PwC Says Major Financial Institutions Are Now Structurally Dependent on Crypto Infrastructure

On 23 January 2026, PwC argued that large financial institutions have embedded blockchain-based systems so deeply into payments, settlements, and treasury operations that they can no longer be easily removed. The firm highlighted the growing use of stablecoins and tokenized cash in core workflows, while executives such as Circle's Jeremy Allaire and research from ARK Invest also point to a shift from pilots to full-scale deployment of public blockchains. Taken together, these developments suggest that the debate is moving from whether to adopt crypto rails to how regulators and banks should manage infrastructure that is already intertwined with traditional finance.