PwC: Institutional Adoption of Cryptocurrency Has Passed the Point of No Return

PwC's "2026 Global Crypto Regulation Report" points out that the adoption of crypto assets by institutions has crossed an "irreversible point," making it difficult to retract the related processes.

The report states that the current focus of discussion is no longer whether institutions should use crypto assets, but rather how to integrate them into the existing financial system. Crypto assets are shifting from being primarily about trading and speculation to being deeply embedded in core financial scenarios such as payments, settlements, cash management, and balance sheet management, with the production-level application of stablecoins being particularly crucial. PwC notes that stablecoins and tokenized cash are widely used by banks, asset management firms, and payment companies for internal transfers, cross-border payments, and corporate funding operations, with crypto technology gradually becoming the "behind-the-scenes financial infrastructure," often unnoticed by end users.

The report believes that once crypto systems are embedded in an institution's core business processes, the path to adoption will be difficult to reverse. This view is echoed by several market participants, including Circle, the issuer of USDC.