BeInCrypto Institutional 100 Shortlists 16 Firms in Tokenization
BeInCrypto Institutional 100 Shortlists 16 Firms in Tokenization and On-Chain Finance – Awards Highlight Regulated Infrastructure and Stablecoin Growth
Key Takeaways
- The BeInCrypto Institutional 100 Awards 2026 shortlisted 16 firms in the Tokenization and On-Chain Finance pillar across four categories.
- Shortlisted companies operate in tokenization platforms, on-chain finance infrastructure, stablecoin infrastructure, and autonomous agentic payments.
- Major institutions cited include Apex Group, Franklin Templeton, Securitize, J.P. Morgan, Circle, Coinbase, Visa, and Mastercard.
- The evaluation covered activity from April 2025 through March 2026 and used public filings, regulatory data, audited reports, and on-chain metrics.
Awards Announced in Paris Following Institutional Evaluation Process
The BeInCrypto Institutional 100 Awards 2026 reached its final stage with the announcement of 16 shortlisted firms in the Tokenization and On-Chain Finance pillar. Winners were revealed on June 2, 2026 at Proof of Talk in Paris.
The Institutional 100 is an annual research program covering 25 categories across six pillars: Capital Markets and Infrastructure, Access to Digital Assets, Tokenization and On-Chain Finance, Enterprise Blockchain, Regulation and Governance, and Retail to Crypto Bridge.
The 2026 evaluation window ran from April 2025 through March 2026. According to the organizers, shortlists were determined through editorial research and blind scoring by an external panel of institutional digital asset practitioners. The process drew on public filings, regulatory registers, audited reports, on-chain data, ETF flow trackers, and nominee disclosure forms where available. Final blended scores were not published.
Tokenization Platforms Focus on Securities and Fund Issuance
The Best Tokenization Platform category recognizes platforms bringing regulated securities, money market funds, real estate, and private credit on-chain at institutional scale.
Apex Group was shortlisted through its operation of Tokeny. Apex services 3.5 trillion dollars in assets. In March 2026, Tokeny launched the T-REX Ledger on Polygon as a multi-chain orchestration layer for ERC-3643 assets and set a 100 billion dollar tokenization target by June 2027.
Figure, listed on Nasdaq under FIGR since September 2025, has originated more than 20 billion dollars in loans on the Provenance Blockchain. In early 2026, it launched the On-Chain Public Equity network and tokenized its own FIGR stock.
Franklin Templeton was shortlisted for its BENJI tokenized money market fund suite, which crossed 1.98 billion dollars in assets under management by April 2026. The fund operates across more than eight public blockchains.
Securitize retained its position as the largest tokenization platform by assets under management. The company reported 19.5 million dollars in record revenue in the first quarter of 2026 and powers BlackRock’s BUIDL fund, which holds more than 3 billion dollars in assets. Securitize also has a 1.25 billion dollar SPAC merger with Cantor Equity Partners II in progress.
Infrastructure Providers Expand Custody, Settlement, and Interoperability
The Best On-Chain Finance Infrastructure category covers firms providing cross-chain connectivity, deposit tokens, wallets, and settlement layers.
BitGo became the first crypto-native infrastructure firm to list on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker BTGO in January 2026. The company raised 212.8 million dollars at a 2.08 billion dollar valuation and supports approximately 104 billion dollars in assets across wallet, custody, and settlement services.
Chainlink was shortlisted for its Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol, which secures 33.6 billion dollars across more than 60 blockchains. Its integration with SWIFT creates a pathway for more than 11,000 banks to access on-chain finance. Chainlink also maintains institutional partnerships with UBS, Mastercard, DTCC, and Euroclear.
J.P. Morgan was recognized for developments through Kinexys, including bringing JPM Coin, now referred to as JPMD, to public blockchains. The rollout included Base in 2025 and the Canton Network in January 2026. The bank is also working on tokenized deposit interoperability with DBS.
Privy, acquired by Stripe in June 2025, was shortlisted for its embedded wallet API, which powers more than 75 million accounts across over 1,000 developer teams. Clients include Hyperliquid, OpenSea, and Farcaster.
Stablecoin Issuers and Card Networks Scale Regulated Payment Rails
The Best Stablecoin Infrastructure category focuses on issuance, distribution, and settlement of regulated stablecoins across crypto markets and payment networks.
Circle issues USDC, described as the second-largest stablecoin globally. USDC circulation rose to 75.3 billion dollars by the fourth quarter of 2025. Circle reported 1.25 billion dollars in revenue in the first half of 2026 following its June 2025 NYSE IPO and the passage of the federal GENIUS Act.
Mastercard’s Multi-Token Network supports USDC, EURC, USDG, PYUSD, FIUSD, and SoFiUSD. In March 2026, Mastercard partnered with SoFi to make SoFiUSD the first stablecoin issued by a US nationally chartered bank on a public blockchain.
Paxos issues USDG, PYUSD, USDP, and PAXG. By May 2026, USDG supply reached approximately 2.75 billion dollars through the Global Dollar Network, which shares reserve revenue with distribution partners. Paxos operates under oversight from MAS, MiCA, and the New York State Department of Financial Services.
Visa reported that its stablecoin settlement volume reached a 7 billion dollar annualized run rate by April 2026. The network expanded to nine blockchains and supports USDC settlement for US issuers and acquirers through Cross River Bank and Lead Bank.
Autonomous Agentic Payments Gain Institutional Backing
The Best Autonomous Agentic Payments Platform category highlights systems that enable machine-to-machine transactions using stablecoins and open standards such as x402.
Circle was shortlisted for its role in anchoring agentic payment systems across Coinbase’s x402 network and Solana’s Pay.sh. The company is also building Arc, a Layer 1 blockchain designed for stablecoin settlement and agentic commerce.
Coinbase launched Agent.market in April 2026 using the x402 protocol. The platform reports more than 69,000 active AI agents settling over 165 million transactions worth 50 million dollars in USDC, primarily on Base.
Mesh reached a 1 billion dollar valuation after a 75 million dollar Series C round in January 2026. Its AI Wallet enables agents to transact across more than 300 wallets and exchanges. Stellar and Tempo were added as settlement layers in May 2026.
The Solana Foundation launched Pay.sh with Google Cloud in May 2026. The open-source gateway uses x402 and stablecoins on Solana. The network processed approximately 650 billion dollars in stablecoin volume in February 2026.
Our Assessment
The 2026 shortlist for the Tokenization and On-Chain Finance pillar reflects measurable growth in regulated tokenized assets, stablecoin issuance, and institutional infrastructure. The companies cited report multi-billion dollar asset figures, public listings, and partnerships with banks and payment networks. The awards process covers publicly verifiable financial data and on-chain metrics, indicating that tokenization, stablecoin settlement, and autonomous payment systems are being integrated into existing capital markets and payment frameworks during the April 2025 to March 2026 evaluation period.
