At the same time, traditional financial institutions are beginning to offer crypto-linked exposure within familiar frameworks. The latest company to do this is Delaware Life Insurance Company, which introduced a Bitcoin-linked annuity index built with BlackRock. The structure allows retirees and long-term savers to participate in potential upside from Bitcoin while staying in a familiar and regulated retirement framework.
Corporate Crypto Use Set to Jump
Ripple president Monica Long believes the next two years will be the start of a decisive shift for blockchain and digital assets in corporate finance, with roughly half of the largest US companies either holding crypto or actively using blockchain-powered financial instruments by the end of 2026. In a blog post, Long argued that years of technical development and regulatory progress are now converging to push blockchain firmly into the financial mainstream.
According to Long, blockchain is becoming the “operating layer of modern finance,” rather than a niche or experimental technology. She predicted that by the end of 2026, corporate balance sheets could collectively hold more than $1 trillion in digital assets, with around half of Fortune 500 companies having formalized digital asset strategies. These strategies, she said, will go far beyond passive exposure to crypto prices and will instead involve active participation in tokenized assets, digital asset treasuries, stablecoins, on-chain Treasury bills, and programmable financial instruments.
Long pointed to a mid-2025 survey by Coinbase, which found that six out of ten Fortune 500 executives said their companies were already working on blockchain initiatives. She also mentioned the growing number of public companies adding Bitcoin to their balance sheets, which was popularized by early corporate adopters. While the total number of Fortune 500 firms holding Bitcoin is still relatively small, examples include GameStop, which purchased 4,710 BTC in May of 2025, as well as Block Inc. and Tesla.
Companies holding Bitcoin (Source: BitcoinTreasuries.NET)
Beyond direct crypto holdings, Long pointed out the rapid rise of digital asset treasury companies, as their numbers have expanded from just four in 2020 to over 200 today, of which almost half formed in 2025 alone. She also made a bold forecast for stablecoins by predicting they will evolve into a primary mechanism for global settlement rather than merely an alternative payment rail. Regulatory clarity, combined with involvement from major payment networks like Visa and Mastercard, is expected to accelerate this shift.
Additionally, Long argued that financial institutions will move toward directly custodying digital assets as part of blockchain strategies, while the convergence of artificial intelligence and blockchain will unlock new efficiencies in liquidity management, risk assessment, and yield optimization.
Delaware Life Adds Bitcoin Exposure
Crypto is not only crawling its way into Fortune 500 companies. Delaware Life Insurance Company is introducing limited Bitcoin-linked exposure to its retirement annuity offerings through a new index that was developed in partnership with BlackRock.
The index blends US equities with a small, risk-managed allocation to Bitcoin, giving policyholders indirect exposure to BTC price movements without actually holding the asset directly.
Announcement from Delaware Life Insurance Company
The Bitcoin component is accessed through BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF, allowing the index to reference Bitcoin’s performance while maintaining the structure and protections of a fixed indexed annuity. According to Delaware Life, the index applies volatility controls that are designed to cap fluctuations at around 12%. The goal of this feature is to reduce risk and preserve principal under the annuity’s terms.
BTC’s price action over the past month (Source: CoinCodex)
The product will be made available across three of the company’s fixed indexed annuities, which are insurance-based retirement vehicles that protect initial investments, offer tax-deferred growth, and link returns to market index performance rather than direct asset ownership. Delaware Life said the structure allows retirees and long-term savers to participate in potential upside from Bitcoin while staying in a familiar and regulated retirement framework.
The move builds on growing institutional acceptance of Bitcoin-linked instruments after BlackRock’s launch of its spot Bitcoin ETF in January of 2024. Data shows the fund has grown to a market capitalization of more than $70 billion, making it the largest spot Bitcoin ETF. BlackRock also previously said the product ranked among its top investment themes in 2025.
Delaware Life’s offering now forms part of the trend among insurers experimenting with Bitcoin-related strategies. Meanwhile Group, backed by investors including Sam Altman and Gradient Ventures, provides Bitcoin-denominated life insurance and raised $82 million in October 2025 to meet rising demand. Barbados-based insurer Tabit took a balance-sheet approach, and raised $40 million in Bitcoin to back traditional US dollar insurance policies while holding its regulatory reserves entirely in BTC.
Source: https://coinpaper.com/13921/half-of-fortune-500-firms-to-adopt-crypto-strategies-by-end-2026
