Major financial institutions are increasingly turning to Ethereum to issue tokenized stocks, money market funds, stablecoins, and bank deposits.
Over the past few months, 35 leading global firms including BlackRock, JPMorgan, and Fidelity have launched new products and services directly on the Ethereum blockchain. According to a recent thread shared by Ethereum’s official social media account, these initiatives reflect a sharp rise in institutional adoption of tokenized real-world assets (RWAs).
This momentum underscores Ethereum’s growing position as a core settlement layer for global finance, extending its use beyond speculative crypto activity into traditional assets such as equities, bonds, and large-scale payment systems.
Institutions Advance Tokenization on Public Blockchains
On January 19, the Ethereum account highlighted accelerating institutional participation, pointing to a wide range of launches covering tokenized equities, money market funds, stablecoins, and on-chain bank deposits.
Crypto exchange Kraken introduced xStocks, enabling eligible users to trade fully collateralized U.S. equities on-chain. Ondo Finance also unveiled a platform offering over 100 tokenized U.S. stocks and ETFs, each backed by real underlying assets.
Asset managers have followed suit. Fidelity rolled out its tokenized money market fund, FDIT, on Ethereum, while China Asset Management’s Hong Kong subsidiary launched a tokenized U.S. dollar money market fund one of the first such offerings from a major Chinese firm. In Europe, Amundi debuted a tokenized share class of its euro-denominated money market fund on Ethereum’s main network.
Banks have expanded their blockchain strategies as well. JPMorgan transitioned its JPM Coin deposit token from a private blockchain to Base, an Ethereum Layer 2 network, and later introduced its first tokenized money market fund on Ethereum with an initial $100 million investment. Societe Generale FORGE also deployed euro- and dollar-based lending and trading products across Ethereum-powered DeFi protocols.
Payment companies and fintech firms are participating too. Stripe broadened its stablecoin subscription services using USDC on Ethereum, while SoFi launched SoFiUSD, becoming the first U.S. national retail bank to issue a stablecoin on a public blockchain. Google further added momentum by announcing a stablecoin-based agent payments protocol on Ethereum, developed in collaboration with the Ethereum Foundation and Coinbase.
Rising Activity Sparks Debate Over Ethereum’s Design
This institutional surge has coincided with increased on-chain activity. Ethereum staking surpassed 30% of total supply this month, with roughly 36.2 million ETH locked, according to Ultrasound Money. Wallet creation also reached a new high, with nearly 394,000 new addresses registered in a single day on January 11.
However, concerns about growing complexity remain. On January 18, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin cautioned that increasing protocol complexity could threaten long-term security and self-sovereignty, urging developers to focus on simplicity and resilience.
Overall, the latest wave of institutional launches highlights Ethereum and its Layer 2 networks as key testing environments for regulated, tokenized finance spanning funds, equities, payments, and settlement even as discussions around governance and protocol design continue.
