Finance

Ethereum for Institutions: How the EF is Unlocking Enterprise Adoption of Tokenized Assets

The Ethereum Foundation launched “Ethereum for Institutions” to guide firms using its platform for finance, privacy, and scaling.

byAndres Castro

October 29, 2025, 3:12 PM

Close-up of several shiny, gold Ethereum cryptocurrency coins stacked on top of each other.

Digital representations of value, like these Ethereum coins, are revolutionizing the financial landscape. By MDL.

Executive Summary

The Ethereum Foundation (EF) launched “Ethereum for Institutions,” a new online portal designed to guide enterprises, financial institutions, and developers in building atop Ethereum, focusing on integrating privacy, real-world assets (RWAs), and institutional staking.

The portal highlights Ethereum’s established reliability with over a decade of uptime, 1.1 million validators, and its current dominance in hosting over 75% of tokenized RWAs and 60% of the global stablecoin supply, with major financial players already leveraging its solutions.

Ethereum is promoting key technologies such as zero-knowledge proofs for privacy and compliance, Layer-2 networks for scalability and cost efficiency, and staking/restaking protocols, positioning itself as the leading settlement layer for institutional-grade decentralized finance.

The Story So Far

The Ethereum Foundation launched “Ethereum for Institutions” because Ethereum has solidified its position as a secure and reliable base layer, already hosting a significant portion of tokenized real-world assets and global stablecoin supply. This initiative aims to guide increasing institutional interest by providing resources that address key enterprise demands for privacy, compliance, and scalability through technologies like zero-knowledge proofs and Layer-2 networks, thereby accelerating the integration of traditional finance with the on-chain economy.

Why This Matters

The launch of the “Ethereum for Institutions” portal signals a strategic push to position Ethereum as the primary, compliant, and secure foundational layer for the global on-chain economy. This initiative aims to accelerate the integration of traditional finance by providing clear pathways for institutional engagement, leveraging privacy-preserving technologies and facilitating the tokenization of real-world assets, ultimately driving mainstream enterprise adoption and significant capital flow into the Ethereum ecosystem.

Who Thinks What?

The Ethereum Foundation believes that Ethereum is a neutral, secure base layer for the global on-chain economy, and their “Ethereum for Institutions” portal aims to accelerate enterprise adoption by highlighting its reliability, privacy-preserving technologies, tokenization capabilities for real-world assets, and scaling solutions.

Prominent financial institutions and companies, including BlackRock, Visa, eToro, Coinbase, Securitize, and others, are already leveraging Ethereum-based solutions to manage billions in assets, process transactions, deploy tokenized instruments, and utilize Layer-2 networks and staking protocols, indicating their view of Ethereum as a robust and valuable platform for institutional finance.

The Ethereum Foundation (EF) has launched “Ethereum for Institutions,” a new online portal designed to guide enterprises, financial institutions, and developers keen on building atop Ethereum’s robust infrastructure. This initiative underscores Ethereum’s strategic evolution into a foundational layer for the global on-chain economy, aiming to integrate privacy-preserving technology, real-world assets (RWAs), and institutional staking within a unified framework.

A New Institutional Gateway

The portal, developed by the EF’s Enterprise Acceleration team, serves as a comprehensive roadmap for organizations seeking to adopt Ethereum. It provides essential resources and outlines technical pathways to facilitate broader institutional engagement with the network. The foundation emphasized Ethereum’s role as a neutral, secure base layer attracting global financial value on-chain.

Highlighting over a decade of continuous uptime and more than 1.1 million validators, the site showcases Ethereum’s reliability. It also features prominent companies like BlackRock, Visa, eToro, and Coinbase, which are already leveraging Ethereum-based solutions to manage billions in assets and process trillions in transaction volume.

ZK Privacy and Compliance

Recognizing privacy as a critical institutional demand, the Ethereum Foundation is promoting zero-knowledge (ZK) proofs, fully homomorphic encryption (FHE), and trusted execution environments (TEEs). These technologies enable compliant, audit-ready applications to operate on public blockchain rails. Projects such as Chainlink, RAILGUN, Aztec Network, and Zama are highlighted for their work in pioneering privacy-preserving smart contracts.

Tokenization and Real-World Assets

Ethereum currently hosts over 75% of all tokenized real-world assets and 60% of the global stablecoin supply, asserting its dominance in these sectors. The portal directs institutions to explore market infrastructure for tokenized treasuries and on-chain credit platforms. Major financial players like BlackRock, Securitize, Ondo Finance, Centrifuge, and Maple are deploying tokenized instruments that offer 24/7 settlement, transparency, and composability.

Stablecoins issued by Tether, Circle, PayPal, and Ethena Labs are specifically noted for their contribution to accelerating global on-chain payments. These digital currencies play a crucial role in facilitating efficient and transparent financial transactions within the Ethereum ecosystem.

Restaking, Layer-2s, and Composable Finance

Ethereum’s Layer-2 networks, including Linea, Starknet, Base, Scroll, and Unichain, now collectively secure over $50 billion in value, providing the necessary throughput and cost efficiency for large-scale applications. Staking and restaking protocols such as Ether.fi, EigenLayer, Lido, RocketPool, and Symbiotic allow institutions to participate in Ethereum’s security model while earning yield on staked ETH. With 67% of Decentralized Finance (DeFi) total value locked (TVL) and deep liquidity, Ethereum continues to lead as the settlement layer for institutional-grade decentralized finance.

The Institutional Future

The launch of “Ethereum for Institutions” signals a significant push by the Ethereum Foundation to solidify the network’s position as the premier platform for enterprise-grade blockchain solutions. By consolidating resources on privacy, tokenization, and scaling, the portal aims to accelerate institutional adoption and further integrate traditional finance with the on-chain economy.