Deloitte Survey: 99% of CFOs are seeking to use Crypto Assets long-term to innovate traditional business structures.

The traditional finance sector is exploring tokenization, with nearly all CFOs interviewed planning to adopt crypto assets long-term in their businesses, as blockchain technology is revolutionizing financial infrastructure. (Background: MicroStrategy is embroiled in lawsuits again: Why do accounting standards pose significant issues for Michael Saylor?) (Context: Polymarket launches a "Trade Earning" prediction market for publicly listed companies in the U.S.) Tokenization in traditional finance is once again the focus of the news, with executives from U.S. publicly listed companies discussing the benefits and risks of integrating crypto assets into their businesses. The term "tokenization" refers to deploying traditional financial assets on-chain, digitizing these assets (including currency) to enable the finance industry to benefit from the speed and transparency offered by blockchain. But is this just another crypto asset trend, or is this young industry addressing a fundamental problem for the traditional finance world? A survey released by Deloitte in July polled CFOs from 200 companies with revenues of at least $1 billion about tokenization. The survey showed that nearly all CFOs expect to "long-term use crypto assets for business functions." Only 1% of respondents indicated they had not considered this. 23% of respondents stated that their treasury departments "will use crypto assets for investment or payment within the next two years," with that figure approaching 40% for CFOs of firms with revenues of $10 billion or more. Moreover, among these respondents, only "2% indicated they had not had any discussions with key stakeholders about crypto assets." A Deloitte executive mentioned that there are currently two prevailing narratives in the U.S. finance sector: "One is whether to hold Bitcoin on the balance sheet, and the other is a broader acceptance of the future of tokenization, which seems increasingly inevitable." He added, "The first step is often stablecoins, how to adopt them, whether to issue their own tokens. Nowadays, there are more companies discussing this broader strategy than those committing to hold Bitcoin on their balance sheets." Particularly, stablecoins, as tools that can serve U.S. interests both domestically and internationally, have attracted interest from Wall Street and Washington. This survey reinforces this growth trend, showing that 15% of CFOs expect their organizations to accept stablecoins as a payment method within the next two years, with that figure "higher (24%)" for organizations with revenues of at least $10 billion. When asked about the benefits of "accepting crypto assets as a payment method," CFOs ranked enhanced customer privacy as the most valuable advantage, recognizing the significant damage customer data collection can do to user privacy. The financial industry is also tracking policy developments, such as the SEC's "crypto project" and similar efforts by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which are reshaping market structures. He also mentioned the CLARITY Act, which "has passed the House and is under consideration in the Senate, with support from regulators. The Act defines the necessary structure" aimed at providing regulatory clarity for crypto-related businesses, including those related to tokenization. Traditional financial firms believe this infrastructure transformation is inevitable. "It probably still needs a year; people are thinking about what this means for their businesses." "Before the COVID-19 pandemic, blockchain was seen as having perished, but we are emerging from that disillusionment. Performance has improved, the regulatory environment is better, and companies see peers discussing this issue. Board members, typically other companies' CEOs or CFOs, bring these strategic discussions back to their teams, spreading their inevitability and the necessary strategic choices." Bitcoin and the crypto asset industry are merging with traditional finance, and the results are more profound than most people realize. The terms "tokenization" and "real-world assets" or RWA are often mentioned together, almost seen as synonyms. But what does "tokenization" really mean for CFOs on Wall Street and across the U.S., and why are they so interested in it? The tokenization of stablecoins and real-world assets is not about keeping up with trends, attracting younger customers, or expanding into international markets; it is about upgrading financial infrastructure, bringing new features such as higher currency circulation speeds, more user privacy, while also enhancing the transparency and real-time data of the overall market transactions. Satoshi Nakamoto discusses the issues of traditional finance, and the curiosity CFOs display towards financial "tokenization" may be a topic underestimated and misunderstood by Bitcoin users. The problems traditional finance is attempting to solve through "tokenization" may be fundamentally the same as those identified and attempted to be solved by Satoshi Nakamoto in his original Bitcoin White Paper (the technical document that gave birth to Bitcoin and the modern crypto asset industry). "Online business has almost entirely relied on financial intermediaries as trusted third parties to process electronic payments. While this system is adequately effective for most transactions, it still suffers from inherent weaknesses in the trust model," Satoshi Nakamoto wrote in his groundbreaking work at the end of 2008. This statement strikes at the core of the problem. The technology supporting traditional finance was conceived before the invention of the internet. Before that, physical, high-trust international banking clubs made sense. But at the dawn of the digital age, many old business methods could benefit from transformation. Thus, Wall Street's interest in tokenization is not merely about chasing trends. "It is not about attracting the younger generation or expanding outside the U.S., but about leveraging the blockchain of tokenization to change today's business models, and people are increasingly realizing how existing infrastructure can be improved." The "benefits of upgrading financial infrastructure are enormous." "Short-term impacts include increased currency circulation speed; faster transaction settlements and global capital flows; it releases capital that has been tied up in inefficient systems." Blockchain has changed transaction timelines across the globe, as they operate around the clock, while traditional finance does not. If you are a bank, you essentially have to pre-fund these payment channels. Assuming you expect about $100 million in fund flows through a channel in one day, you must provide 120% funding just in case. So over time, you end up with $20 million in dead money sitting there, but in reality, it does not need to be there. It is not just about improving speed; you are also releasing funds that were previously trapped in outdated systems. "Delving into how transactions are settled in today's traditional finance, the SEC has long had a plan aimed at accelerating the settlement timeline of securities transactions." "Today we are studying the T+1 directive, which adds a day of latency to settle transactions. But increasingly and indeed with the changing of the White House, people realize that if we want to achieve T+0, i.e., same-day settlement of transactions, ideally within a few hours, if not minutes, we indeed need to take a more serious look at blockchain." In terms of policy, regulators, financial intermediaries engaged in such settlements, and government departments are undergoing a very coordinated transformation to drive how financial markets operate and realize the benefits of this new technology." The benefits for the overall economy will be significant, under this new paradigm, "the efficiency with which companies and individuals manage their funds and positions, whether in stocks, bonds, or real estate, will significantly improve." This will enable people to make important financial decisions, "without the need for many of these legacy systems that increase costs and, in some cases, even add risk." Why Satoshi Nakamoto chose Proof of Work. Wall Street's blockchain and tokenization face a major question...