Long

Brad

America

Fortune

Long has predicted that half of all Fortune 500 companies’ corporate balance sheets will hold digital assets by the end of 2026. This aligns with her forecasts of a high adoption rate of stablecoins and crypto across global enterprises, banks, and capital markets.&nbsp;
In an article published on Ripple’s website on Tuesday, company president Monica Long said stablecoins such as the US dollar-backed RLUSD are the “gold standard for programmable and 24/7 global payments.”&nbsp;
She mentioned how the current United States administration’s GENIUS Act law has made corporate America more welcoming to crypto. Also, the launch of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) is evidence that digital assets are moving into core financial operations.
“Within the next five years, stablecoins will become fully integrated into global payment systems as the foundational one rail. We’re seeing this shift not in theory, but in practice, as heavyweights like Visa and Stripe hard-wire these rails into incumbent flows,” Long <a href="https://ripple.com/insights/2026-crypto-predictions/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">wrote</a>.
<h3 id="span-style-font-weight-400-corporate-crypto-holdings-will-reach-1-trillion-says-long-span">Corporate crypto holdings will reach $1 trillion, says Long</h3>
According to a 2025 Coinbase survey cited in Ripple’s president’s predictions, 60% of Fortune 500 companies were actively working on blockchain-related business plans that year. At the same time, more than 200 publicly traded companies have added bitcoin to their treasury holdings.
Long believes the referenced survey is a vote of confidence in the digital asset treasury model. The number of such firms has gone up from just four in 2020 to more than 200, with nearly half of that in 2025 alone, she explained.
“By the end of 2026, balance sheets will hold over $1 trillion in digital assets, and half of Fortune 500 companies will have formalized digital asset strategies. And not just crypto exposure, but active participation across tokenized assets, digital asset treasuries, stablecoins, onchain T-bills, and programmable financial instruments,” the business head continued.
Speaking on the amount of capital institutions have to spare, Long said there was more than $700 billion sitting unused on S&amp;P 1500 balance sheets and over $1.3 trillion parked in European firms. According to her, tokenized assets and stablecoins are the best way to deploy that capital into market liquidity that would help the global economy grow.
Long expects financial institutions to lean on regulated <a href="https://www.cryptopolitan.com/stablecoins-shouldnt-pay-interest-america/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">stablecoins</a> for capital markets activity, particularly for 24/7 collateral mobility. B2B payments became the leading real-world use case for stablecoins last year, reaching an annualized pace of $76 billion.
<h3 id="span-style-font-weight-400-mergers-and-acquisitions-on-tradfi-by-crypto-companies-span">Mergers and acquisitions on tradfi by crypto companies</h3>
Crypto-related mergers and acquisitions hit $8.6 billion in 2025, with Ripple itself taking over financial institutions like debt manager GTreasury and hedge fund Hidden Road.&nbsp;
The stablecoin issuer could continue buying more traditional firms to further push crypto into mainstream financial services. However, its CEO, Brad Garlinghouse, said Ripple is not looking to go public anytime soon, Cryptopolitan <a href="https://www.cryptopolitan.com/ripple-shuts-door-on-ipo/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">reported</a>.&nbsp;
Long also talked about the company’s conditional approval from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to charter Ripple National Trust Bank, which the company will now use to provide custodial services under federal oversight.&nbsp;
A regulatory effort by the Trump government is pushing banks to become multi-custodians for crypto and to manage its operational risks. Long is adamant that these forces will lead more than half of the world’s top 50 banks to create at least one new custody relationship in 2026.
Last Thursday, Ripple announced a financing arrangement with LMAX Group to provide $150 million in multi-year funding to the institutional trading firm and integrate RLUSD into LMAX’s global exchange as a settlement and collateral asset. RLUSD will be available through LMAX Custody segregated wallets and through LMAX Kiosk, where trading in several asset classes uses stablecoin collateral.&nbsp;
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Ripple exec forecasts 50% Fortune 500 DAT adoption

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