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Ant Group (the $200B Alibaba fintech giant behind Alipay’s 1.4 billion users and $21.3 trillion in annual transactions) launched Jovay Network, a high-performance Ethereum Layer 2 solution. [NEWS]

The goal? to reposition the company as a global, regulation-aligned fintech and blockchain infrastructure provider.

Backdrop: Ant’s IPO was derailed by China’s crackdown on fintech risk and Jack Ma’s criticism of regulators. It was forced to restructure into a financial holding company from a high-margin consumer lending model.

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What Happened

Jovay emerges as a pivotal infrastructure connecting regulated, high-volume Web2 finance to Ethereum’s secure, liquid public ecosystem. By adopting Ethereum over its proprietary AntChain, Ant Group signals that L2 scaling is now the enterprise-grade foundation for international finance.

  • Technological edge: Hybrid ZK + TEE architecture ensures cryptographic verifiability and compliance-grade data privacy

  • Massive scale: Designed for 100,000 TPS, Jovay can handle Alipay’s 1.4B users

  • Geopolitical alignment: Serves as a compliant offshore gateway, leveraging jurisdictions like Hong Kong

  • Functional innovation: Intelligent Agent Contracts (IACs) combine AI and blockchain to create autonomous, dynamic financial instruments