Original author: Christine Kim, Vice President of Galaxy Research
Original translation: Luffy, Foresight News
More than 50 non-cryptocurrency native companies have built products and services on Ethereum or Ethereum Layer 2 (L2). From fashion giants such as Louis Vuitton and Adidas to financial leaders such as Deutsche Bank and PayPal, the innovative practices of these companies are reshaping the landscape of the crypto space. It is worth noting that the crypto businesses of these traditional large companies are not focused on general market infrastructure such as cryptocurrency trading, custody, auditing and compliance, but on crypto-specific infrastructure and application scenarios, such as non-fungible tokens (NFTs), real-world assets (RWAs), Web3 developer tools, and second-layer networks. Among the 20 financial institutions that have built crypto-specific infrastructure and applications, banks occupy 10 seats, and most of them are actively issuing real-world assets on Ethereum. This report aims to deeply analyze the application scenarios that Ethereum has pioneered and led in traditional enterprises and institutions.
Introduction
In this report, the cryptocurrency industry can be divided into three main sectors:
General Infrastructure: Companies that provide cryptocurrency and blockchain-related products and services that are not unique or exclusive to the crypto industry, such as general market infrastructure (e.g., exchanges, market makers, asset management) and general business support (e.g., banking, accounting, consulting, compliance).
Crypto-specific infrastructure: Companies that provide products and services that are unique and exclusive to the crypto industry. For example, companies involved in mining, staking, and building on-chain oracles, the infrastructure they build is tailored for the cryptocurrency and blockchain space.
Crypto Use Cases and Applications: Companies that build consumer applications that run in whole or in part on the blockchain. For example, decentralized exchanges can automatically execute cryptocurrency transactions on the blockchain without relying on third-party intermediaries.
Today, traditional companies are no longer limited to expanding their existing application and service suites to support cryptocurrencies, but are actively innovating new products and services that can only be achieved through blockchain. In addition, at least 55 of these companies are building on public blockchains such as Ethereum and Ethereum second-layer networks such as Polygon, Arbitrum and Base.
Below is a market map of 55 non-crypto native companies that have built on Ethereum or Ethereum Layer 2 networks, or are building crypto-specific infrastructure and applications.
Of the 55 companies on the list, at least 23 issue NFTs on Ethereum or Ethereum’s Layer 2 network.
While most companies are building directly on Ethereum, at least 17 have or are exploring on multiple general-purpose blockchains and L2s.
Real World Assets (RWA) on Ethereum
One of the common types of non-crypto companies doing business in the Ethereum ecosystem is financial institutions such as banks, asset managers, payment processors, trading platforms, and accounting firms. Of the 20 financial institutions identified as having built crypto-specific infrastructure and applications, 13 issue real-world assets on Ethereum and Ethereum L2. The types of real-world assets that have been issued on the chain are rich and diverse, ranging from government bonds issued by the Franklin OnChain US Government Money Fund to the European Investment Bank.
Ethereum is the top blockchain for issuing tokenized assets, with the total value of real-world assets on it being almost ten times greater than the second most popular real-world asset blockchain, Stellar. ZKsync is an Ethereum L2 network, with both the number and total value of real-world assets issued on its chain being higher than Stellar. Six of the top ten networks issuing real-world assets are Ethereum or Ethereum L2.
As of February 11, 2025, the third largest tokenized fund across all blockchains is BlackRock’s U.S. Dollar Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL). Launched in March 2024, the fund provides investors with U.S. dollar returns with the advantages of instant, transparent settlement and interoperability between traditional and decentralized financial markets. Robert Mitchnick, head of digital assets at BlackRock, said in March last year: “Through tokenization, we are wrapping traditional financial investment exposure in a crypto-native shell.”
BlackRock, the world’s largest asset management company, partnered with tokenization platform Securitize and US financial services company Bank of New York Mellon to first launch BUIDL on Ethereum. Since March last year, BlackRock has expanded the fund to five other networks besides Ethereum, three of which are Ethereum L2.
The value of real-world assets issued on Ethereum has tripled over the past year. According to rwa.xyz, there are over 160 real-world assets issued on Ethereum, spread across 60,000 active wallet addresses. This does not include stablecoins.
Although not numerous, some financial institutions working on real-world assets and tokenization are also developing their own stablecoins. Payment processor PayPal first launched its dollar-pegged stablecoin PYUSD on Ethereum in August 2023. PayPal has since expanded the issuance of PYUSD to Solana. Trading platform Robinhood, in partnership with a range of crypto-native institutions including Galaxy Digital, Kraken, Nuvei, Anchorage, Bullish, and Paxos, also launched its own dollar-pegged stablecoin USDG on Ethereum in November 2024.
The total circulating supply of stablecoins on Ethereum has grown by 70% over the past year. These stablecoins vary in collateral mix and design type, but the vast majority are instruments pegged to the US dollar and backed by high-quality liquid assets. As of February 11, 2025, Ethereum accounts for more than 50% of the total stablecoin market share.
According to Galaxy Research, the total supply of stablecoins is expected to double to more than $400 billion in 2025. One catalyst that accelerated the launch of new stablecoins by traditional financial institutions this year was the $1 billion acquisition of stablecoin payment platform Bridge by payment company Stripe in 2024. Regarding the acquisition, Stripe CEO Patrick Collison said: Stablecoins are room-temperature superconductors in the financial services sector. Thanks to stablecoins, global businesses will achieve significant improvements in speed, coverage, and cost in the coming years.
In the United States, another catalyst for the application of real-world assets and stablecoins is the regulatory environment. Hester Peirce, a commissioner of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), issued a statement on Tuesday, February 4, 2025, outlining specific priorities and topics that the SEC may address for the digital asset industry, of which the ninth item emphasized the modernization of traditional finance through tokenization. The statement said: The task force also plans to study the intersection of cryptocurrencies with clearing agency and transfer agent rules. We will continue to work with market participants who are interested in tokenizing securities or otherwise using blockchain technology to modernize traditional financial markets.
Real-world assets and stablecoins are crypto-native use cases that are rapidly finding product-market fit in traditional financial institutions. As the most decentralized general-purpose blockchain with the broadest reach for crypto-native users and the longest track record of network uptime, Ethereum is the gateway for many institutions to incubate and launch financially-focused crypto services and products.
Scalable blockchain infrastructure
Although Ethereum is the gateway for many financial institutions and non-crypto native companies to adopt cryptocurrency and blockchain technology, it is not a scalable protocol for new blockchain use cases. Compared to blockchains such as Solana, Ethereum has poor performance, slow block times, and high transaction fees. Ethereum protocol developers are unwilling to sacrifice the resilience and security of the network for speed and are committed to scaling Ethereum through L2. Scaling solutions are blockchain infrastructure that can inherit the security of Ethereum and scale to millions of new users.
Non-crypto native companies are not only advancing crypto use cases on Ethereum, such as tokenization, but also investing in the infrastructure needed to support these use cases to reach a wider audience than crypto native users. Deutsche Bank, Germanys largest bank, is working with Matter Labs, which built the ZKSync scaling solution, to develop a new scaling solution on Ethereum. The scaling solution, codenamed DAMA 2, is part of a broader initiative led by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and 24 other financial institutions around the world to explore the application scenarios of public blockchains in global finance.
Deutsche Bank’s main motivation for developing the L2 network is to create a blockchain infrastructure that is scalable, auditable, transparent, and interoperable with regulated platforms and financial services. Speaking about Deutsche Bank’s motivation for developing the L2 network, Alex Gluchowski, co-creator of ZKSync, said: “Institutions that want to build on-chain choose ZKSync because it enables building in Web3 without compromise. ZKSync provides institutions with a customizable architecture to build tailored solutions that achieve privacy protection, scalability, and interoperability with other private and public blockchains.”
Financial institutions like Deutsche Bank are developing blockchain infrastructure on Ethereum that is scalable, customizable, and compliant with regional regulations. However, the appeal of scalable and customizable blockchain infrastructure is not limited to financial application scenarios.
Japanese company Sony recently launched its own scaling solution using the OP stack on Ethereum. Their motivation for creating and operating their own general-purpose scaling solution is to support a wider ecosystem of gaming, financial, and entertainment applications. Regarding Sonys L2 network Soneium, Jun Watanabe, Chairman of Sony Blockchain Solutions Lab, said: I believe that the development of comprehensive Web3 solutions based on blockchain is of great significance to the Sony Group. Sony has carried out a wide range of businesses with the motto of infusing the world with emotion through the power of creativity and technology.
Since the launch of Soneium, the protocol has faced backlash over Sony’s regulation of on-chain activity, specifically token transfer restrictions and address blacklisting. While this incident raises questions about the degree of control that companies should have over scaling solutions built on permissionless infrastructure such as Ethereum, it also highlights the commitment of one of the world’s largest conglomerates to finding answers to these questions. Sony’s investment in new digital experiences and applications through the launch of its scaling solution on Ethereum speaks volumes about the potential value of the Ethereum blockchain space and L2.
Games on Ethereum L2 Network
NFT is the main application scenario for traditional companies, including luxury fashion brands such as Louis Vuitton and Coach, and luxury car manufacturers such as Porsche and Lamborghini. Most of the NFTs issued by these companies were during the peak of the NFT boom from 2021 to 2023. Given the decline of NFTs in the past few years, many companies will no longer issue NFTs on Ethereum and Ethereum L2 networks in 2025.
Of the few companies still actively issuing NFTs on Ethereum in 2025, they are almost all doing so in the context of game development, and almost entirely on the Ethereum L2 network, rather than the Ethereum mainnet.
In July 2024, video game giant Atari deployed its two classic arcade games, Asteroids and Breakout, on the Ethereum L2 network Base operated by Coinbase. Until the end of August 2024, gamers can earn rewards, mint exclusive Atari NFTs, and redeem physical goods on Base. A few months after Atari got involved in on-chain games, in October 2024, Lamborghini announced a partnership with Web3 game company Animoca Brands to launch a digital collectibles platform called FastForWorld.
FastForWorld enables gamers to buy, sell and drive Lamborghini vehicles across a range of games developed by Animoca Brands, including Torque Drift 2, REVV Racing, Auto Universe Center, and FastForWorld’s proprietary experiences.
FastForWorlds in-game assets are minted on Base. The first version of the platform was launched on November 7, 2024 and is still under active development, with more extensions to the FastForWorld platform expected to be announced in 2025.
Recently, on January 7, 2025, Lotte Group, one of the top five business groups in South Korea, announced a deeper partnership with the Arbitrum Foundation and Offchain Labs to build Lottes metaverse game platform Caliverse on the Ethereum L2 network Arbitrum. Caliverse is already online, and users can shop, attend virtual concerts and play games on the platform. Speaking of the cooperation with Arbitrum, Kima Kim, CEO of Caliverse, said: We are very happy to work with Arbitrum, the most trusted blockchain, to take the first step into the blockchain world. Through Lotte Caliverse, we will use Lottes successful history in the retail field to provide more than 40 million people with excellent products and services. During the 2025 International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, the Caliverse team announced plans to launch virtual reality and 3D movie features on its platform in the first half of 2025.
The most notable thing about the continued investment and development of NFTs by non-crypto native companies like Atari, Lamborghini, and Rakuten’s Caliverse is that they are being conducted in the context of on-chain gaming applications. Blockchain-based games may require frequent on-chain transactions, which can lead to high fees and network congestion. Therefore, these companies build games on the Ethereum L2 network to take advantage of the scalability benefits brought by Ethereum’s L2-centric architecture.
Steven Goldfeder, co-founder and CEO of Offchain Labs, said: “The Arbitrum blockchain is the ideal home for Caliverse because of its industry-leading 250 millisecond block times and its ability to support seamless virtual worlds and gaming use cases.”
in conclusion
NFTs and real-world assets are the main use cases for Ethereum in non-crypto native companies and institutions. Among the companies issuing NFTs in the Ethereum ecosystem, the most active companies in 2025 issued NFTs in the context of on-chain gaming applications built on the Ethereum L2 network. This highlights how the scalability of the L2 network can help support crypto-native use cases, such as games that require frequent on-chain interactions in large retail brands and enterprises. Ethereums commitment to expanding its infrastructure through expansion plans also provides an opportunity for early technology adopters in traditional finance and other industries to lead the non-speculative use of cryptocurrencies by creating customizable and compliant infrastructure for these use cases. Finally, Ethereum remains the blockchain of choice for traditional financial companies to issue real-world assets and stablecoins. Key partnerships established in 2024 are expected to drive new progress in the adoption of stablecoins in 2025.
