Ethereum, the second largest blockchain for a year, lives in the shadow of its competitors. Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Solana jumped at prices and dominated the conversation. ETH recently declined to a level below $1,500 in April amid criticism from investors and some community members.
However, on Monday, ETH rose 13% from the start of the year, with analysts pointing to many signs of a turning point for the project.
Some point out that ecosystem momentum has partially returned thanks to the explosion of settlement and tokenization at Ethereum.
“For agencies seeking exposure, Ethereum is a major on-chain option, leading real-world asset (RWA) tokenization with $7.8 billion of tokenized assets or nearly 60% of RWA’s market capitalization.”
According to GlassNode data, as of the beginning of July 2025, whales with addresses between 1,000 and 10,000 on ETH increased their token holdings. Collectively, they have around 14 million ETH units from about 12 million at the end of 2024.
Whale data held by ETH in July 2025 (GlassNode)
Vivek Raman, who has founded Etherealize and spends time talking to institutions that put ETH on the market as an asset class, believes that ETH should be considered a “valuable reservoir” like BTC, and that it should be compared to “digital oil.”
The Layer 2 ecosystem is an auxiliary blockchain above Ethereum used to trade faster and cheaper, and has emerged on a large scale over the past few years, and institutions are beginning to build with them. JP Morgan recently launched a proof of concept to tokenize deposits in Coinbase’s base chain, and retail giant Robin Hood shared plans to build its own Layer 2 with the Arbitrum stack. If it works, it can bring Ethereum technology to a wider mainstream audience and deepen its position as the backbone of a new generation of financial applications.
While some believe that Layer-2 networks are taking away value from the basic layers of Ethereum and cutting off the user experience more, Raman claims that institutions view them differently. According to Raman, the customizability of the Layer-2 network is a positive for these institutions.
“You’ll become a landlord and have access to Ethereum’s liquidity,” Raman said in an interview. “Therefore, validation of the L2 ecosystem is now quite undeniable.”
Messari’s Koch-Gallup believes that changes in protocols that enhance Ethereum’s scaling as a base layer will successfully locate the network for the future.
“A 100-1,000 times throughput jump will disrupt gas prices, reopen space for consumer-grade apps, and refute the story of “L2 eating L1,”” he said. “At the same time, larger blocks and more activity will return to base fee burns, tightening ETH supply during periods of high demand.”
Ethereum also benefits from the trends of the Ministry of Corporate Treasury, with more and more companies adopting ETH as a strategic financial asset. This shows a shift from traditional financial strategies often limited to cash and Bitcoin, for staking to generate yields, not just retaining, but also to something that leverages Ethereum’s staking rewards, programmerity, and integration into a stable ecosystem.
Sharplink Gaming, a crypto mining company for both Bitmine and Bitdigital, registered sports betting companies registered with NASDAQ, has all moved Crypto Treasury Strategies to this.
“Sharplink Gaming (SBET) saw the share price (up 412%) after announcing its ETH financial strategy. It showed that public companies holding ETH on their balance sheets have a clear market desire,” Koch-Gallup told Coindesk. The company is chaired by Joseph Rubin, one of the founders of Ethereum.
Recently, Bitmine, who was joined by Wall Street personality Tomley, also shared that she owns more than 300,000 ETHs in the Treasury Department.
“Collectively, these trends suggest a deeper reassessment of Ethereum’s institution not only as infrastructure but as assets worthy of a yielded balance sheet and a directional bet on the future of on-chain finance,” Koch-Gallup said.
Read more: Node: Is the ether returning from death?
