Written by @AdrianoFeria
Translation: Blockchain in Vernacular
The story behind Deutsche Bank’s recent announcement of adopting Ethereum Layer2 is not just that it has begun to embrace Ethereum, but more importantly, this move is part of Singapore’s “Project Guardian” initiative.
While the media has generally focused on Ethereum’s technology, it is rarely mentioned that Project Guardian unites policymakers and major industry players to jointly shape the direction of tokenization and the digital asset market. This means that Deutsche Bank’s involvement in Ethereum L2 is not an isolated attempt, but part of a global push for secure and compliant blockchain solutions to enter the core of traditional finance.
In Project Guardian, there are primarily two working groups:
First is the policymakers group, which includes the Monetary Authority of Singapore, the Bank of France, and even the International Monetary Fund (IMF). They are responsible for setting standards and legal frameworks to ensure that digital asset systems are transparent, trustworthy, and compliant globally.
Next is the industry participants group, which includes 27 financial giants such as Deutsche Bank, HSBC, S&P Global, Moody's, OCBC Bank, Fidelity, DBS Bank, JPMorgan, Citibank, UBS, Standard Chartered Bank, Franklin Templeton, T. Rowe Price, and BNY Mellon. This group provides funding, infrastructure, and technical support to translate these policy frameworks into practical market solutions.
These two groups are jointly formulating a blueprint for large-scale blockchain applications for future compliance.
It is worth noting that the regulatory compliance requirements needed by these institutions cannot be met by any single Layer 1 blockchain. For institutions requiring strict regulation and interoperability, the choice is either to build a private permissioned Layer 1 chain or to use Ethereum's L2 ecosystem.
Ethereum's L2 framework has many advantages, which I have detailed in my recent article (Ethereum Settlement Summit), including Ethereum's reliable trust, powerful development tools, the ability to flexibly adjust performance and data availability to meet enterprise needs, and the opportunity to access the world's largest and most liquid crypto economy, which currently supports over $120 billion in stablecoin circulation (accounting for over 60% of the global crypto market's stablecoin supply).
Now Deutsche Bank joins this global collaboration, and more members of Project Guardian are expected to follow. We can foresee that these institutions will launch Ethereum-based L2 solutions and stablecoins, further solidifying Ethereum's position as the compliance settlement layer for the world's largest financial and technology enterprises.
In other words, on the surface, it seems like a company is accessing Ethereum, but in reality, this is a signal indicating that a global ecosystem composed of policymakers and industry leaders is focusing on Ethereum's L2 infrastructure and viewing it as the best path forward for the future.
