Global businesses are adopting tokenized money much faster than expected to improve how they manage cash and reach new markets. Lim Soon Chong, a top executive at Singapore’s DBS bank, confirmed this rapid growth today. According to a recent DBS survey, 88 per cent of businesses are already using or testing tokenized money for their daily operations.
🏦 88% of big companies are already using or testing tokenized money 👀
That’s from a new survey by DBS, Singapore’s largest bank, of 422 business and finance leaders at companies with $500M+ in yearly revenue, across 11 markets including the US, UK and China 🌍
What they’re using:
💵 Stablecoins: 63%
🏦 Tokenized bank deposits: 53%
📈 Tokenized money market funds: 52%About two thirds say they’ve already rolled it out at scale or in some locations.
DBS’s take: stablecoins move more easily across payment companies, not just between banks 🔄
This is why I keep saying it: the real story is quietly moving money, not price talk. Learn how it works 📚
Source: Reuters
— James Rule XRP ⟐ 👊😎 (@allthemoney) October 28, 2026
Online reactions were mixed about banks adopting digital money. User Marc observed that stablecoins were originally designed to move money outside the banking system, but HSBC’s new stablecoin keeps it within the bank.
@Reuters Stablecoins were built to get money out of banks.
HSBC just launched one that never leaves.
— Marc Baumann 🌔 (@marcb_xyz) October 28, 2026
User perrier_9595 argued that matching payments to invoices is a bigger challenge for businesses than transfer speed. IMG TXT: Users reaction.
@Reuters Running cross-border trade, the pain was never how fast money moves. It’s matching each payment to the right invoice afterward. If tokenised money fixes reconciliation, I’m in. If it’s just faster transfers, meh.
— perrier_9595 (@perrier_9595) October 28, 2026
Why companies are moving to tokenization
Tokenization allows a company to send money directly from their digital wallet to the receiver’s wallet in seconds. This direct connection drops transaction fees and guarantees the money arrives immediately, completely bypassing the traditional wire transfer system.
Businesses are adopting this technology because it automates legal compliance and taxes. This removes the need for human accountants to manually calculate and separate taxes at the end of the month, drastically reducing accounting costs and legal errors.
Also, tokenization solves the problem of trapped cash and unlocks new investments. Traditional banking hours trap business money on weekends and public holidays, making it impossible to settle emergency payments.
Tokenized money runs on blockchains that never goes off, allowing companies to settle debts instantly at any hour. Additionally, businesses are using tokenized money to buy fractions of large assets, like real estate or government bonds. Instead of needing millions of dollars to buy a whole bond, a company can use digital tokens to buy a small piece of it, allowing them to earn interest on whatever extra cash they have available.
Tokenized money brings risk of banks controlling how money is spent
Petrowashere on X expressed this concern noting that tokenized money could give banks greater control over how customers spend their funds.
@Reuters Tokenised money sounds handy till the bank gets to say what you can spend it on Honest money still matters to me
— PetroWasHere (@petrowashere) October 28, 2026
While tokenization helps businesses save money, it fundamentally changes how cash works by giving banks absolute control. The bank can program the digital money to only work at approved locations or for approved services. If the bank does not like how a company operates, it can code the money to bounce back when the company tries to spend it.
Beyond censorship, tokenized bank money completely removes financial privacy. Because every digital token is tracked on a ledger controlled by the bank, the institution sees the path of every money in real time.
Meanwhile, Singapore is having two very different conversations about AI. The government is pushing businesses and public agencies to use AI more, while the country’s financial regulator is warning about the risks behind the investment boom.
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