding into new markets named Southeast Asia as their primary target destination, followed by Australia and New Zealand at 50% and India at 45%.
- ▪According to the DBS survey, 78% of corporate respondents expanded exposure to multiple trade settlement currencies, with Australian and British businesses showing growing interest in using the Chinese renminbi over the next one to two years.
Institutional tokenized payment services
- ▪DBS Bank launched its DBS Token Services platform in 2024 to enable programmable payments and round-the-clock settlement using permissioned blockchain infrastructure.
- ▪DBS Bank and Citi completed a weekend cross-border U.S. dollar payment between Singapore and New York in minutes using tokenized deposits through the Swift Digital Ledger.
DBS outlook on tokenized money
- ▪DBS executive Lim Soon Chong stated that the timeline for tokenized money going mainstream largely depends on users, fellow intermediaries, and regulatory developments.
- ▪DBS Bank expects its capital investment in tokenized money infrastructure to potentially match or exceed spending on traditional payment rails within two to three years.
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