The Espresso Network
Espresso Systems builds infrastructure for institutions to define and manage financial systems on blockchain technology - without sacrificing control, performance, or interoperability.
The Espresso Network is a decentralized settlement layer for institutions and application developers building onchain financial systems. It provides fast finality, scalable throughput, configurable execution environments, and secure interoperability across blockchain ecosystems.
With Espresso, organizations can build dedicated financial applications, from tokenized assets and payment networks to privacy-preserving settlement workflows, without giving up control over their execution environment or connectivity to the broader onchain ecosystem.
Espresso Systems is the lead developer of the Espresso Network.
Espresso is built around three core principles:
Performance: fast finality and scalable throughput for real-world financial workflows
Control: configurable execution environments for compliance, fees, ordering, asset support, and application logic
Secure interoperability: decentralized Proof of Stake consensus that reduces reliance on trusted intermediaries
Ready to connect with Espresso? Talk to the team →
Digitizing Financial Infrastructure
Institutions moving financial assets onchain often face a tradeoff. Public blockchains offer liquidity and interoperability, but limit control and predictability. Private blockchains preserve control, but create fragmentation and reduce access to the broader ecosystem.
Espresso resolves this. Espresso for Enterprise →
Espresso for Enterprise
For institutions digitizing assets, payments, and financial infrastructure. Run dedicated environments on your own rules, settled by a decentralized validator network and connected to onchain liquidity.
The future of financial infrastructure is multichain - no single chain can power global markets on its own. Espresso is designed as a fast settlement layer for interoperable chains, letting them scale in parallel while sharing a common finality layer.
Enterprise deployments on Espresso get:
Sovereign environments: dedicated execution with custom rules for fees, ordering, compliance, and asset support
Shared finality: a common finality layer that coordinates state across systems in seconds or less
Liquidity access: designed to connect dedicated environments to onchain markets through secure interoperability
Security by consensus: reduced reliance on trusted intermediaries through decentralized Proof of Stake finality
This matters for use cases like real-time collateral management and margin monitoring, where reliable decisions require a unified view of positions across systems. That view must come from strong shared finality, not offchain aggregation alone - Espresso provides this foundation.
See institutional deployments in action → Example Solutions.
Example Solutions
Espresso is designed to support institutional applications such as stablecoins, tokenized assets, and payment networks.
Stablecoin Issuance
A stablecoin that behaves like a traditional fintech payment platform, with blockchain settlement underneath.
Dedicated execution environment: an application-specific environment with custom rules and settlement through Espresso.
Integrated routing: spend across DeFi on any chain without managing gas on Ethereum or bridge mechanics
Gas abstraction: end users never interact with blockchain fees
Modern stablecoins are more than IOUs, they operate as full applications, similar to fintech platforms like PayPal. USDC, for example, combines fast cross-chain movement, unified balance views (USDC Gateway), and seamless DeFi interaction. Espresso provides the full infrastructure stack to deliver this experience as a dedicated product.
Asset Tokenization & RWA
Tokenized assets on a high-performance, customizable chain with full compliance controls, interoperable with the broader blockchain ecosystem.
Dedicated infrastructure: institutions retain control over issuance rules and compliance requirements
DeFi-compatible: tokenized assets can be listed, traded, and used as collateral across DeFi
End-to-end stack: chain deployment, custody integration, cross-chain connectivity, and distribution to trading venues
Payment Service Provider Chains
A turnkey chain for enterprises building onchain payment networks: neobanks, payment processors, and fintech platforms.
Unified settlement: users see a single balance and express simple intents like "send $50 to Alice" or "deposit $50,000 into Aave for yield"
Custom fee models: flat, percentage-based, or zero, aligned with existing pricing structures
Production UX: gas abstraction and spam filtering for end users, cross-chain connectivity for the platform
This mirrors what Stripe is building with Tempo - but as an open platform institutions can customize and run on their own infrastructure.
Espresso for Chains
For teams building dedicated chains across payments, consumer apps, DeFi, and app-specific deployments. Get settlement, security, and cross-chain connectivity out of the box.
Chains built on Espresso get:
Control: a dedicated environment built around your own requirements
Configurability: design the system around the product, not the other way around
Connectivity: native interoperability with every other chain on Espresso
Performance: sub-second confirmations on a decentralized validator set
Learn how chains build on Espresso → Custom Chain Infrastructure.
How to Work With Espresso
Each environment is fully customizable - fees, transaction ordering, VM extensions, compliance controls - while benefiting from the security of Espresso's validator network and connectivity to the broader blockchain ecosystem. Organizations can build directly on the Espresso Network or have systems deployed and managed by Espresso Systems.
The network's roadmap targets sub-second finality and throughput scaling to millions of transactions per second, with use cases like cross-chain collateral management already demoed live at Digital Assets Summit 2026.
Exploring asset digitization, digital payments, or tokenized financial products? Talk to the team →
About
Espresso Systems was founded in 2021 by Ben Fisch, Benedikt Bünz, Charles Lu, and Jill Gunter, and is backed by more than $50 million from Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital, Greylock Partners, Paxos, Gemini, and Coinbase Ventures.
The network is used by Offchain Labs (Arbitrum), Celo (Valora, MiniPay), Yuga Labs (ApeChain), Bitget (Morph Chain), Rarible (Rari Chain), and Litecoin (LitVM).
Last updated