Ant Group is betting that the next leap in digital finance will not happen in a bank but on Ethereum.
On Oct. 14, the Chinese fintech giant behind Alipay’s 1.4 billion-user payment network launched Jovay, a new Layer-2 (L2) blockchain built atop Ethereum to move real-world assets (RWAs) on-chain at institutional scale.
What is Jovay?
Ant Digital, the blockchain division of Ant Group, describes Jovay as a “compliance-first, AI-assisted scaling network” that aims to integrate real-world data and value flows into decentralized finance.
The platform uses dual provers, a zero-knowledge and optimistic hybrid, to ensure both scalability and verifiability. It deliberately launches without a native token, signaling a focus on enterprise and institutional adoption rather than retail speculation.
The implications are vast. Alipay has 1.4 billion monthly active users and handles trillions in payment volume annually. If even a fraction of that activity migrates to Ethereum rails through Jovay, the network could become one of global finance’s most consequential infrastructure bridges.
According to Jovay’s technical paper, the network achieved 15,700 – 22,000 transactions per second (TPS) during testnet trials and targets 100,000 TPS through node clustering and horizontal expansion.
This would be significantly higher than what is currently obtainable in the Ethereum layer-2 ecosystem, which is led by Coinbase-backed Base. According to L2Beats data, Base processes roughly 93 TPS.
The RWA thesis
Real-world assets (RWAs) have quietly become Ethereum’s fastest-growing segment. According to RWA.xyz, tokenized treasuries, invoices, and funds on Ethereum now exceed $12 billion in value, up more than 300% since early 2024.
Yet most of that liquidity remains confined to niche protocols with limited regulatory clarity.
Jovay’s model introduces a five-stage pipeline: asset registration, structuring, tokenization, issuance, and trading. Each step embeds verification checkpoints and off-chain data attestations, effectively giving regulators the same line of sight they would have in traditional finance.
By integrating AntChain’s enterprise registry with Ethereum, Jovay could enable bilateral settlements between licensed institutions and on-chain liquidity providers.
For instance, a bank issuing a digital bond on Jovay could settle instantly with a DeFi counterparty without exposing internal data or violating jurisdictional controls.
Considering this, Abbas Khan, a Founders Success Manager at the Ethereum Foundation, said:
“This isn’t another startup experiment. It’s a signal that the next phase of global finance is being built on Ethereum rails…In China, Alipay isn’t an app; it’s an infrastructure layer for daily life, payments, loans, insurance, identity, mobility, and more. And now, Ant Group is taking that infrastructure onchain.”
The macro bet behind Ant’s blockchain
Ant Group’s foray into Ethereum signals a structural shift in how global fintechs view blockchain risk.
For years, major companies favored permissioned ledgers like Hyperledger to avoid volatility and public-chain exposure. That calculus is changing as governments and other major financial institutions increasingly experiment with public blockchains like Ethereum for their own interests.
By building Jovay on Ethereum rather than a proprietary network, Ant effectively validates public infrastructure as a foundation for institutional finance.
Moreover, the move is a hedge against technological isolation and a play for interoperability because any asset minted on Jovay can, in principle, access Ethereum’s $100-billion DeFi ecosystem.
The cost profile supports the move.
Reports revealed that the Coinbase-backed Base network has contributed less than $5 million in blob and settlement fees to Ethereum’s layer-1 validators since its launch in 2023. This represents a 98% margin compared to what a standalone chain would face in validator expenses.
For Ant, that efficiency translates into cheaper settlements for its billion-scale user base.
Ethereum’s quiet victory
Jovay’s debut also reflects Ethereum’s slow conquest of institutional trust. What once looked like a volatile experiment has become a neutral settlement layer that banks and fintech giants can rely on without ceding control.
If Jovay gains traction, Ethereum’s tokenized finance share could expand beyond today’s RWA niche.
This would mean that every new asset class brought on-chain, including energy credits and local government bonds, will create fresh demand for ETH block space and liquidity routing.
Like Khan said, Ant’s move suggests that the next billion users won’t arrive through memecoins or yield farming.
Instead, they’ll show up because their assets, savings, and credit instruments quietly migrate onto compliant rails that run on Ethereum.
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