Ethereum Еeam Spoke about the Network’s Progress as a Standard for Banks, AI, and Tokenized Assets

• Ethereum published a report on the development of projects built on the network over the past few months.
• In particular, the mass shift of institutions to Ethereum — from Google to JPMorgan.
• As a result, Ethereum can be described as a global settlement layer for finance and AI.

The Ethereum network continues to strengthen its status as a key global infrastructure for artificial intelligence (AI), tokenized assets, and traditional financial institutions. Over the past few months, the pace of institutional adoption has accelerated significantly — major banks, payments giants, technology corporations, and regulators are increasingly choosing Ethereum as the base layer for settlement and tokenization.

Among the key use cases is Kraken’s launch of the xStocks platform on Ethereum, where popular U.S. stocks and ETFs are issued as ERC-20 tokens. Exchange clients can deposit and withdraw fully backed securities directly on the network. 

Ondo Finance is developing a similar direction, having launched Ondo Global Markets with more than 100 tokenized stocks and ETFs, available 24/7 and integrated with DeFi protocols.

Traditional asset managers are also actively joining the ecosystem. China Asset Management (ChinaAMC) introduced the Select USD Money Market Fund on Ethereum — one of the first tokenized funds from a major Chinese player with more than $449 billion in assets. 

Fidelity, in turn, launched the tokenized money market fund FDIT, which combines the speed of onchain settlement with the stability of classic financial instruments.

Google took an important step at the intersection of AI and blockchain by announcing the Agent Payments Protocol (AP2). The protocol enables AI agents to autonomously make stablecoin payments on Ethereum. The solution was created in collaboration with the Ethereum Foundation, Coinbase, MetaMask, and other partners, and aims to “securely connect automated intelligence and finance.”

The banking sector is also actively testing Ethereum’s public infrastructure. UBS, PostFinance, Sygnum, and the Swiss Bankers Association successfully ran a pilot project for deposit tokens, demonstrating legally binding interbank settlement. 

Spain’s Santander, via Openbank, launched trading in the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap in Germany, while JPMorgan moved its JPM Coin product from a private blockchain to Ethereum L2 Base to meet demand from institutional clients.

At the level of global financial infrastructure, SWIFT, together with more than 30 banks, is developing a blockchain ledger for tokenized assets and 24/7 cross-border payments. At the same time, Société Générale FORGE integrated lending and trading for EURCV and USDCV into the DeFi protocols Morpho and Uniswap, giving institutions access to liquidity on a public blockchain.

In addition, Ethereum is becoming a foundation for payment and consumer use cases as well:

• American Express launched Amex Passport travel NFT stamps on Base
• Stripe expanded subscription support in USDC
• Mastercard announced the use of Ethereum L2 Polygon to develop the Crypto Credential program
• in Japan, the first regulated stablecoin pegged to the yen was launched
• Sony Bank plans to issue a USD stablecoin on its own Ethereum L2, Soneium, in 2026.

Institutional interest is also being reinforced by regulators’ actions. The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced a pilot program that will allow Ethereum, bitcoin, and USDC to be used as collateral in derivatives markets. 

In parallel, BlackRock and Morgan Stanley filed applications for an Ethereum staking ETF, and Grayscale has already distributed the first staking rewards to investors in its fund.

Analysts point out that trust is the key factor. Geoffrey Kendrick, head of digital asset research at Standard Chartered, said: 

According to him, for traditional finance, reliability matters more than speed or transaction costs.

SWIFT CIO Tom Zschach shares a similar view: 

He stressed that banks are not working with the 2015 version of Ethereum, but with the modern stack and future upgrades.

The network’s fundamental strength is also backed by onchain data. Ethereum has been running continuously for more than 10 years, has $112 billion in economic security, and more than 980,000 validators. 

The total stablecoin supply on the network also stands at $170 billion, and Ethereum and its L2 solutions account for 44% of all tokenized real-world assets.

Recall that the network is seeing record user growth. According to Santiment, on January 11, 2026, users created 393,600 wallets — an all-time high. Analysts attribute this to the Fusaka upgrade, stablecoin activity, and rising interest in DeFi.

What’s more, the activity is also reflected in transactions: on January 17, the seven-day moving average of transactions on the network reached 2.43 million — a new all-time record.