Valued at $28.93billion in 2024 and set to hit $49.18billion in 2025, according to The Business Research Company, the blockchain market is thriving. While this growth is in part due to the success of the crypto industry, the blockchain industry is not dependent on crypto. In light of this, this May we are looking to spotlight blockchain’s use cases and where the tech is going next.
With the AI boom appearing to take off almost overnight in early 2023, the sector has not looked back, leaping from one milestone to the next. In fact, according to findings from Grand View Research, the global AI market’s value has skyrocketed by $400billion in just two years to reach $600billion.
Blockchain has not experienced the same rapid growth. In 2024, the global market value was $27.85billion and although it is projected to reach $44.29billion in 2025, this still pales in comparison to AI’s 2025 value.
Once heralded as the next transformative technology in finance, blockchain now risks being overshadowed as organisations prioritise investment in AI. So, what needs to happen for blockchain to accelerate its growth and adoption? We asked experts across the fintech sector to share their views.
Accessibility problem
AI has a simple use case that many users understand: it automatically generates things. In fact, the word has become synonymous with automation in the fintech industry. Meanwhile, when people say blockchain, for those outside of the industry, there might be a loose link to cryptocurrency, but beyond that it is confusing. For Mike Sparshott, fintech specialist at global infrastructure as a service company, servers.com, this confusion is stopping widespread blockchain adoption.
“Blockchain hasn’t taken the world by storm like AI largely due to its complexity and lack of accessibility. AI is far simpler because it has been made easily and readily accessible to the public. Via tools like ChatGPT, a layman can realise its benefit, using it to automate everyday processes and answer queries.
“Blockchain, on the other hand, is a much more difficult concept to wrap your head around, and its real-world value isn’t always clear to the average user. Getting hands-on experience with blockchain technology, like running a blockchain node, typically requires technical skills in areas like DevOps and programming.
“Outside of buying cryptocurrency on platforms like Coinbase or Binance and simply watching it grow, it’s difficult to understand how the underlying tech actually works – it doesn’t provide any practical hands-on experience of why that particular cryptocurrency has any value to begin with.
“It’s this lack of clarity and accessibility that has slowed its mainstream adoption.”
The knowledge gap means we’re still in the exploratory phase
Blockchain’s use cases extend far beyond finance, much like AI, so why hasn’t there been the same adoption? Simply put, knowledge, says Ásgeir Óskarsson, managing director of BSV Association, non-profit organisation, acting as the open-source governing body and global steward of the BSV Blockchain.
“Despite innumerable benefits of blockchain technology for businesses, many of them are slow to adopt blockchain technology. This could be attributed to various reasons such as lack of knowledge, regulatory concerns, and a lack of expertise. I would emphasise that the biggest factor is the lack of knowledge and understanding of how it works, and what it can do to drive business value.
“Blockchain’s potential extends far beyond finance, yet its adoption in other industries remains in an exploratory phase. While enterprises have experimented with private and public blockchains, mainstream adoption hinges on the emergence of groundbreaking applications.
“So far, much of the attention around blockchain has been centered on cryptocurrency and digital assets. This narrow focus has in some ways held back broader adoption. Only recently have we started to see a shift, with businesses exploring blockchain as a layer of trust across various industries like supply chain, sustainability reporting etc,.
“The potential benefits of blockchain are undeniable, and the technology can bring about significant improvements in security, transparency, and trust for businesses.”
Education and accessibility needed
Echoing similar views, Jacqueline Cooper, CEO of the Blockchain Legal Institute and partner at Cogent Law Group, added: “Blockchain hasn’t taken the world by storm like AI for several reasons: it’s complex and hard for the average person to understand, lacks user-friendly applications, and faces regulatory uncertainty and public skepticism-especially due to its association with cryptocurrency volatility and scams. While AI is seamlessly integrated into everyday tools, blockchain’s most visible uses remain niche or experimental.
“For blockchain to achieve mainstream adoption, the industry must focus on education, accessibility, and demonstrating real-world benefits-bridging the gap between technical innovation and everyday usability.”
Different goals
AI and blockchain are targeting different issues. Since blockchain is not just an added feature, but a technology that can completely revamp a company’s infrastructure, the uptake has been slower says Lux Thiagarajah, chief commercial officer at OpenPayd, the financial services infrastructure provider.
“The lack of seamless interaction between blockchains and between blockchain and traditional systems, slows adoption and increases complexity for financial applications. Much of today’s financial infrastructure is built on legacy technologies such as SWIFT, whereas there are numerous blockchain platforms, each with its own processes. A lack of interoperability leads to a fragmented user experience, and if rushed to market, an increased risk of bugs and vulnerabilities.
“There are concerns around the lack of global regulatory standards. Financial institutions hesitate to adopt blockchain without clear, consistent regulatory frameworks, especially when operating across multiple jurisdictions. We are starting to see that shift with the introduction of MiCA in Europe, which aims to create a unified legal framework across the EU for crypto-assets. We can expect that with more regulation comes less hesitation from financial institutions.
“Trust takes time, especially in financial services. While AI is often applied in areas like content generation or analytics, blockchain is targeting the core of financial infrastructure, where reliability, compliance, and trust are non-negotiable. Earning that level of trust takes time and proven stability. The underlying infrastructure to support compliant, secure, and scalable blockchain integration with banking systems is still maturing, and at OpenPayd we’re actively working to close that gap.”
“A quiet but real difference”
According to Peter Wood, CTO, of Spectrum Search, the web3 recruitment firm, blockchain doesn’t have the flashy use cases AI does, but that doesn’t mean it is a bust. In fact, he argues the opposite, that the tech is flourishing in the background.
“Blockchain hasn’t had the same breakout moment as AI because it tackles deeper, more structural issues rather than quick wins. AI tools boost productivity almost instantly, which makes their value obvious straight away.
“Blockchain, on the other hand, calls for changes to how systems are built, how trust is handled, and how organisations operate – areas that are often slow to evolve. In many cases, people don’t even realise when they’re using blockchain at all. That invisibility makes it harder to spark excitement, especially when the user experience still has a way to go and the conversation is often dominated by speculation rather than substance.
“That said, its long-term potential is hard to ignore, especially in areas where trust and verification can’t be compromised. Digital ID, employment history, and financial inclusion are all places where blockchain is already starting to make a quiet but real difference. In the next few years, we’re likely to see onchain data and decentralised reputation tools change how we assess skills and credibility, particularly in emerging markets and remote-first jobs.
“These shifts won’t come from big announcements or viral apps, but from everyday interactions that feel seamless. And once it’s working well enough, we’ll stop calling it blockchain altogether, it’ll just be part of how the internet runs.”
Blockchain doesn’t have AI’s consumer-facing marketing arm
Making a similar case for blockchain’s ‘quiet’ success, Trevor Tanifum, managing principal at FS Vector, a strategic consulting firm for financial services clients, added: “I would argue blockchain has taken the world by storm — it’s just been behind the scenes.
“There are 560+ million crypto users around the world. Major enterprises like Walmart, Maersk, Visa, and JP Morgan are all experiencing huge improvements in efficiency, speed, and cost due to blockchain-based technologies.
“Relative to AI, however, blockchain has the disadvantage of not having a consumer-facing marketing arm. Generative web applications like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Anthropic’s Claude put the AI experience directly into people’s hands, everywhere in the world, for free. You can’t experience blockchain in the same way.
“That said, the biggest hurdle to blockchain fulfilling its promise is interoperability. The fact that Ethereum, Solana, Cosmos, etc. are all technically incompatible makes value transfer – and therefore, value creations – between blockchains difficult. A universal blockchain standard, or more simple cross-chain solutions, would change that.”
‘Blockchain is just complicated’ is the public perception
Blockchain has an image problem according to Todd Ruoff, CEO at Autonomys, the decentralised network provider, while AI is associated with something that makes things simple. Blockchain must overcome this or it won’t ever reach the heights AI has in terms of popularity and uptake.
“Blockchain is still struggling with broader public perception and complexity. For most people, blockchain feels overly technical to the point of being unapproachable to the average person. It’s known by most for a reputation that’s been tarnished by scams and extreme market volatility.
“By contrast, AI with its friendly UI and inherent ability to make things easier, presents immediate, tangible outputs you can see, hear, or interact with. Tools such as Claude and ChatGPT are powering compelling consumer applications with real utility, whereas crypto is largely viewed as a complex digital playground for speculators.
“Until we’re able to abstract away the technical complexities of blockchain, powering applications without needing an explanation, it will remain a powerful technology, but not a mainstream phenomenon in the same way AI has become.”
Blockchain lacks that “Aha!” moment
Explaining why AI is more popular than blockchain, Kyle Tut, co-founder and CEO of Pinata, a reliable, scalable, and easy-to-use file storage solution, remains optimistic about the future of the technology.
“Most blockchain use cases require network effects to truly succeed while AI has stand-alone utility. It’s much easier for someone to ask AI to generate a Ghibli image and have that “Aha!” moment than it is to convince a network of people to move payment rails. But behind the scenes, blockchain is taking the world by storm. The growth in stablecoin transactions alone is now larger than Visa and Mastercard transactions combined.”
