Financial Services Industry Spends $1.7 Billion on Blockchain

• Greenwich Associates releases report on annual spending
•  Three-quarters of projects expected to go live within 2 years

Here’s proof financial services companies are taking blockchain technology seriously.

The industry spends about $1.7 billion annually on the distributed ledgers that are best known for underpinning digital currencies, according to researcher Greenwich Associates. Banks and other companies are moving beyond the proof-of-concept stage to commercial distributed ledger technology, or DLT, products, the report said.

The study shows the budgets spent on blockchain increased 67 percent last year, with one in 10 banks and other firms reporting spending in excess of $10 million. Likewise, the number of employees working on blockchain initiatives doubled last year.