#Ethereum’s Rise to an Institutional Backbone
Ethereum has evolved from a scrappy experiment into foundational infrastructure for global finance. Its smart contracts now underpin stablecoins, decentralized exchanges, and tokenized securities. BlackRock and JPMorgan issue tokenized bond and real-estate funds on Ethereum, while Franklin Templeton fractionalizes equities on-chain. Major stablecoins (USDC, USDT, BUSD) are ERC‑20 tokens on Ethereum. Even Visa has piloted settling a USDC payment on Ethereum.
* **DeFi:** Ethereum DeFi protocols hold over \$100 billion in value, proving that lending, trading and derivatives can run at scale on-chain.
* **Stablecoins:** Over half of global stablecoins are issued on Ethereum, enabling near-instant, low-cost USD transfers.
* **Tokenization:** Financial giants use Ethereum smart contracts to tokenize bonds, real estate and equity, creating new liquid markets for traditional assets.
* **Layer-2:** Scaling networks like Optimism and Arbitrum now handle thousands of transactions per second at pennies each, making real-time institutional applications practical.
By 2025, U.S. spot Ethereum ETFs held about \$15 billion, and corporate treasuries stake ETH for 4–6% yields. As upgrades and Layer-2 scaling lower costs, Wall Street is poised to do more settlement, lending and token issuance on Ethereum. Underneath it all, Ethereum is becoming the backbone of tomorrow’s finance.
