if we ask you to name the most underwhelming crypto of this cycle chances are many of you would say ethereum and E price has struggled and sentiment around ethereum has been nothing short of abysmal as a result many eth holders are desperately hoping for a catalyst to revive their portfolios and if that’s you then good news etherealized an Institutional marketing firm dedicated to pitching ethereum to Wall Street might just be that Catalyst as institutions dip their toes into crypto the big question now is can etherealized convince them to take the plunge my name is Nick stay tuned now if you’ve been paying attention to the crypto Market of late you will have undoubtedly noticed eth’s price action or should I say a lack thereof while other large cap cryptos like bitcoin’s BTC and Sal’s soul all have rallied to new all-time highs ethereum’s eth has been left in the dust tell me why and there are several reasons for this underperformance but the most obvious of which is ethereum’s user experience transacting on ethereum is like riding in a limousine prestigious and packed with high-end features but struggling with heavy traffic and charging a hefty premium for the ride in other words ethereum is slow and expensive I making it impractical for the average user to combat this ethereum has a whole bunch of layer twos to help with this scalability and these l2s use various methods like optimistic rollups or zero knowledge proofs but this presents another problem ethereum has become much more complex and this added complexity creates an entry barrier for new users and this relates to another one of ethereum’s challenges which has been well competition namely from alternative layer ones like salana in contrast to ethereum’s low speeds High transaction fees and complexity salana has stolen The Show by being much faster cheaper and easier to use not only has this attracted new users but it’s also siphoned off new developer Talent case in point last year salana attracted more new developers than ethereum for the first time ever although we should note that ethereum still has more developers overall by a very wide margin but perhaps the biggest reason for ethereum’s underperformance is that it lacks a clear narrative for new investors to understand for instance bitcoin’s narrative is pretty simple it’s digital gold and this has helped the US spot Bitcoin ETFs gain so much traction and it’s why many people and institutions including the US government plan to hold BTC in their portfolios conversely ethereum’s is tougher to grasp it’s the global virtual computer powering Defi and smart contract applications H not as catchy as digital gold however what many people seem to forget is that ethereum remains a market leader for a very good reason not only does it have the most robust smart contracts in all of crypto but it’s also the most decentralized and secure layer one outside of Bitcoin and more important L it’s the most decentralized smart contract cryptocurrency on the market and this gives ethereum massive potential for a number of things especially tokenized real world assets or rwas and this is where the recently launched ethereal lie comes in it could put two and two together and unlock ethereum’s institutional adoption so what exactly is etherealized and why is it causing such a buzz before we get on is etherealized well in short etherealized is a new institutional marketing and development firm backed by the ethereum foundation and ethereum’s creator vitalic butan ethereal launched in January this year with a clear mission to drive institutional adoption of ethereum by making it the go-to blockchain for tokenizing real world assets or rwas it does this by offering a range of institutional grade products that facilitate this tokenization of rwas suspicious timing of that launch though just days after Pro crypto president Trump took office H probably nothing anywh who the team behind ethereal eyes is a big part of its potential success its co-founder and CEO VC Raman spent a decade on Wall Street so uh he knows a thing or two about how the suits think and what it will take to get them on board VI is joined by other co-founders Grant hmer formerly of chromatic capital and James fickle one of ethereum’s earliest investors together they’ve assembled a team of Trad five veterans and ethereum experts that have what it takes to bridge the two worlds in an interview with Laura Shin on the Unchained podcast VC explained that after leaving W Street in 2019 he happened to bump into a few key ethereum Foundation members the following year they taught him all about ethereum and needless to say VC was hooked he knew that he could be instrumental in bridging trafy and Defi and he was right etherealized tweeted that within 24 hours of launching quote the response from ethereum and tradire ecosystems has been nothing short of incredible players from the ethereum app layer the infr layers the l2s and from all parts of Wall Street reached out and want to help the VEC also confirmed in that Unchained episode that Wall Street has known about smart contract blockchains for years and that most banks are running clones of ethereum behind the scenes and these clones are essentially private evm compatible chains that are exclusively available to institutional investors the reason these institutions use private chains well uh privacy of course put simply institutions can’t sustainably benefit if they disrupt the market every time they make a move logically then the next step is moving from private to public blockchains and etherealized beliefs that ethereum’s layer to Solutions especially those with zero knowledge proofs will give institutions the privacy and scalability they need to make that jump and this is why part of ethereum’s offering includes ZK proof privacy to institutions and speaking of layer twos VC explained in that Unchained episode that because institutions are interested in maximizing profits l2s would be the ideal choice and that’s because running an L2 would provide them with extra revenue from the fees which also acrs value back to ethereum thec also EXP explain that ethereum and its layer twos would work to complement Banks rather than replace them basically everyone working at the bank gets to keep their jobs but everything becomes much more efficient behind the scenes and uh what’s not to love about that in any case ethereal lie is positioning itself as the ultimate Bridge the missing piece that finally unlocks ethereum’s institutional future now you may be wondering why etherealized is pitching e ium as the perfect solution for tokenized rwas after all there are plenty of other options out there for institutions to explore heck some blockchains like Ono Finance are specifically built with institutional rwas in mind and you can learn more about Ono Finance by checking out our recent video on that right over here anyway there are a number of reasons why ethereum is the ideal choice for one ethereum was the first first blockchain to introduce smart contracts which are essential for tokenization the first mover advantage means it’s the most battle tested and has also created a network effect that’s drawn in many users and developers who continue to innovate and since ethereum is now a proof of stake blockchain this means that security is maintained without the use of massive amounts of energy which would be a bad look for institutions that still prioritize ES G factors in their decision making ethereum also supports the Lion Share of the defi ecosystem with the majority of stable coins being on ethereum and this provides unparalleled liquidity for tokenized assets and allows rwas to be easily integrated into protocols for borrowing lending and even staking providing additional earning opportunities for investors not only that but ethereum also has a diverse range of token standards that allow for assets to be standardized in different ways for instance there’s erc20 which is the standard for most ethereum based tokens there’s also ERC 721 which is the token standard for nfts which is actually more relevant than you might think and that’s because the concepts for nfts and rwas go hand in hand since both essentially provide digital proof of ownership of a particular asset but the token standard that rarely stands out is ERC 3643 which is specifically designed for tokenized rwas this token standard ensures compliance by integrating ID verification measures like kyc and AML directly only approved addresses can hold or transfer these tokens to which makes them ideal for legal and institutional use there are also a few upcoming up updates to ethereum that will make the blockchain much more appealing specifically the Petra upgrade that aims to enhance the Network’s scalability security and user experience Petra will improve ethereum Security even further and will introduce account abstraction allowing users to pay gas fees with various tokens it will also increase the maximum validator stake from 32 eth to 248 eth which massively improves staking efficiency this means that institutions won’t need to spin up thousands of validator nodes to earn a yield on their eth and you can learn more about pectra and the faka upgrade that will follow it by checking out the video right over here in any case this means that ethereum is well positioned to be the market leader for institutional adoption and etherealized aims to make this dream a reality and given that a whoopin 86% of onchain rwas are already on ethereum there’s no question that this will be one of the most bullish catalysts in ethereum’s history now then etherealized focus on rwas begs the question of just how much potential this particular narrative has well in case it wasn’t already obvious the answer is lots in fact the rwa sector is expected to reach anywhere between 4 trillion and $30 trillion by 2030 that’s an insane amount by anyone On’s standard and that’s just for one sector and that’s because tokenizing rwas means much more than simply sticking something on chain for the sake of calling it a crypto asset instead tokenized rwas have the power to completely reshape the traditional asset landscape and what’s more is that this is something that asset managers like Black Rock are actively pushing for you see there’s a whole range of traditional assets that could benefit from blockchain integration among others these include things like stocks bonds real estate Fine Art and collectibles Commodities like gold or oil and even intellectual property by tokenizing them on chain these normally IL liquid assets suddenly become much more accessible and much more liquid and that’s because not only does crypto trade 24/7 but smart contract functionality also allows for things like fractional ownership so for example tokenizing real estate could allow investors to own fractions of a building which removes the need for large upfront capital and improves its accessibility and liquidity tokenized assets also benefit from enhanced security and transparency and investors in these assets can enjoy much faster settlement times and transaction speeds as we mentioned earlier integrating real world assets with smart contract functionality allows tokenized rwas to become Pro programmable this in turn allows for automatic Regulatory Compliance since kyc and AML requirements can be baked into the protocol and as if it wasn’t already cool enough institutions can even earn a yield on these assets by locking them into defi protocols now the potential that rwa provide is something that asset managers like BlackRock are hyper aware of which is why it has been leaning into this emerging niche in fact Black Rock has been going all in on crypto which is crazy when you consider that it’s the largest asset manager in the world not only did Black Rock push the SEC hard for spot Bitcoin ETFs to be approved but black Rock’s ey shares ETF is the largest Bitcoin ETF out there and not only that but black rock also created the Biddle fund on ethereum and Biddle stands for black Rock’s USD institutional digital liquidity for uh anyone wondering the thing is Black Rock isn’t the only institution exploring crypto uh for example JP Morgan launched its own private blockchain called Onyx which has since rebranded to Conexus the mega Bank also has its own private dollar pegged stable coin for institutional investors called JPM coin elsewhere Franklin Templeton has its own onchain US government money market fund called foobox which provides investors with access to government securities Franklin Templeton is also a node operator for multiple blockchains including ethereum polka do cardano and salana among others even the CEO of Bank of America Brian moan has said that the bank is eager to explore tokenized real world assets if regulations improve which given how proc crypto the current US Administration is is incredibly likely and not only that but the bank holds over 80 blockchain related p now with all that in mind it’s easy to see how etherealized can educate other institutions and onboard them into ethereum all the VEC and Co need to do is point to these institutions as industry leaders who have adopted blockchain technology and they’ll quickly see there’s a clear market demand of course as this regulatory backdrop becomes less hostile and more embracing the easier this pitch will be and one these institutions feel the inevitable fomo etheral lie will be there to provide a suite of products and services to help them create blockchain products of their own whether it’s their own tokenized assets or even their own layer to blockchains now then all of this leads us to the big question if etherealized is successful in getting institutions to adopt ethereum for tokenized rwas what would this mean for ethereum eum and E price well the first thing that would happen is ethereum would see a massive surge in network usage as more institutions begin to adopt ethereum to tokenize and trade rwas this would result in much higher transaction volumes and more eth being burned as a result it could even push eth back to being a deflationary asset which would be seriously bullish this adoption would also add further legitimacy to the ethereum ecosystem and would be a turning point for sentiment which we don’t need to remind you is at rock bottom right now as this starts to improve it would attract more users developers and projects to the ecosystem this would have the KnockOn effect of creating more possibilities for Innovation pushing ethereum even further ahead of the pack as for eth’s price it’s pretty self-explanatory the massive increase in demand for rwas on ethereum would also mean a massive increase in demand for eth both for transaction fees and for use in defi protocols never mind the Revival in eth speculation obviously this would be a huge Boon for eth’s Price which at the time of Shootin is clearly lacking a key demand driver the thing is the chart doesn’t always tell the full story if you watched our recent summary of coinbase and glass nodes report you’ll know that multiple data points points suggest that eth is like a coiled Spring right now for instance the spot ethereum ETF saw a massive spike in AUM in Q4 ending the year with more inflows than outflows and this suggests that institutions are becoming more excited about ethereum since Trump’s election Victory and there are also record levels of eth a bean State and there’s growing total value of eth being locked in def5 protocols and you you can find out more about all of that in this video right over here now it’s pretty clear that ethereal lie will be a key driver for ethereum’s Success sure things are rough right now but in our view ethereal lie could change this and eth could be about to recover as a result here’s hoping of course okay folks if you enjoyed this video then check out our latest one right over here and if you’re not subscribed to the channel yet you can do that right over here that’s me for now thank you very much for watching and I’ll see you again soon
