Ethereum, stablecoin and global financial operating system

Author: Maja Vujinovic, Translated by: Shaw Jinse Finance

I first experienced the power of programmable currency not on Wall Street or Silicon Valley, but on the streets of Lagos and São Paulo. I have lived on five continents and worked in mobile payments, witnessing firsthand how fragile currencies and unreliable banking infrastructure force people to find alternative solutions. Later, after acquiring the first bank and collaborating with JPMorgan and General Electric on early corporate blockchain pilots, I became increasingly clear that stable and programmable value would not only complement the existing financial system but ultimately rewrite it completely.

This rewriting work is in progress. What once seemed like a marginal experiment is now becoming the foundation of a new financial system. The stablecoin market has reached $260 billion. The tokenization process of government bonds, stocks, and real estate is accelerating. Ethereum, once seen as an unruly playground for developers, is now becoming the invisible settlement layer behind open networks and corporate financial experiments.

Stablecoins as the First Proof of Concept

Stablecoins most clearly indicate that tokenization is not just a speculative trend. For hundreds of millions of people, especially in countries grappling with inflation and capital controls, dollar-backed stablecoins are not speculation, but a means of survival. In Argentina, Nigeria, and Turkey, people use USDC and USDT to escape the collapse of their national currencies. In fact, this makes stablecoins a reserve asset of the Internet age, a point often overlooked by regulators in Washington and Brussels who view them as a narrow compliance challenge.

The asymmetry of this geopolitical situation is significant. While developed countries are still debating the risks, other parts of the world are adopting stablecoins as a de facto infrastructure. Moreover, due to the smooth flow of stablecoins on the Ethereum network (which accounts for over 50% of the supply and over 60% of the transaction volume), every new user enhances the attractiveness of the Ethereum ecosystem.

Tokenization Beyond Buzzwords

The next wave is far from just digital dollars. The White House's recent 168-page strategic report estimates that by 2030, over $600 billion in assets will be tokenized—but considering the scale of the global market, this number seems almost insignificant: $120 trillion in real estate, $100 trillion in stocks, $13 trillion in government bonds, and $12 trillion in gold.

A few years ago, I saw the trend of tokenization. When platforms like tZERO and later Securitize were launched, I suggested that they should raise funds vigorously because true large-scale development takes a decade. And now, that moment has finally arrived.

Skeptics point out that tokenization is not a new concept, and they are right. We have witnessed failures in attempts at tokenizing certain artworks and securities. However, the situation has fundamentally changed: the infrastructure has matured. Custodians like Anchorage, platforms like Securitize, and a robust decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem now exist, making tokenized assets practical. Tokenized government bonds are no longer just a digital wrapper; they are collateral that can be instantly transferred, integrated into automated liquidity strategies, or power programmable payments.

This is the real situation: tokenization transforms assets from static value storage into dynamic code snippets. Once capital can be programmed, entirely new financial behaviors will emerge. Today, Ethereum has already hosted 90% of tokenized assets.

Ethereum as a Settlement Standard

This is the important reason for Ethereum. It is not just a blockchain; it is the programmable settlement infrastructure of this financial internet. Permissionless, censorship-resistant, and having become the home of most tokenized activities, Ethereum provides the foundational layer for these new assets to actually interact.

This trend is obvious. Even permissioned enterprise blockchains, from JPMorgan's Onyx to new attempts by fintech giants, are continually returning to Ethereum's design. The Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) has become the universal language of programmable finance, just as Microsoft Excel became the default operating system on Wall Street. Excel created a universal syntax for spreadsheets, and now EVM is doing the same for ledgers: creating a universal value syntax.

Corpo-L1s and the EVM Empire

The latest participants prove this point. Circle has launched Arc, a permissioned L1 designed for stablecoin finance, operated by a consortium of 20 institutional validators. Stripe is building Tempo, likely using Paradigm's RETH client, aimed at providing backend settlement for its large developer ecosystem.

At first glance, these seem like dull databases, dressed up as corporate intranets with a marketing veneer. But history shows that this is not the case. Companies adopting EVM-compatible architectures are, in fact, reconnecting themselves with the Ethereum ecosystem. Even though Arc and Tempo have not issued tokens yet, the gravitational pull of the incentive mechanisms almost guarantees that they will eventually do so. And once they issue tokens, developers and liquidity will converge towards them — but Ethereum will always be the benchmark for settlement.

This is the overlooked feedback loop: every enterprise-level L1 chain (Corpo-L1), even permissioned chains, is expanding the territory of the EVM empire. Just as Excel has become indispensable in the financial sector, Solidity developers have also become a prerequisite for any financial institution wishing to remain competitive. In the long run, the accumulated value does not belong to the enterprise chains themselves, but to the underlying infrastructure they cannot avoid—Ethereum.

Geopolitical Level

Globally, the rise of programmable assets is more a manifestation of power than of efficiency. Even as many countries seek alternative solutions to trade issues, stablecoins continue to perpetuate the dominance of the US dollar. The European Union is discussing "digital sovereignty."

In this context, Ethereum is not just a blockchain. It is a neutral public good, a space where various forces—nations, corporations, and individuals—seek influence. Just as the maritime trade routes once determined geopolitical power, the programmable settlement layer will define a new era of globalization.

Opportunities and Blind Spots

The real opportunity lies not only in guessing which assets will be tokenized but also in recognizing the shift in logic: capital itself becomes programmable. This means that government bonds can serve as collateral, stocks can embed governance, real estate can provide rental income directly to token holders, and AI agents can manage portfolios in real time.

The blind spot is that people believe these changes can be confined within the old regulatory and institutional frameworks. This is impossible. Once assets flow like information, the focus will shift to the networks that can settle them the fastest, safest, and most transparently. Today, that is Ethereum and its scaling solutions.

Conclusion

Witnessing the rise of mobile currency in emerging economies, assisting Tether in its launch in 2013, and implementing the first blockchain pilot projects with Fortune 50 companies, I see the same pattern replaying on a global scale. Stablecoins have already become a system parallel to the US dollar. Tokenization is not just a marketing tool; it is a process of transforming capital into something programmable. And through the quiet expansion of the EVM, Ethereum is embedding itself into the operating system of programmable finance.

Wall Street may not have realized it yet, but it is already deeply involved in hiring EVM developers and building private chains. Just as no bank can ignore Excel, no financial institution can ignore EVM. And the scale of this shift from paper to programmable is not measured in billions, but in trillions of dollars.