Coinbase (NASDAQ: COIN), Bybit, Circle (NYSE: CRCL), and Gemini are among the leading digital asset names in CNBC and Statista’s 2026 ranking of 500 global fintech companies. Coinbase, categorized as decentralized in the ranking, returned after appearing in a previous edition.

Bybit is headquartered in Dubai, while Circle and Gemini are based in New York. Statista’s list spans eight market groups and includes companies across a range of sizes, making the digital asset entries part of a broader comparison across fintech business models rather than a standalone crypto list.

McKinsey said the fintech industry generated $650 billion in sales in 2025, a 21% increase from 2024. The broader $15 trillion financial services industry grew 6% over the same period. Public listings also started to recover, with 31 major fintech initial public offerings (IPOs) in 2025. McKinsey said those deals had “returned to prominence.”

Fintech companies accounted for roughly 12% of the total value of the world’s 100 largest IPOs. Publicly listed fintechs reached a record combined valuation of $850 billion, supported by companies including Adyen (AMS: ADYEN), Nu Holdings (NYSE: NU), and Robinhood (NASDAQ: HOOD).

The sector also continued to shift as software providers expanded deeper into banking systems, challenger banks secured financial licenses, and large institutions increased their use of blockchain technology. That backdrop helps explain why digital asset companies are being assessed alongside payments, banking, software, and capital markets firms rather than only against crypto-native peers.

The digital asset category in the Fintech 500 covers companies that help make crypto services practical and usable, while excluding individual coins and blockchain protocols. The distinction is important because the ranking focuses on operating companies that provide infrastructure, custody, payments, issuance, analytics, and related services, not the market performance of individual tokens.

Although demand for crypto has moved through cycles, companies building the operational infrastructure of the market have continued to attract customers. Firms that create and manage tokens for other businesses also secured multiple positions in the ranking.

Singapore-based companies in the category include Amber Group, ChainUp, Crypto.com, Triple-A, and previous winner StraitsX. U.S. entries include Bakkt (NYSE: BKKT) in Atlanta; previous winners BitGo in Sioux Falls and Blockdaemon in Los Angeles; Digital Ascension Group in Dallas; Everstake and Securitize in Miami; Payward in Cheyenne; and Zero Hash in Chicago.

San Francisco is represented by previous winners CoinTracker and VGS, along with Phantom. New York includes previous winners Fireblocks and Turnkey, as well as Gauntlet, Lukka, NYDIG, Paxos, and Zebec. Galaxy Digital (NASDAQ: GLXY), another earlier winner, is also based in New York. Fort Worth is home to previous winner Consensys.

In Canada, Blockstream is based in Montreal and previous winner Figment is based in Toronto. London is represented by BVNK, Copper, and TIMVERO. Previous winner Finery Markets is located in Limassol, Cyprus. Hong Kong includes HashKey Group and previous winner OSL Group (HKEX: 0863). Other listed companies include Kem in Abu Dhabi, previous winner Ledger in Paris, and Wavebridge in Seoul.

The geographic spread of the list shows that digital asset fintech is no longer concentrated in a single market. The category includes companies in North America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, reflecting demand for infrastructure that can serve both local financial systems and cross-border activity.

Blockchain services provided by these companies now support payments, recordkeeping, asset storage, issuance, and other commercial functions as crypto becomes increasingly integrated into formal finance.

AI and stablecoins push fintechs to rebuild products and controls

McKinsey expects four trends to define the next era of fintech, though its report highlighted two major themes in this context. The first is artificial intelligence. “Fintechs are deploying AI to build products in weeks that once took years, to serve customer segments that were previously not economically viable, and to compress cost structures so that legacy operating models cannot compete on price. Early-adopter incumbents are seeing real returns,” McKinsey said.

Stablecoins were the second major theme. McKinsey said, “With instant, near-free settlement, the promise of stablecoins for cross-border payments and remittances is clear. However, of the $35 trillion reported annual stablecoin transaction volume, only about 1 percent, or $390 billion, represents true end user payments, such as paying suppliers or sending remittances.”

The remainder of the reported stablecoin transaction volume comes from trading, arbitrage, and crypto-only transfers. Industry forecasts put the stablecoin market between $2 trillion and $4 trillion by 2030. Reaching that range would imply average annual growth of about 40%.

That gap between reported transaction volume and end-user payment activity is a key measure for the sector. It separates blockchain activity driven by trading and internal crypto movement from usage tied to suppliers, remittances, and other commercial payments.

Other tokenized assets on blockchains could grow even faster as banks and companies use them for settlement, custody, payments, ownership records, and issuance.

McKinsey said, “A range of industry estimates suggests that by 2030, the market value of stablecoins will be between $2 trillion and $4 trillion, implying a compounded annual growth rate of about 40 percent, with a broader range of on-chain tokenized assets potentially even higher.”