Cryptocurrency is a combination of cryptography, distributed systems, and economics, designed to create a private currency that competes with government-backed fiat money.

Bitcoin demonstrated that decentralized networks could coordinate and transfer value. After that, other companies began experimenting with building blockchains with fewer technical limitations. These participants include enterprises and foundations dedicated to building blockchains to solve problems plaguing large corporations.

Although blockchain presents a range of potential applications, most corporate efforts are in the exploratory stage, motivated by trend-following rather than serious strategic intent.

For example, in 2016, JPMorgan Chase forked Ethereum to create Quorum, a permissioned blockchain for financial institutions. It integrated smart contracts to accelerate asset settlement, execute repurchase transactions, and reduce compliance checks in cross-border payments. By 2018, entities like Walmart and Carrefour began using blockchain to track the origin of vegetables sold in their stores. Another interesting experiment was HSBC's Voltron digital letter of credit, and MineHub, which placed BHP's iron ore transactions on a private blockchain in 2020. In the shipping sector, Tradelens, a collaboration between IBM and Maersk, used IBM's Fabric distributed ledger to record global shipping data and documents.

Most of these early projects were little more than PR stunts and R&D tax write-offs, largely proof-of-concepts that either lacked real-world problems to solve or were hindered by regulatory constraints. Many projects ultimately collapsed completely because their value failed to outweigh the necessary startup time and couldn't escape the appeal to stakeholders entrenched in traditional systems.

With the recent surge in crypto token prices and the introduction of legislation related to stablecoins and digital assets, enterprises are once again beginning to explore blockchain applications. However, this time seems different, as Washington D.C. is providing both legal clarity and encouragement for using blockchain.

Now seems to be the "crypto moment," much like how 2009, when President Barack Obama took office, was dubbed the "green energy moment."

Some of the most notable "enterprise" blockchain projects include:

1. Figure Technologies: Provenance is a Cosmos blockchain used as a distributed ledger for HELOCs and potentially other asset-backed securities in the future.

2. SWIFT: SWIFT is collaborating with 30 financial institutions to create a shared digital distributed ledger that can interoperate with existing blockchains.

3. Société Générale: Forge is a fully regulated and compliant tokenization and stablecoin platform that enables connectivity with public blockchains and traditional market infrastructure.

4. Stripe: Tempo is an Ethereum-based network intended to become a neutral stablecoin payment network accessible by agent AIs.

5. Digital Asset: Canton, a result of collaboration between DRW, Tradeweb, and GS, is a privacy-first settlement network for securities trading and asset exchange among financial institutions.

6. Circle: Arca, Circle's USDC-centric payment blockchain.

7. OpenAI: Worldchain is a blockchain intended to host an ID system for distinguishing human users from AI users on the internet.

8. Coinbase: Base is Coinbase's hub for DeFi and crypto payments, which may also include the hub for Cloudflare's AI agent payment stablecoin NET.

9. Ripple: The Ripple network is creating a settlement system and payment financial entities, such as the prime broker Hidden Road.

10. JPMorgan Chase: Kinexys digital payment network, capable of creating programmable cross-chain payments 24/7.