USD35 Institutions Build on Ethereum as Tokenized Finance Expands and Onchain Activity Hits Records
BlackRock, JPMorgan, Fidelity and Others Launch Live Products as Ethereum Staking Tops 36.2 Million ETH
TL;DR
- 35 major firms including BlackRock, JPMorgan, and Fidelity have deployed live tokenized funds, deposits, equities, and payment infrastructure on Ethereum as of January 19–20, 2026.
- Institutional activity coincided with Ethereum staking rising to about 36.2 million ETH and exchange balances falling to a record low of 16.3 million ETH.
- Ethereum also recorded all-time high onchain activity, though research published January 20, 2026 suggests part of the transaction spike may be driven by spam-linked address poisoning rather than organic demand.
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Major financial institutions and technology firms are building and deploying live products on Ethereum as part of a coordinated shift toward onchain finance, according to information released on January 19, 2026. The list includes BlackRock, JPMorgan, Fidelity, and a total of 35 firms using Ethereum or Ethereum-linked networks to issue tokenized securities, deposits, stablecoins, and payment systems tied to real-world assets and regulated financial activity.
BlackRock is among asset managers expanding tokenization efforts on Ethereum, alongside Fidelity, which launched a tokenized money market fund directly on the network. China Asset Management’s Hong Kong arm also introduced a tokenized U.S. dollar money market fund, described as one of the first such products from a major Chinese asset manager operating on a public blockchain, with Ethereum selected as the settlement layer.
European asset managers have joined the deployments. Amundi launched a tokenized share class of a euro-denominated money market fund on Ethereum mainnet, while Société Générale FORGE rolled out euro- and dollar-based lending and trading products that interact with Ethereum-based decentralized finance protocols. These launches place regulated investment products alongside onchain settlement infrastructure used by decentralized markets.
JPMorgan expanded its blockchain footprint by migrating its JPM Coin deposit token to Base, an Ethereum Layer 2 network, and by launching its first tokenized money market fund seeded with $100 million from the bank’s own balance sheet. The bank’s initiatives place tokenized deposits and cash-equivalent instruments within Ethereum’s transaction environment using permissioned structures.
Equities and exchange-traded products are also moving onchain. Kraken launched xStocks, allowing fully collateralized U.S. equities to be transferred on Ethereum-based rails. Ondo Finance introduced a platform offering more than 100 tokenized U.S. stocks and ETFs, each backed by the underlying securities, with Ethereum used as the primary issuance and settlement network.
Stablecoin issuance and payment infrastructure featured prominently among the launches. Stripe expanded subscription payment support using USDC on Ethereum. SoFi issued SoFiUSD, becoming the first U.S. national retail bank to launch a stablecoin on a public blockchain, using Ethereum for settlement and transfers linked to customer accounts.
Technology firms have also tied Ethereum into emerging payment use cases. Google announced its “Agent Payments Protocol (AP2),” designed to allow artificial intelligence agents to pay one another using stablecoins on Ethereum. Google Search also integrated data feeds from Polymarket, a decentralized prediction market operating on blockchain infrastructure, for real-time informational queries.
Global payments messaging provider SWIFT is building an Ethereum bridge aimed at supporting real-time, always-on settlement flows for cross-border payments, according to the reported developments. Mastercard has integrated its Crypto Credential program to support easier digital wallet usage tied to blockchain-based identity and payment verification systems.
Network data accompanying the institutional activity showed Ethereum staking surpassing approximately 36.2 million ETH, representing around 30% of the circulating supply, based on figures cited at the time. Wallet growth accelerated, with nearly 394,000 new Ethereum addresses created on January 11, 2026, marking one of the highest single-day totals reported during the period.
Corporate accumulation added to supply constraints. BitMine Immersion, led by Tom Lee, staked 1.77 million ETH valued at about $5.66 billion, removing 86,848 ETH from active circulation in a single operation. Exchange balances declined concurrently, with Ethereum held on centralized trading venues falling to a record low of 16.3 million ETH, according to onchain tracking data cited in reports.
Ethereum’s expanding institutional role has also prompted internal debate. Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin cautioned publicly that growing protocol complexity could weaken long-term security and self-sovereignty, emphasizing the importance of maintaining simplicity as adoption by financial institutions accelerates.
Ethereum’s surge in institutional deployments has coincided with a sharp rise in onchain activity that researchers say may not be entirely organic. Ethereum posted record transaction levels around January 20, 2026, but onchain researcher Andrey Sergeenkov reported that a significant portion of the increase was linked to address poisoning, a scam technique that sends low-cost “dust” transfers to wallet addresses to contaminate transaction histories. The research noted that these transfers rely on Ethereum’s relatively cheap transaction costs and can inflate activity metrics without corresponding user demand.
This article has been refined and enhanced by ChatGPT.
