- Ethereum insiders say 2026 could trigger significant ETH value growth as institutions increase on-chain activity.
- Institutional interest and tokenization of traditional assets are driving forecasts of larger capital flows into Ethereum.
- Tokenized assets that generate yield or serve as DeFi collateral are expected to attract the most capital.
- Vivek Raman and James Smith expect 2026 to be the year tokenized assets work inside DeFi at scale.
- ETH may begin to behave more like a store of value, but it would lag Bitcoin by several years.
Insiders and industry figures say 2026 could be the year Ethereum draws major institutional capital because tokenization increasingly ties assets to DeFi yield. Observers point to rising Wall Street involvement and technical progress on the network as the main drivers of this shift. Some critics called recent ETH price moves “insufficient” — see the linked reaction on social media at that post.
Vivek Raman, co-founder of Etherealize, said large financial firms have moved onto Ethereum in growing numbers this year. “It’s now,” he said about the network’s mass adoption moment. Raman expects ETH to become the default asset for parts of a more on-chain traditional economy.
James Smith, head of ecosystem at the Ethereum Foundation, noted early tokenization steps are already complete. “Tokenizing a Treasury bill was 2024,” he said, and “Making it work inside DeFi is 2026.” Smith warned that pure novelty tokenizations will likely fade while yield-bearing and collateral-ready assets draw capital.
Industry sources say the shift toward yield-bearing tokenized assets could unlock billions more on-chain by turning traditional financial instruments into DeFi-compatible products. This change would increase demand for ETH, which serves as the network’s native asset and execution fuel.
Observers also expect ETH’s narrative to tilt toward store-of-value status over time, though not on Bitcoin’s timeline. As Vivek Raman put it, “ETH, in the end, is going to elevate to becoming a store of value alongside Bitcoin,” and “But it’s basically five years before where Bitcoin’s inflection point was.” A public market snapshot and sentiment indicator are available in the linked market view at this market embed.
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