Feb. 3 at 4:23 PM
$ETHA 1. The Core Thesis: Ethereum as a “Financial Toll Road”
Institutional research—especially BlackRock’s 2026 Thematic Outlook—frames Ethereum not as a speculative asset but as core financial infrastructure.
The business case rests on three pillars:
A. Settlement Layer for Tokenized Assets
• Over 65% of tokenized real‑world assets (RWAs) currently reside on Ethereum.
• Ethereum is the default base layer for bridging traditional finance and blockchain.
B. Massive Stablecoin Settlement Volume
• Q4 2025 saw
$8 trillion in stablecoin volume on Ethereum—used for cross‑border payments, liquidity management, and DeFi.
C. Institutional & Regulatory Alignment
• Regulatory frameworks like the GENIUS Act (2025) strengthened Ethereum’s credibility as a compliant settlement layer.
• BlackRock’s BUIDL fund and other institutional tokenization pilots increasingly settle on Ethereum. 1/5