Twenty per cent of large organisations globally will use digital currencies for payments, stored value or collateral by 2024, according to a Gartner report.
The prediction for wider adoption of digital currencies by 2024 is partly driven by the already healthy environment of service providers and off-the-shelf solutions available to large enterprises that have identified a specific use case for digital currencies.
The forecast has important implications for Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) as they assess use cases and potential risks for digital currencies, which will be used more in business transactions and grow in overall economic significance in the years ahead, the report said.
“Increasing mainstream acceptance of cryptocurrencies on traditional payment platforms and the rise of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) will push many large enterprises to incorporate digital currencies into their applications in the coming years,” said Avivah Litan, distinguished vice president analyst in the Gartner IT practice.
“Digital currencies will be primarily used by these organisations for payment, a store of value and the ability to leverage high-yield investments available in decentralised finance (DeFi) applications,” Litan added.
Macro-economic pressures related to ongoing high inflation, and its impact on fiat currencies, could push more CFOs to explore some digital currencies as a potential store of value for a portion of their reserves.
“We have noticed an uptick in interest in digital currency and Blockchain applications among CFOs since the start of the year,” said Alexander Bant, chief of research in the Gartner Finance practice.
“Among the primary use cases for digital currencies that we have identified, there will be no need for most organisations to develop a customised Blockchain application stack,” said Litan.
Many large banks, payment platforms, institutional digital asset custodians and wallet providers have already done the heavy lifting in this area, which should provide large enterprises with a minimum of friction in deploying their own digital currency applications.
