Alibaba’s Ant Group Enters Ethereum Ecosystem With Jovay, an Institutional Layer 2 Network for Real-World Asset Tokenization

Alibaba’s Ant Group Bets On Ethereum With New Layer 2 Network Jovay

Alibaba’s financial arm, Ant Group, has quietly launched Jovay, an Ethereum Layer 2 network aimed at bringing real-world assets onto the blockchain.

The announcement has caught the attention of investors and industry watchers, despite Jovay first being unveiled in April at the RWA Real Up conference in Dubai.

Positioned as a “compliance-first, AI-assisted scaling network,” Jovay targets institutional adoption, deliberately launching without a native token.

How Jovay Bridges Traditional Finance And Blockchain

Jovay is designed to connect real-world asset flows with decentralized finance, using a modular infrastructure that links Web2 systems to Web3 networks.

According to the chain’s block explorer, the network currently holds $50 million in total value locked, completing just 16,766 transactions so far.

Despite this early-stage activity, the platform promises high throughput: testnet trials achieved between 15,700 and 22,000 transactions per second, with a target of 100,000 TPS through node clustering and horizontal scaling.

This would far surpass current Layer 2 leaders, such as Coinbase-backed Base, which processes roughly 93 TPS.

Real-World Assets On Ethereum: How Does It Work

Tokenizing real-world assets has become Ethereum’s fastest-growing segment, with over $12 billion in tokenized treasuries, invoices, and funds, up more than 300% since early 2024.

Jovay introduces a five-stage pipeline: asset registration, structuring, tokenization, issuance, and trading.

Each stage embeds verification checkpoints and off-chain attestations to maintain regulatory oversight.

By integrating AntChain’s enterprise registry with Ethereum, Jovay allows licensed institutions to settle assets with DeFi counterparties instantly, without revealing sensitive internal data.

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.”

Institutional Scale And Infrastructure Efficiency

With 1.4 billion monthly active users and trillions in annual transaction volume, Alipay’s integration into Jovay could make Ethereum a central infrastructure for global finance.

Reports suggest the Coinbase-backed Base network has generated less than $5 million in blob and settlement fees for Ethereum’s layer-1 validators since 2023, highlighting the efficiency of building atop Ethereum.

For Ant, leveraging a public blockchain translates to cheaper settlements and access to Ethereum’s $100 billion DeFi ecosystem.

Chainlink Integration Powers Speed And Reliability

Jovay has partnered with Chainlink, integrating the Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol and Data Streams to deliver high-speed, sub-second data transmission and secure cross-chain asset transfers.

This infrastructure ensures real-time market data and reliable tokenization workflows, supporting institutional-grade use cases that require both speed and accuracy.

Will Public Chains Become The Standard For Institutional Finance?

Ant Group’s move reflects a broader shift among global fintechs, which are increasingly recognising public blockchains like Ethereum as viable infrastructure rather than experimental tools.

By building Jovay on Ethereum instead of a proprietary network, Ant validates public infrastructure for large-scale, regulated financial activity and opens interoperability with Ethereum’s growing ecosystem.

Could Jovay Survive and Thrive in a Competitive Market?

Coinlive views Jovay as an ambitious bridge between traditional finance and Ethereum, but its success will depend on adoption beyond the pilot stage.

While the network promises high throughput, compliance, and enterprise-ready features, the low transaction count so far and the absence of a native token may limit immediate traction.

Jovay’s reliance on Ethereum and Chainlink positions it well for interoperability, but it faces competition from established L2 networks like Base, which already benefit from developer ecosystems and market familiarity.

The project’s real challenge will be translating technical capacity into sustained, large-scale financial activity while proving regulatory robustness across jurisdictions.