Written by: Isabelle Lee, Muyao Shen, Bloomberg
Translated by: Saoirse, Foresight News
Original Title: Ethereum Giants Invest Billions to Invade Wall Street: A Game of a New Financial Order
Translator's Preface: As ETH surges 75% since June to near historical highs, a capital feast around Ethereum is quietly spreading to Wall Street. In the ancient bank halls of Manhattan, cryptocurrency advocates are proclaiming the arrival of a new financial era - this time, the protagonist is not Bitcoin, but Ethereum, viewed as a "programmable ledger". From enterprises holding over $6 billion in ETH to institutions attempting to incorporate it into mainstream financial products, capital is betting that Ethereum is not just a speculative tool, but potentially the core infrastructure connecting Wall Street with new technology. Behind this "lock-up race" is a struggle for the future financial order and another assault by cryptocurrency on the traditional financial system.
Last week, this gathering in the grand hall of the Chipiani 42nd Street Hotel in Manhattan was being imbued with special significance by cryptocurrency supporters. Under marble columns and crystal chandeliers, they declared that a brand new financial era beyond Bitcoin had arrived.
On August 12, 2025, at the "NextFin NYC" event, part of the "Ethereum NYC 2025" conference series. Photo: Isabelle Lee/Bloomberg
Just days ago, the world's second-largest cryptocurrency, ETH, surged approximately 75% since June, approaching its historical peak. At this moment, in the former site of the Bowery Savings Bank, digital asset executives gathered, both celebrating a stage victory and sending a clear signal to the financial world: Ethereum is far from an ordinary speculative tool, but the core of future monetary systems; enterprises incorporating it into their fund reserves may accelerate the realization of this vision.
Tom Lee, Chairman of BitMine Immersion Technologies, who took the stage, is a staunch promoter of this concept. This once-obscure enterprise on Wall Street now holds over $6 billion worth of Ethereum, with a clear and bold strategy: not just holding Ethereum, but building a complete business ecosystem around it. Tom Lee repeatedly emphasized in his public speech: "Ethereum will be the intersection of Wall Street and artificial intelligence."
This assertion seems radical, as Ethereum's network currently primarily revolves around token transactions between cryptocurrency users. But in Tom Lee's view, its underlying logic is self-evident: unlike Bitcoin, Ethereum is not just a currency, but a programmable distributed ledger. Software programs called "smart contracts" can automatically run on it, completing transaction processing, interest payments, or loan management without bank intervention.
People use it to exchange cryptocurrencies, transfer stablecoins, or obtain crypto-collateralized loans, with each operation requiring Ethereum as a transaction fee. The more enterprises and projects dependent on its infrastructure, the more robust the demand for Ethereum. If enterprise fund managers who quietly accumulate Ethereum judge correctly, they can not only profit from price increases but also seize structural advantages before the future financial system takes shape.
Although Ethereum remains the most active blockchain by on-chain transaction volume, it faces dual challenges: on one side, competitors like Solana are rising with faster speeds and lower costs (reaching new highs this year); on the other, the market consistently lacks steady, committed buyers. Tom Lee and Ethereum co-founder Joe Lubin believe enterprise reserve plans are a structural solution to demand issues - by locking supply, establishing market bottom support.
"The currently circulating Ethereum is still vast in number," Lubin stated in a July interview with Bloomberg, "It's like a race: if we and more projects lock up substantial Ethereum, it will greatly improve the supply-demand landscape."
However, this vision is encountering another resistance: financial giants are creating private "blockchain tracks". Stablecoin issuer Circle is constructing its own network, reducing fees and retaining customers, bypassing Ethereum's advocated shared infrastructure model. If this privatization trend continues, Ethereum might be excluded from the system it desires to empower. According to Bloomberg Terminal, payment giant Stripe is taking similar actions.
The strategy of enterprise Ethereum reserves directly borrows from Bitcoin's most famous promoter, Michael Saylor. In 2020, Saylor transformed Strategy Inc. into a quasi-Bitcoin ETF, accumulating Bitcoin worth $72 billion. Though the bit mining field is small (only 1% of Ethereum's circulation), its ambitions are not: lock enough assets to make scarcity a natural moat. Tom Lee predicts that if Wall Street heavily enters Ethereum projects, its price might surge from the current around $4,300 to $60,000. However, Saylor's success coincided with a historic cryptocurrency bull market, and whether Ethereum can replicate this path remains questionable.
"Strategy's Michael Saylor spent four years proving the immense value of holding underlying assets; through the Ethereum reserve strategy, leveraging liquid public companies can create value for shareholders far exceeding the underlying assets themselves," said Joseph Chalom, co-CEO of Sharplink Gaming, on Bloomberg TV. This former BlackRock executive, who helped the world's largest asset management company launch the Ethereum ETF (code ETHA), now has SharpLink accumulated over $3 billion in Ethereum.
Supporters believe data is advantageous for Ethereum: its issuance is inherently low, and a portion of each transaction fee is permanently burned, which could potentially reduce its total supply over time; enterprise long-term reserve behaviors will further intensify this scarcity. Skeptics, however, point out another cyclical risk: enterprises might be as quick to sell as they were decisive in buying, potentially amplifying market downward fluctuations.
"The crypto circle favors reserve-type enterprises because they think they'll only continue buying and holding," analyzed Omid Malekan, adjunct professor at Columbia Business School, "but there's no free lunch. Most people overlook a possibility: in a future crypto bear market, these enterprises might start selling."
Compared to Bitcoin, Ethereum's significant advantage lies in its "staking" mechanism - locking Ethereum to support network operations can generate returns. This transforms it from a static commodity to a revenue-generating asset similar to dividend stocks. Currently, mainstream ETF investors cannot directly access these returns.
According to July regulatory documents, BlackRock is collaborating with other issuers to add staking functionality to the ETHA product, meaning retail investors might soon simultaneously obtain price gains and staking returns through a single product. The fund has reached $16 billion in just over a year.
Despite Ethereum's active ecosystem, it has not yet penetrated daily financial scenarios like payments, shopping, or savings, with many Wall Street tokenization projects still in testing phases. However, Tom Lee believes transformation is happening: AI companies, payment enterprises, and large financial institutions are pioneering applications on Ethereum.
"I see multiple trends pushing Ethereum towards the most important macro trading trend of the next 10 to 15 years," he said.
Today, Ethereum supporters have extended from banking research departments to the political realm: the decentralized finance enterprise World Liberty Financial, associated with the Trump camp, disclosed purchasing millions of dollars worth of ETH this year; Eric Trump, co-founder of American Bitcoin Corp. (a Bitcoin mining company linked to the Trump family), publicly cheered for its rise; Standard Chartered Bank raised its year-end target price from $4,000 to $7,500; Ark Investment Management also raised its long-term expectations.
The price increase is real, corporate holdings are undoubtedly solid, and belief is sufficiently strong. However, the true test for Ethereum is not whether it can continue to rise, but whether it can establish a firm footing - whether enterprises can survive the next sharp decline, and whether the token can transcend its speculative tool positioning.
"Financial institutions view Ethereum as a natural choice," said Tomasz Stańczak, executive director of the Ethereum Foundation, "they are clear about which products to build, which segments can be optimized, and where efficiency can make a quantum leap."
