Global businesses are adopting tokenized money faster than expected as companies seek to improve liquidity management, streamline cross-border payments and expand into new markets, according to a survey by Singapore-based DBS Group.
The survey found that 88% of businesses had either deployed tokenized money or were running pilot projects, suggesting that digital forms of money are moving beyond experimentation into practical corporate finance applications. Roughly two-thirds of respondents said their organizations had fully deployed the technology at scale or were using it in selected locations.
The findings point to growing interest in financial instruments that can make money transfers more flexible and efficient, particularly for companies operating across multiple banking systems and jurisdictions. Lim Soon Chong, DBS’s group head of global transaction services, said adoption was progressing faster than the bank had anticipated.
Register for the next Tekedia Mini-MBA.
Register for Tekedia AI in Business Masterclass.
Join Tekedia Capital Syndicate and co-invest in great global startups.
Conducted between June and July, the survey polled 422 business and finance leaders at organizations with annual revenue exceeding $500 million. Respondents came from 11 markets, including the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, China and Germany.
Stablecoins were the most widely adopted tokenized instrument, cited by 63% of respondents, followed by tokenized deposits at 53% and tokenized money market funds at 52%.
The results suggest that businesses are exploring several approaches to digitizing money and financial assets rather than relying on a single technology. Each instrument offers different potential uses, from facilitating payments across intermediaries to improving the movement and management of corporate cash.
Stablecoins Lead As Companies Seek More Flexible Payments
Stablecoins have emerged as the most widely adopted option in the survey, reflecting their appeal for businesses that need to move value across different payment networks and financial institutions.
Lim said stablecoins offer advantages in how they can be transferred between intermediaries and in the requirements for accessing their networks.
“Our interpretation is that there are significant benefits that stablecoins offer,” he said.
“Stablecoins, as you know, offer better fungibility across payment intermediaries, not just across banks. They are less cumbersome from a permissioning standpoint,” he added.
Stablecoins are digital tokens designed to maintain a relatively stable value, commonly through links to currencies such as the US dollar. Their potential corporate applications include cross-border settlements and transfers between counterparties that may not share the same banking arrangements.
For multinational businesses, the attraction is partly operational. Payments that pass through several financial institutions can involve delays, multiple fees, and differences in operating hours. Tokenized instruments may allow certain transactions to be processed more directly, potentially improving access to funds and reducing the time cash remains tied up in transit.
However, adoption does not mean that all stablecoin transactions are automatically cheaper, faster or safer than conventional payments. Their usefulness depends on the networks involved, the ability to convert tokens into usable currency, regulatory requirements and the reliability of the institutions supporting them. Businesses must also consider custody, counterparty and operational risks.
Tokenized deposits offer a different model. They represent bank deposits in tokenized form and can potentially combine digital transfer capabilities with the existing banking system. Tokenized money market funds, meanwhile, bring investment products into tokenized environments, potentially making them easier to transfer or integrate into digital financial workflows.
The adoption figures overlap because businesses may use or test more than one instrument. They therefore indicate broad experimentation across tokenized finance rather than mutually exclusive market shares.
For banks such as DBS, the trend creates both an opportunity and a competitive challenge. Banks can develop tokenized deposit products and transaction services for corporate clients, but stablecoins and other digital instruments may also allow businesses to move some payment activity beyond traditional banking channels.
The longer-term question is how these instruments will connect with existing payment infrastructure. Broad adoption possibly lies not only on the technology itself but also on interoperability, regulation and whether companies can use tokenized money reliably across markets.
Asia Attracts Expansion Plans As Renminbi Settlement Gains Interest
The survey also highlighted Southeast Asia as the leading destination for businesses seeking to expand into new markets. Australia and New Zealand ranked second, while India placed third.
The results underline the importance of Asia-Pacific markets in corporate expansion strategies and suggest that businesses are considering how payment infrastructure and currency choices can support cross-border trade.
More than half of respondents in both Australia and the United Kingdom said they were considering using the Chinese renminbi for trade settlement over the next one to two years.
DBS said the renminbi’s recent appreciation was making settlement in the currency more attractive to Chinese exporters, who were increasingly offering better commercial terms for transactions denominated in it.
Lim also pointed to Beijing’s efforts to increase the currency’s international use.
“The Chinese authorities are clearly pushing the internationalization of the renminbi, so we expect this to go up,” he said.
Greater use of the renminbi could help some companies reduce their reliance on the US dollar in transactions involving Chinese suppliers and customers. It may also give exporters and importers more flexibility in negotiating payment terms, particularly where counterparties have sufficient renminbi revenues or expenses to manage currency exposure.
Still, interest in renminbi settlement does not imply a broad shift away from the dollar. Companies must weigh exchange-rate movements, access to liquidity, convertibility and the availability of suitable hedging instruments. A stronger renminbi may make the currency more attractive to some exporters, but it can also change the cost of settling invoices for overseas buyers.
The survey offers evidence that corporate finance teams are reassessing both the instruments used to move money and the currencies in which international trade is conducted. Yet the findings represent the views of a specific group of large businesses and should not be treated as a measure of adoption across all companies or markets.