Ripple President Monica Long says 2026 will be the year institutional crypto usage shifts decisively from pilots to production, as regulated infrastructure and clearer rules pull banks, corporates, and market intermediaries deeper onchain. In a January 20 blog post, Long frames the next leg of adoption around four forces: stablecoins, tokenized assets, custody consolidation, and automation powered by AI.
#1 Stablecoins (Ripple USD) As The Settlement Layer
Long’s central prediction is that stablecoins will stop being treated as an “alternative rail” and become foundational to global settlement. “Within the next five years, stablecoins will become fully integrated into global payment systems—not as an alternative rail, but as the foundational one,” she wrote. “We’re seeing this shift not in theory, but in practice, as heavyweights like Visa and Stripe hard-wire these rails into incumbent flows.”
She ties that trajectory to US policy momentum, arguing the GENIUS Act “inaugurated the digital dollar era,” and positioning “highly compliant, US issued stablecoins, including Ripple USD (RLUSD)” as a standard for programmable, 24/7 payments and collateral use in markets. Long also points to “conditional approval from the OCC to charter the Ripple National Trust Bank” as part of Ripple’s compliance strategy.
The near-term demand driver, in her telling, is B2B, not retail. Long cites research claiming B2B payments became the largest real-world stablecoin use case last year, reaching an annualized $76 billion run-rate—up sharply from early 2023 levels. She argues stablecoins can unlock liquidity and reduce working-capital drag, citing “over $700 billion” of idle cash on S&P 1500 balance sheets and “more than €1.3 trillion across Europe.”
#2 Institutional Exposure And Tokenization
Long argues crypto is increasingly used as financial infrastructure rather than just a speculative asset. “Crypto has evolved from a speculative asset into the operating layer of modern finance,” she wrote. “By the end of 2026, balance sheets will hold over $1 trillion in digital assets, and roughly half of Fortune 500 companies will have formalized digital asset strategies.”
She points to a 2025 Coinbase survey she says found 60% of Fortune 500 companies are working on blockchain initiatives, and notes “more than 200 public companies” holding bitcoin in treasury. She also highlights the rise of “digital asset treasury” firms, claiming they grew from four in 2020 to more than 200 today, with nearly 100 formed in 2025 alone.
On market structure, Long forecasts “collateral mobility” as a key institutional use case, with custodians and clearing houses using tokenization to modernize settlement. Her stated expectation is that “5–10% of capital markets settlement” moves onchain in 2026, supported by regulatory momentum and stablecoin adoption by systemically important institutions.
#3 Custody Consolidation Accelerates
Long frames digital asset custody as the institutional on-ramp and predicts consolidation as custody offerings commoditize. “M&A activity in this space is a signal of maturity, not just momentum,” she wrote, citing $8.6 billion in crypto M&A in 2025. She argues regulation will push banks toward multi-custodian setups and predicts “more than half of the world’s top 50 banks” will add at least one new custody relationship in 2026.
She also points to convergence between crypto and traditional finance through deals such as Kraken’s purchase of NinjaTrader and Ripple’s acquisitions of GTreasury and Hidden Road, positioning them as steps toward safer, more integrated institutional workflows.
#4 Blockchain And AI Converge
Long’s final theme is automation: smart contracts paired with AI models running treasury and asset-management processes continuously. “Stablecoins and smart contracts will enable treasuries to manage liquidity, execute margin calls and optimize yield across onchain repo agreements, all in real-time without manual intervention,” she wrote.
She argues privacy tech is critical for regulated deployment, pointing to zero-knowledge proofs as a way for AI to assess risk or creditworthiness without exposing sensitive data.
Long’s overarching claim is that 2026 marks a transition from experimentation to infrastructure: stablecoins as settlement and collateral, tokenization in core market plumbing, custody as a trust anchor, and AI-driven automation as the efficiency layer.
At press time, XRP traded at $1.905.
Featured image created with DALL.E, chart from TradingView.com
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