• Ethereum supporters explained why the network is going through its "internet moment."
• In a study on the future of blockchain infrastructure, the authors drew parallels between Ethereum, the open internet and Linux.
• In their view, the history of technology shows that open and neutral platforms ultimately displace closed corporate solutions.

Ethereum found itself at the center of one of the crypto market's most important debates. In particular, Etherealize co-founder Vivek Raman stated:

"Ethereum is the internet moment for the global financial system."

Ethereum supporters compare it to the internet

zkSync founder Alex Gluchowski stated that Ethereum remains the only neutral infrastructure on which competing financial giants can coexist.

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"Stripe wants everything to happen on Tempo, JP Morgan wants everything to happen on JP Morgan Chain, Circle wants everything to happen on Arc, and so on. They will never agree. Major players will never agree to build on the infrastructure of another major player. That is exactly why Ethereum is the only option," he noted.

The authors of the study note that a similar situation was already observed in the mid-1990s, when most technology companies were convinced that the future belonged to closed corporate networks. At the time, many experts believed that e-commerce would run through the proprietary platforms of Microsoft, Oracle and other technology giants, rather than through the open internet.

However, in the end it was precisely the open model that won. A similar story played out with Linux, which gradually displaced expensive corporate Unix systems thanks to thousands of independent developers who could freely improve the software.

Ethereum supporters believe that the blockchain is repeating this path. Unlike corporate networks, any developer can create applications, standards or financial products without obtaining permission from a central organization. This is exactly how the ERC-20 and ERC-721 standards once appeared, becoming the foundation for stablecoins, NFTs and thousands of crypto projects.

Uniswap is often cited as a telling example. The world's largest decentralized exchange in fact grew out of a concept proposed by Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, after which engineer Hayden Adams implemented it without the support of major financial structures or venture corporations.

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At the heart of this model lies the concept of "credible neutrality," popularized by Buterin himself. It assumes that the network's rules are transparent to all participants, are applied equally to every user, and cannot be arbitrarily changed by a single company or government.

According to Ethereum supporters, it is precisely this property that makes the network attractive to international business and financial institutions. While a corporate blockchain always has an owner who can potentially change the rules of the game, Ethereum is positioned as an independent global infrastructure.

As an additional argument, they cite the failures of a number of major banking blockchain projects. In particular, between 2017 and 2022, initiatives such as We.trade, Marco Polo and Contour, which were backed by dozens of international banks, ceased operations or were shut down. 

Also, in 2022 the Australian Securities Exchange abandoned a large-scale project to modernize its infrastructure on a private blockchain after many years of development and significant costs.

Against this backdrop, Ethereum continued to develop, retaining its status as the largest platform for decentralized finance, asset tokenization and smart contracts. According to Token Terminal, Ethereum controls:

• 79% of active DeFi loans among the largest blockchains;
• 62% of the stablecoin market;
• 73% of tokenized funds;
• 84% of tokenized commodity assets.

Among the major companies that use Ethereum's infrastructure, Coinbase, Robinhood, BlackRock, JPMorgan, Aave, Maker and Maple are also named.

Institutions use Ethereum, but are they buying the asset?

Despite the development of the ecosystem, debates continue around the investment appeal of the second-largest cryptocurrency by capitalization.

The analyst Evas drew attention to a paradoxical situation. According to him, major financial institutions are actively entering the Ethereum ecosystem but are in no hurry to accumulate the token itself.

Among the latest examples, he cited:

• more than $2 billion of BlackRock assets in the BUIDL fund;
• a partnership between Janus Henderson and Ethena in the field of tokenized CLOs;
• Morpho's raising of $175 million in the largest funding round in DeFi history.

At the same time, the analyst emphasized:

"Capital is flowing into synthetic dollars, tokenized Treasury bonds and protocol equity, completely bypassing Ethereum as an asset."

In his opinion, the thesis that ETF products will automatically become a driver of Ethereum's growth is not yet confirmed by the market.

At the same time, other market participants see the current weakness as an opportunity for accumulation.

According to Lookonchain, the investment company K3 Capital withdrew 10,000 ETH from Binance worth about $16.9 million. Also, a wallet linked to entrepreneur Chun Wang additionally withdrew 7,650 ETH worth almost $13 million.

In contrast to this, BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes incurred losses during short-term operations with Ethereum. According to analysts, over the course of four days he accumulated 5,900 ETH at an average price of $1,793, and then sold 6,000 ETH at $1,690, locking in a loss of approximately $606,000.

Banks forecast growth, but risks remain

Standard Chartered analysts believe that the market underestimates Ethereum's fundamental condition. The bank compared the current situation to Amazon after the dot-com crash in 2001. The experts allow for a potential 20-fold increase in the asset over the long term and forecast a possible reach of the $40,000 mark.

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Market sentiment may additionally support the recovery scenario. Santiment stated that Ethereum has entered the so-called "fear zone." The share of negative mentions of the asset on social networks reached one of the highest levels this year, which historically has often preceded a trend reversal.

Another important signal was the record open interest in Ethereum futures on Binance. According to CryptoQuant, the figure reached almost 3.7 million ETH, and the exchange's share of the derivatives market exceeded 44%.

However, not all assessments remain optimistic. Former Ethereum Foundation employee Trent Van Epps warned of a potential ecosystem funding crisis. According to him, over the next 3-9 months the protocol's development may face a shortage of stable funding sources, which will require new governance mechanisms and support for developers.

Source: Incrypted