Digital finance in 2026: what to expect as pilot schemes move into real-world use

Digital finance has moved into the mainstream as regulated stablecoins and tokenised assets scale up, but industry experts say 2026 will be defined by success in developing interoperable, regulated, use-case-driven rails rather than more digital silos.

As more than 130 jurisdictions explore central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), alongside dozens of stablecoin initiatives and a growing array of tokenisation platforms, day-to-day payments and finance are undergoing a rapid structural overhaul.

While these digital money and asset experiments promised greater efficiency, transparency and speed, they also risked deeper fragmentation, regulatory pitfalls and operational vulnerabilities, experts warned.

“The cracks are not technical; they are regulatory, geopolitical and operational,” said Florian Spiegl, founder and CEO of digital investment platform Evident Group. Cyberattacks and bridge failures were hitting the connections between ledgers rather than blockchains themselves, raising the risk that liquidity could be trapped in incompatible regulatory regimes and turn markets into regional “walled gardens”, he added.

Hong Kong, positioned as a leading digital asset hub with active regulatory frameworks, has emerged as a template for cross-border cooperation, concrete compliance standards and institutional-grade readiness, according to Deng Chao, CEO of HashKey Capital. “The entry of major economies and large commercial institutions into stablecoins and tokenisation is a positive signal that the industry is moving towards mainstream adoption,” he said.

“Blockchain and Web3 technology are inherently global, but real-world applications must be embedded in regulation and local use cases.”