DLT moves towards practical global adoption, AFME report finds
19 October 2026 Europe
Image: Thapana_Studio/stock.adobe.com
The Association for Financial Markets in Europe (AFME) has found that distributed ledger technology (DLT) is “moving beyond experimentation towards practical adoption across global capital markets” in its latest report.
AFME says DLT activity has reached “record or significant levels” across digital bond issuance, tokenised assets, and repo markets.
The report finds that DLT fixed income issuance reached a record €6.4 billion in 2026 year-to-date, already above the 2025 total by 30 per cent.
Asia accounted for 68 per cent of the issuance, led by a HK$20 billion (US$2.55 billion) Hong Kong government bond, while platforms operated by European-headquartered institutions supported 98 per cent of global issuance.
According to AFME, larger average deal sizes and stronger sovereign participation signal the market may be moving from experimentation to wider adoption.
Tokenised assets reached US$38.8 billion, including US$14.9 billion of tokenised US Treasuries.
Tokenisation of traditionally illiquid exposures — including private equity and venture capital — also expanded quickly.
AFME found that DLT repo activity consolidated as a scaled use case, averaging approximately US$360 billion per day, compared with US$222 billion in 2025.
The report identified at least 14 collaborative tokenised deposit initiatives worldwide, with several moving into real-value testing or live transactions.
The global stablecoin market remained broadly constant at around US$300 billion, with US dollar-pegged tokens accounting for approximately US$294 billion of that total and euro-backed stablecoins around US$0.8 billion.
AFME also anticipates bank participation to grow further through emerging initiatives, including the European banking consortium Qivalis.
Commenting on the report, Coen Ter Wal, managing director, technology and operations at AFME, says: “The record level of digital bond issuance and the continued expansion of tokenised assets and repo activity show that DLT is moving beyond isolated experiments into practical capital markets use cases.
“The question is increasingly how these markets can scale, rather than whether the technology can be put to practical use.”
AFME says DLT activity has reached “record or significant levels” across digital bond issuance, tokenised assets, and repo markets.
The report finds that DLT fixed income issuance reached a record €6.4 billion in 2026 year-to-date, already above the 2025 total by 30 per cent.
Asia accounted for 68 per cent of the issuance, led by a HK$20 billion (US$2.55 billion) Hong Kong government bond, while platforms operated by European-headquartered institutions supported 98 per cent of global issuance.
According to AFME, larger average deal sizes and stronger sovereign participation signal the market may be moving from experimentation to wider adoption.
Tokenised assets reached US$38.8 billion, including US$14.9 billion of tokenised US Treasuries.
Tokenisation of traditionally illiquid exposures — including private equity and venture capital — also expanded quickly.
AFME found that DLT repo activity consolidated as a scaled use case, averaging approximately US$360 billion per day, compared with US$222 billion in 2025.
The report identified at least 14 collaborative tokenised deposit initiatives worldwide, with several moving into real-value testing or live transactions.
The global stablecoin market remained broadly constant at around US$300 billion, with US dollar-pegged tokens accounting for approximately US$294 billion of that total and euro-backed stablecoins around US$0.8 billion.
AFME also anticipates bank participation to grow further through emerging initiatives, including the European banking consortium Qivalis.
Commenting on the report, Coen Ter Wal, managing director, technology and operations at AFME, says: “The record level of digital bond issuance and the continued expansion of tokenised assets and repo activity show that DLT is moving beyond isolated experiments into practical capital markets use cases.
“The question is increasingly how these markets can scale, rather than whether the technology can be put to practical use.”
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