A tectonic shift is occurring in the cryptocurrency market. In my deep conviction, the current strengthening of Ethereum's (ETH) position is no longer driven by the chaotic actions of retail traders. Today, the development vector of this ecosystem is set by institutional giants from Wall Street. It is their large-scale infrastructure projects, not short-term speculation, that are shaping the new reality for the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization.
ETH is currently trading around $1,880, approximately 60% below its all-time high in 2025, when the price approached the $5,000 mark. However, I view this decline not as hitting a price ceiling, but as a fundamental transitional phase. Retail investors, succumbing to panic, are mass-locking in losses at the most inopportune moment, failing to grasp the scale of the changes underway.
Institutional Turn: From Speculation to the Real Economy
The first phase of Ethereum's development was driven by ICOs, NFTs, ETFs, and stablecoins — it was then that ETH twice approached $5,000. Now it is the turn of institutional players. Unlike the bear market of 2022, Wall Street today is not merely speculating but building full-fledged infrastructure on top of Ethereum.
BlackRock's BUIDL fund has already accumulated approximately $2.6 billion in tokenized Treasury bonds and this year received the highest money market fund rating from Moody's — Aaa-mf. JPMorgan has also joined the process: their MONY fund continues the tokenization work initiated through the Onyx platform back in 2020.
Nearly 6,000 developers are currently working on the EVM stack. According to Electric Capital, Ethereum ranks first in the number of new specialists, confirming its dominant position as a development platform.
Robinhood Chain: ETH Becomes Money
A key argument supporting my thesis is Robinhood Chain, launched on July 1st on Arbitrum. In just two weeks, the network ranked third among all blockchains in DEX trading volume — about $811 million per day. According to DefiLlama, during this period the network even surpassed Ethereum itself, although ETH later returned to second place, yielding to Base.
The total volume has already exceeded $1 billion. And here is what I draw attention to: ETH is used as the primary token for paying fees, all charges are denominated in ETH, and final settlements occur on Ethereum L1. This means ETH is transforming into real money — a medium of exchange for economic activity within an entire ecosystem.
Robinhood CEO Vladislav Tenev believes that any services operating through traditional infrastructure will eventually transition to an on-chain format. I draw a parallel with Amazon: after a long stagnation, the company's stock held at $6 (adjusted for splits) for 12 years — and only when the real market grew did the price rise to $241. It seems many are now desperately selling Ethereum at the very bottom.
Counterarguments and My Assessment
I acknowledge that the bearish scenario has its merits. ETH has twice failed to break through a key resistance level, and skeptics see no reason for a different outcome in this cycle. The economics of Robinhood Chain are not straightforward: the network pays almost no fees to the base Ethereum layer, and Artemis CEO John Ma notes that growth is currently driven by memecoins — institutional interest has not yet arrived here.
However, I remain a convinced bull. BitMine, where I serve as chairman, reported 5.77 million ETH in its latest weekly report — that is about 4.8% of the total supply of 120.7 million. If institutional investors adopt my viewpoint, I will be one of the primary beneficiaries. But it is not just about personal gain: we are witnessing the birth of a new monetary system, and Ethereum is its foundation.
My professional opinion: the current correction is not the end of the cycle, but its reset. Institutional capital is changing the rules of the game, and those selling ETH now risk missing one of the most significant bullish trends in cryptocurrency history.