Invest in the build: the financial infrastructure Germany can still own

Germany missed an infrastructure transition. That's not an accusation – it's a recognised fact. Slow broadband connections, stalled digitalisation, missed opportunities in building digital infrastructure. Wolfgang Münchau describes it aptly¹: whilst other countries built the digital foundations, Germany waited for perfect conditions.

Today, new infrastructure is emerging – and this time the window is still open. Financial infrastructure is being rebuilt. Deutsche Bank, Visa, Circle – they're all already building here.

The difference from past waves: this infrastructure is directly ownable. Not the applications. The infrastructure itself.

Recognising the pattern

Every infrastructure cycle follows the same pattern. The layer is built before it's widely owned. It happened with internet protocols in the 1990s. It happened with cloud computing in the 2010s. Financial infrastructure is following the same logic.

Historically, the highest returns have tended to come during the build-out. Investors who recognised this pattern early – buying Cisco shares, gaining AWS exposure – captured the infrastructure premium.

Blockchain settlement infrastructure is in precisely this phase. No longer speculation, but infrastructure in production.

The new financial infrastructure

Traditional financial infrastructure operates like a complex postal system. When you send a payment from Frankfurt to Munich, it doesn't travel directly. It moves through multiple intermediaries: your bank, correspondent banks, clearing houses, and settlement networks. Each step adds time, cost, and counterparty risk. The system works, but requires trust in multiple institutions and operates only during business hours.

Think of it like sending a letter that must pass through several post offices, each checking and stamping it, before reaching its destination. Each office charges a fee, introduces delay, and could potentially lose your letter.

Millions of transactions daily, hundreds of billions of euros secured

Blockchain financial infrastructure operates more like email – direct, programmable, and available 24/7. When you execute a transaction on Ethereum, it settles directly between parties through self-executing smart contracts. No intermediaries required. No business hours. No manual reconciliation.

Consider this: Ethereum processes over 2.3 million transactions daily², each one a programmable financial contract that executes automatically. This is not a theoretical capacity but the current production volume.

Whilst others still debate 'crypto as future technology', the reality is already here. €279 billion is locked in Ethereum smart contracts³. This represents real value being secured and managed by code rather than traditional institutions.

Visa is testing stablecoin settlement. PayPal processes payments. Deutsche Bank builds on these systems. They've already completed their infrastructure assessment. These systems are already functioning.

But this isn't just about payments. Blockchain infrastructure enables programmable finance, money with built-in logic. Imagine contracts that automatically execute when conditions are met, loans that adjust interest rates based on real-time data, or insurance that pays out automatically when claims are triggered.

Traditional finance requires armies of back-office staff to reconcile transactions, verify compliance, and manage settlements. Blockchain infrastructure does this automatically, transparently, and continuously.

One good analogy: traditional finance is like manually operated switchboards, where human operators connect calls. Blockchain finance is like direct-dial telephone systems: automated, faster, and available around the clock.

Who will own this infrastructure?

This infrastructure layer is being built and proven whilst institutional adoption remains early. Usage is growing significantly, but most institutions haven't yet allocated to the infrastructure itself because they're still evaluating it. This gap between working infrastructure and widespread ownership represents the investment window. Infrastructure investors understand this pattern: 5G networks in 2013, not 2023. The infrastructure works demonstrably. The growth is just beginning.

German infrastructure intelligence

German infrastructure investors understand timing and valuation. They invest during the build-out phase to capture growth, not after maturity to collect dividends. They find the invisible layer that makes an industry work, and they own it.

The type of investor who bought ASML instead of Apple. Infineon instead of Tesla. They weren't seeking the end product but the enabling infrastructure.

This exact pattern is now showing in financial infrastructure. What ASML is to semiconductors, what the Autobahn means to mobility, and what Xetra delivers for capital markets, that's what Ethereum, Solana and Hyperliquid are to the financial world.

Three layers, one system

The settlement layer: Ethereum

The foundational layer where value is secured and contracts are executed. The bedrock of digital finance. €279 billion total value locked, as of April 2026. Deutsche Bank, Visa, PayPal build upon it. Ethereum is to DeFi what ASML is to semiconductors – invisible to the user, indispensable to everyone building on top.

The throughput layer: Solana

The high-throughput highway that processes the volume. Speed and capacity as infrastructure value. When Visa piloted stablecoin settlement, they chose Solana for throughput.

The trading infrastructure layer: Hyperliquid

The exchange layer on top of the infrastructure. Where price discovery and liquidity live. The Xetra of DeFi. $2.8 trillion cumulative notional trading volume since its creation³. Fully on-chain order book. Direction-agnostic revenue model – like Nasdaq, it earns on every trade regardless of direction.

The investment window

Usage is growing significantly. Institutional penetration is still early. The infrastructure is proven to work – remember, €279 billion are secured in Ethereum alone – but we're early in the adoption curve.

This gap between working infrastructure and full adoption is the opportunity. Infrastructure investors recognise this pattern: 5G in 2013, not 2023. The infrastructure works demonstrably. The growth is just beginning.

That's the investment window.

Why now?

Unlike platform economies that were captured by US tech giants, this infrastructure is open and ownable. Anyone can participate as a builder, as a user, or as an investor.

Germany has structural advantages for this allocation:

• After 1-year holding period, tax-free gains: a structural incentive for long-term positioning (subject to individual circumstances and applicable tax law at the time of disposal)

•  Institutional access since 2020: established regulatory framework

• Growing crypto adoption: positive trends across demographics

• €2.5 billion net inflows in 2025⁵:  momentum is accelerating

This market is optimising allocations, not discovering Bitcoin. The question isn't whether to invest in crypto, we are way past this moment; the question is how to own the infrastructure during its build-out phase.

Also, remember that investing in crypto-assets involves a high degree of risk. The value of crypto-assets can fluctuate significantly, you may lose all of the capital invested, and past performance and market analogies are not a reliable indicator of future results. 

This time is different

This time Germany can own the infrastructure whilst it's being built. This time the investment window is still open. This time the infrastructure is directly accessible: no intermediaries, no gatekeeping, no closed doors. Valuation frameworks exist. The institutional validation is present.

Ethereum. Solana. Hyperliquid. Three layers. One system. The same opportunity.

^{1 Kaput: The End of the German Miracle, 2024}

^{2 Token Terminal, April 2026}

^{3 Token Terminal, April 2026}

^{4 Token Terminal, April 2026}

^{5 Bloomberg, January 2026}