Blockchain infrastructure has matured significantly over the past years, and its effects are now extending far beyond decentralized finance (DeFi).
According to Brian Rudick, Chief Strategy Officer at Upexi, the next wave of corporate finance will unfold on-chain as companies increasingly adopt the technology.
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Corporate Finance Is Moving On-Chain
In an exclusive interview with BeInCrypto, Rudick highlighted the rapid rise of tokenized real-world assets (RWAs) as one of the clearest indicators that corporate finance is shifting into blockchain-based environments.
He pointed to one headline number: around $36 billion worth of RWAs are now tokenized on blockchains — a figure that has surged 160% in the past year alone. These include private credit, US Treasuries, commodities, alternative investment funds, and equities.
Notably, this experimentation is quickly turning into a real deployment in 2025. As BeInCrypto recently reported, several major institutions have moved to active blockchain-based development.
SWIFT, for example, is building a shared real-time ledger connecting more than 30 global banks. Google Cloud has introduced the Universal Ledger (GCUL), a neutral Layer-1 blockchain designed specifically for banks and capital markets.
Meanwhile, companies like Citigroup, Mastercard, and Visa are already offering, or preparing to offer, blockchain-powered products to their customers.
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Blockchain’s Real Impact Lies in Replacing Old Rails
When it comes to “on-chain corporate finance,” it could mean things like: a company putting its balance sheet on a blockchain, doing mergers and acquisitions using tokens, or raising money with tokenized assets.
But in Rudick’s opinion, this is not where blockchain will have the biggest impact right now. He believes the biggest opportunity is not forcing every corporate finance task, such as financial planning and analysis, onto blockchains.
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Instead, it lies in replacing the outdated infrastructure that underpins modern finance. He said that,
Rudick argued that although on-chain fundraising can provide advantages such as broader investor access, the full digitization of corporate finance will still lag due to two key factors:
Despite this, Rudick noted that tokenized assets already mirror the behavior CFOs care about: cash flow, liquidity, and yield.
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Why Solana Emerges as a Leading Ecosystem for On-Chain Finance
When asked which ecosystems are best positioned to support this emerging on-chain financial layer, the executive pointed decisively to Solana. Rudick, who oversees Upexi’s cryptocurrency strategy — one of the leading Solana-focused treasury companies — cited several factors behind his assessment.
Rudick emphasized that major financial institutions, including FiServ, Western Union, Société Générale, PayPal, Visa, Franklin Templeton, BlackRock, Apollo, and many others, are increasingly using Solana to bring finance on-chain and capture its benefits.
Source: https://beincrypto.com/corporate-finance-goes-onchain-solana-leads/
