The State of DLT Report 2026

The Great Decoupling and the Industrialization of Trust. An independent analysis of distributed ledger technology (DLT) adoption across the financial sector, identifying structural risks, strategic trade-offs, and practical recommendations for leadership teams.

What will you learn from this report?

Where does DLT create measurable value?

See which blockchain use cases have moved beyond experimentation, and where leadership teams are already seeing practical results.

Why are stablecoins pulling ahead?

Understand why stablecoins have become the clearest utility-led use case in financial services.

Why do private-only networks stall?

Learn how limited liquidity, weak network effects, and unclear business cases hold private blockchain back.

What is the real cost of adoption?

We reviewed key challenges such as regulatory uncertainty, technical complexity, and legacy integration.

Where do internal gaps slow delivery?

See how misalignment between decision-makers and specialists affects success of DLT programmes.

What should leadership teams do next?

Get practical guidance for 2026 and beyond, including how to build the right product and technical team.

Authors

Szymon Poczwardowski

dominik-avatar

Maciej Hoffmann

Consulting Director 

dominik.zyskowski@espeo.eu

Michał Węgrzyński

Senior UX Designer

michal.wegrzynski@espeo.eu

Maciej Hoffmann

Growth Manager

maciej.hoffmann@espeo.eu

Agnieszka Hołownia-Niedzielska

Business Solutions Consultant

agnieszka.holownia.niedzielska@espeo.eu

Download The State of DLT Report 2026 for free!

This report is written for board members and senior executives in banks, fintechs, and regulated enterprises responsible.

Download the State of DLT Report 2025