The Financial Grid is Fireblocks’ 2026 flagship survey report, based on responses from more than 600 C-suite and senior decision-makers at financial institutions and corporations globally. It maps where banks stand in integrating a digital asset layer into the existing financial grid: what they are building, where the build is hard, and how that picture differs by region.
88% of financial institutions have committed or will commit budget to digital asset infrastructure in 2026. Only 16% have reached production. That gap between production-scale spending and production-scale capability is the central finding of The Financial Grid.
The global report maps each institution connecting to the Financial Grid at a different layer. In APAC, that layer is institutional asset servicing: custody as the foundation and tokenized securities and capital markets infrastructure as the build.
APAC Has Committed To Digital Assets At Scale
62% of APAC financial institutions had already committed budget for digital asset infrastructure before 2026 began. That is more than North America at 27%, Latin America at 41%, Europe at 50%, and Africa and the Middle East at 40%.
The external pilot pipeline reflects the same posture. 46% of APAC institutions are in external pilots with clients, the highest of any region by a wide margin. A further 23% are already in production. Combined, 69% of APAC institutions are either live or running client-facing tests. Only 3% cite limited client or counterparty adoption as a concern. The constraints to APAC’s digital asset build are not external.
The Hard Work Is Being Done, The Infrastructure Has To Follow
97% of APAC institutions expect the regulatory outlook to be favorable or very favorable. Only 39% cite regulatory and legal uncertainty as a constraint, the lowest of any region. And only 28% identify clear and stable regulatory frameworks as an unlock that would accelerate expansion, again the lowest in the dataset. Regulation has been cleared from the field.
When asked which internal factors most constrain their firm’s ability to expand blockchain-based products, 62% of APAC institutions cite operational risk and readiness as a concern, 10 percentage points above the global figure and the highest of any region. 60% identify limited internal expertise and skills as a blocking obstacle, 18 percentage points above the global figure. The institutions running the largest external pilot pipeline in the world are doing so under significant internal operational load.
However, when asked what would most accelerate expansion, APAC institutions point outward. Fiat on/off-ramps leads at 65%. Institutional-grade infrastructure and operational support follows at 48%. Interestingly, internal skills are ranked low here, suggesting that although they are recognized as a blocker. APAC institutions may already be addressing this challenge either by training or hiring staff or investing in external solutions.
APAC Is Building The Asset Servicing Layer
APAC is the only region in this survey where digital asset custody leads the use case priority ranking. 84% of APAC institutions rate custody as a high or core strategic priority, above every other use case and above the global figure of 79%. In every other region, 24/7 settlement rates as high or core priority for between 85% and 93% of institutions. In APAC, the figure is 78%. APAC has not deprioritized settlement. It has put something else first.
Institutional asset servicing is the priority. 68% of APAC institutions plan to use tokenized securities in a live environment in 2026, the highest of any region and 16 percentage points above the global figure of 52%. Tokenized money market funds follow at 58%, also the highest globally against a global figure of 41%. Third-party stablecoins sit at 52%. Own-institution stablecoin issuance is at 16%, the lowest of any region.
The picture is consistent. APAC institutions are building toward institutional asset servicing: custody as the foundation, and tokenized securities and money market funds as the immediate use cases. For APAC, that is the build.
APAC’s Infrastructure Standard Is High
Custody, tokenized securities, and institutional asset servicing are the build priorities this survey identifies. All three now need to be operationalized at production scale in APAC.
What that requires is visible in how APAC institutions think about infrastructure providers. Compliance and regulatory alignment is the critical factor for 66% of APAC institutions when selecting a digital asset infrastructure partner, 25 percentage points above the global figure of 43% and the highest of any region. Integration with existing bank systems follows at 52%, close to the global figure of 45%. Interoperability across digital asset types and settlement models sits at 49%, against 37% globally.
The compliance premium reflects a region that has largely cleared the regulatory question. 97% of APAC institutions expect the outlook to be favorable, and regulatory uncertainty ranks as the lowest external constraint of any region.
Security architecture, interoperability, and core system integration are all rated at or above global levels. APAC institutions require infrastructure that delivers compliance, security, and core system integration as a single operational layer, scalable to the ambition behind it.
Read the flagship Financial Grid report for more insights and global data from Fireblocks’ 2026 survey. Read The Financial Grid USA for insights on US financial institutions’ survey results. Read The Financial Grid Europe & The UK for the region’s survey results.
Read our wallet infrastructure blueprint for banks to learn more about key criteria for digital asset infrastructure.
