Brad Garlinghouse, CEO of Ripple, was debanked for too much crypto activity, even though his company works with regulated partners. He shared that story at HDAX 2026, the invitation-only Heartland Digital Asset Exchange in Kansas City. I was there to take the measure of digital assets: their promise and their peril.
His story captures where blockchain stands today. Adoption is soaring, and the rails keep extending their reach, yet tokenization still carries a stain from bad press and a reputation as a black box. That stigma has staying power, for now. Judging by the turnout in Kansas City, it won’t last. Blockchain is already reshaping how we transact, trade, and invest, and the numbers show a shift well underway:
- Merchant payments: 39% of U.S. merchants accept cryptocurrency. (PayPal)
- Customer demand: 88% of merchants receive crypto payment inquiries. (PayPal)
- Enterprise intent: 87% of enterprises are likely to invest in blockchain within 12 months. (Deloitte)
- Market growth: The U.S. blockchain market, valued at $3.32 billion in 2026, is projected to reach $23 billion by 2031. (MarketsAndMarkets)
The audience included investors, wealth managers, family offices, and speculators. Speakers from trucking, real estate, banking, energy, and infrastructure debated the value of digital assets and offered predictions for near-term adoption. Compared with last year’s inaugural event, the tone was more measured but no less evangelical.
Even the Federal Reserve’s view seems to be shifting. Esther L. George, former president of the Kansas City Fed, spoke about the opportunity while cautioning that faith in the U.S. dollar must not be lost. Regulators also worry about how little they can see of money crossing borders. The irony is that the same rails could bring visibility to sectors that need it most, like logistics and healthcare.
A fintech executive seated next to me offered a wider lens. In countries where people depend on volatile or hopelessly devalued money, a decentralized currency could ease volatility, speed up processing, and cut fees.
That breadth shows up in where blockchain is taking hold:
- Finance (BFSI): Leading implementation through cross-border settlements and asset tokenization. (Market.us)
- Supply chain: More than 70% of logistics and procurement leaders say blockchain ledgers improve transparency and credit validation across multi-tier suppliers. (CoinLaw)
- Logistics: The blockchain in logistics market is projected to grow from $15.14 billion in 2026 to $2.73 trillion by 2034. (Fortune Business Insights)
- Healthcare: Research shows promise for blockchain in electronic health records, especially health information exchanges. (National Library of Medicine)
The takeaway: expect far more to be tokenized. Supply chains, health records, commodities, real estate, bank deposits, critical minerals, energy. The big-ticket and the everyday, the fungible and the non-fungible, all made verifiable.
Garlinghouse told his story to a room full of people building, using, or ready to invest in tokenization. Based on the data, HDAX 2027 should be bigger.