The traditional finance (TradFi) sector is rapidly expanding its reach into Web3 by introducing DeFi features for its customers, integrating innovative financial instruments such as tokenized stocks, launching proprietary Layer 2 networks, and offering crypto staking services. Web3 companies are integrating TradFi services with a decentralized twist, such as the Financial Information eXchange (FIX) protocol, stocks, and CFD trading. The intersection of traditional financial products with Web3 functionalities and DeFi is opening a new market segment that offers 24/7 access to a suite of innovative financial services. TradFi institutions want a share of crypto’s non-stop action, and they are integrating blockchain technology to achieve their goals.
Web3 is tremendously compute-hungry, especially given the growing trend of leveraging AI in DeFi platforms and apps, as well as incorporating AI-agentic workflows. Such integrations require a scalable and reliable GPU computing backbone. The combination of TradFi’s robust financial ecosystems and Web3’s decentralized blockchain approach is creating a new market segment for cloud computing. Millions of TradFi users are entering the Web3 era, and enterprises need versatile cloud computing infrastructure to support these users.
TradFi's adoption of Web3 means an increasing demand for premium GPU computing. As financial giants dive into Web3, decentralized infrastructure like Aethir’s becomes foundational in providing compute for the onboarding of new enterprises into Web3. When TradFi meets Web3, decentralized cloud computing is required to power innovative use cases such as real-world asset (RWA) tokenization, fractional ownership, 24/7 trading, financial dApps, and on-chain AI trading.
Why Traditional Finance Is Rushing Into Web3
The convergence of TradFi and Web3 stems from growing user demand for versatile financial services that are available 24/7, which is a feature that only Web3 platforms offer. Millions of users are demanding constant access to global markets, fractional ownership, and asset interoperability. The trend of tokenizing real-world assets (RWAs), which enables liquidity and access to fractionalized assets, is on a rapid growth trajectory.
Traditional financial systems are plagued by slow settlement times, rigid access control, limited trading hours, and can no longer meet the needs of an always-online, globally distributed market. Consumers and institutions alike now demand fractionalized access to assets like stocks, real estate, and commodities. Instead of purchasing 100% of a specific asset, stakeholders want to buy a percentage of an underlying asset by purchasing a digitalized representation of said asset, based on blockchain technology.
By integrating Web3 decentralization and blockchain technology with TradFi services, users gain access to digital ownership that’s transparent, auditable, and interoperable. Such integrations also introduce composability with other applications, including DeFi, AI, and identity layers. Tokenization enables stakeholders to facilitate traditional assets (stocks, ETFs, bonds) as digital tokens on a blockchain, thus circumventing the limitations of conventional financial institutions.
This shift is a logical consequence of the rise of digitally native users and fintech competition. With the global expansion of Web3 solutions, empowered by AI functionalities, the TradFi sector is realizing that it needs to evolve and integrate these innovative technologies to keep in line with user demands.
Real-World Examples of TradFi and Web3 Integration
Several major Web3 companies and TradFi players have announced integrated services over the last couple of weeks, marking significant moves that bring TradFi asset classes into the Web3 era.
Robinhood’s Tokenized Equities
Robinhood announced a full-scale expansion of its crypto suite, including stock and ETF tokens, a Layer-2 blockchain, staking, and perpetual futures, available in both the EU and the U.S. Their 200+ tokenized U.S. equities enable retail users to access traditional assets through the blockchain, allowing for programmable trading, instant settlement, and even DeFi-like yield strategies. Through innovative product launches, Web3 users are gaining access to traditional stocks such as NVIDIA, Tesla, and Amazon, but tokenized and on-chain.
Chainlink and Mastercard’s Integration
Chainlink, the largest decentralized blockchain oracle network, recently partnered with Mastercard to allow cardholders to purchase cryptocurrencies directly on-chain. The service is expected to reach over 3 billion Mastercard cardholders through an integration with the Uniswap decentralized crypto exchange platform. This integration represents a significant bridge between TradFi and Web3, enabling everyday card users to gain access to digital currencies in a frictionless manner.
Bybit’s FX & CFD Launch
ByBit, one of the leading global centralized cryptocurrency exchanges, is expanding its services to include traditional financial assets, upgraded to meet the standards of the decentralized Web3 era. The platform launched FX and CFDs trading, offering trading access to the world’s five largest markets: Gold, Indices, Commodities, Forex, and Stocks CFDs.
Apex Acquires Tokeny
In the tokenization sector, Apex, a major financial player with over $3 trillion in assets under management, acquired Tokeny, a leading real-world asset tokenization platform. This move signals major TradFi interest in RWA services as a new, Web3-powered financial frontier.
All of these TradFi and Web3 integrations are contributing to the mass adoption of blockchain technology by onboarding millions of users into crypto and NFT-powered platforms, and they need vast amounts of reliable decentralized cloud computing to succeed.
The Infrastructure Bottleneck: Centralized vs. Decentralized Clouds
Traditional finance systems are accustomed to processing billions of dollars across highly optimized, proprietary, and centralized infrastructure. Conventional financial institutions usually own their infrastructure. Web3, however, relies on decentralized networks where compute, storage and throughput are often fragmented and distributed globally, without centralized control. Bridging these two worlds at scale demands a new generation of infrastructure that’s secure, efficient, decentralized, and purpose-built for intensive workloads.
The intersection of TradFi and Web3 has the potential to onboard hundreds of millions of users into decentralized finance in the coming years. Still, centralized cloud providers can’t handle this kind of user influx. Web3 applications, such as DEXs, tokenized stock platforms, and perpetual futures, all require low latency and high throughput to support new users. Furthermore, platforms use GPU-heavy workloads for real-time asset trading and AI-enhanced user experiences.
Centralized cloud providers that utilize hyperscale data centers often struggle with low GPU utilization rates and limited scalability. They charge hefty service fees and struggle to keep up with the massive expansion of their user base in real-time. Decentralized cloud computing solves these issues by distributing GPU resources globally and servicing clients with the physically closest available computing infrastructure.
Aethir’s decentralized GPU cloud brings compute closer to users and dynamically assigns additional GPU resources from our global pool of Cloud Hosts when needed. Our decentralized cloud computing infrastructure provides the scalability and reliability necessary for next-generation financial dApps, offering elastic performance under institutional loads.
Aethir’s Role in Powering the Next-Gen Financial Stack
Unlike centralized cloud providers, which concentrate compute resources in hyperscale data centers, Aethir’s GPU infrastructure is globally distributed across numerous locations in 94 countries worldwide. We don’t just provide efficient GPU computing in regional capitals. Our decentralized GPU cloud infrastructure spans the entire network, enabling us to reach users efficiently everywhere. Aethir’s decentralized GPU cloud channels processing power directly to our clients from our closest, available GPU Containers. We have over 430,000 high-performance GPU Containers in our decentralized GPU cloud, with many Cloud Hosts contributing premium GPUs, such as NVIDIA H200s and GB200s, for advanced enterprise AI workloads.
Aethir’s decentralized cloud computing network has the expertise and resources to power the convergence of Web3 and TradFi with premium, secure, and scalable computing power. Our decentralized GPU cloud can seamlessly power key trending use cases, from tokenization to real-time AI analysis.
Tokenized Asset Trading
Tokenized stocks, commodities, and real estate need robust infrastructure to process transactions, sync with off-chain data, and ensure regulatory compliance. Aethir’s architecture can support these workloads with decentralized GPU cloud computing, enabling smart contract execution without compromising speed or cost.
AI-enhanced Trading & KYC
As financial apps adopt AI tools for market prediction, fraud detection, and identity verification, GPU-backed infrastructure becomes non-negotiable. Aethir’s decentralized cloud computing network supports scalable AI inference workloads directly on-chain with our Web3-native computing services.
Perpetual Futures and Risk Management
Platforms offering perpetual contracts and advanced trading tools require real-time price feeds, margin calculations, and liquidation triggers to ensure seamless trading operations. These processes can benefit from Aethir’s decentralized GPU cloud services, ensuring reliability even under heavy volume spikes.
What Comes Next for the Decentralized Future of Finance
By merging popular TradFi products with decentralized Web3 operating mechanics, millions of users are gaining access to a broader range of financial instruments that were previously reserved for traditional markets such as stock exchanges. Major TradFi and Web3 players are realizing the potential of merging these two sectors to create financial powerhouses that provide access to a wide range of assets, including cryptocurrencies, stocks, commodities, and more.
The convergence of TradFi and Web3 is not a temporary trend. It’s changing both industries, and it’s here to stay. In the next phase of this future-shaping integration, we can expect AI functionalities within trading interfaces, tokenized treasuries, and commodities as DeFi collateral, composability between traditional assets and synthetic crypto assets, as well as
AI-powered personal financial agents.
Such innovations are GPU-heavy and require reliable local processing at the network’s edge, and not just in regional capitals. Aethir’s GPU cloud is designed to support enterprise-grade workloads with cost-effective decentralized cloud computing services in a frictionless, highly scalable way. Aethir’s infrastructure will be key in ensuring that these new TradFi-integrated Web3 systems scale sustainably.
Explore Aethir’s official blog to learn more about our enterprise-grade GPU-as-a-service offering.
FAQs
What is TradFi in crypto?
TradFi in crypto refers to the integration of traditional financial assets and instruments into the cryptocurrency sphere, including tokenized assets, RWA, stocks, commodities, CFDs, and more.
How does tokenization benefit traditional assets?
Through tokenization, real-world assets (RWAs) can be digitally represented in the form of crypto tokens and NFTs, providing companies and individuals with fractional ownership options for otherwise illiquid assets.
Why do Web3 financial apps require GPUs?
Blockchain technology, data storage, and app operation require reliable computing support. High-end GPUs can support these workloads, empowering enterprises with the scalability needed to expand their businesses. Aethir’s decentralized GPU cloud specializes in supporting enterprise-grade workloads with reliable GPU computing.
What makes decentralized cloud computing different from AWS?
Decentralized cloud computing utilizes a distributed network of GPUs, maintained by independent compute providers known as Cloud Hosts, within Aethir’s decentralized cloud computing ecosystem. Instead of concentrating GPUs in hyperscale data centers, our decentralized GPU cloud is distributed worldwide, allowing us to efficiently service clients cost-effectively, regardless of their location.
How can Aethir support AI-driven trading workloads?
Aethir can support AI-enhanced DeFi platforms with premium GPU computing, which is required to ensure the smooth functioning of such platforms, as they are known for their GPU-intensive workloads that leverage AI functionalities. Our decentralized GPU cloud specializes in providing enterprise-grade computing services for AI tasks.
