Ethereum’s founder and some of its largest treasury holders are behind a recent independent nonprofit formed to coordinate the blockchain’s institutional reach, underscoring the ecosystem’s push to attract more banks, asset managers and financial institutions as competition from rival blockchains intensifies.
The nonprofit Ethereum Institutional launched on Wednesday with support from Ether (ETH) treasury companies BitMine Immersion Technologies and SharpLink, as well as blockchain co-founder Joe Lubin and other collaborators. It plans to expand beyond Fresh York, London, Hong Kong and Singapore to additional financial centers, while also offering education, standards development, industry research and institutional events.
In a social media post announcing the launch, Ethereum Institutional said the ecosystem lacks a “credible, independent front door” to engage financial institutions, arguing that such a role is needed to accelerate institutional adoption.
Source: Ethereum Institutional on X.com
The launch comes as Ethereum continues to dominate the stablecoin and tokenized real-world asset (RWA) markets, even as rival blockchain networks step up efforts to attract institutional users. According to Token Terminal, Ethereum supports almost 58% of the tokenized RWA market. Data from DeFiLlama also shows that the network accounts for about half of the $311 billion stablecoin market.
Although competition is intensifying, Ethereum remains the dominant blockchain for stablecoins. Source: DeFiLlama
Of course, this development also comes in a situation where ether prices remain under pressure, which has an impact on the balance sheets of companies with gigantic ETH holdings. Both BitMine and SharpLink have significant unrealized losses, and the cryptocurrency’s price recently dropped to lows near $1,500.
On Wednesday, ETH quotes were over $1,620 and the market capitalization was $195.4 billion, Coingecko data showed. As recently as October 27, its quotations exceeded $4,000.
Nevertheless, institutional adoption remains one of the strongest trends in the cryptocurrency industry. According to 21shares, current asset prices do not yet reflect the growing demand from portfolio managers, asset managers and financial institutions.
Related: Credit unions with $25 billion in assets under management join stablecoin infrastructure program
Ethereum Foundation overhaul changes institutional strategy
The institutional push comes at a time when the Ethereum Foundation is undergoing a major organizational overhaul. The nonprofit organization, which supports development of Ethereum’s core protocol and ecosystem, has spent the last year navigating leadership changes, internal debates about governance and development priorities, increasing competition from rival blockchains, and criticism of Ether’s market performance.
Last month, co-executive director Hsiao-Wei Wang stepped down, one of about 19 reported departures from the foundation this year. After the change of management, restructuring took place, including the dismissal of 20% of the foundation’s employees.
As part of the restructuring, recent independent organizations have also emerged in the ecosystem to support Ethereum’s long-term development. In June, the same Ethereum Institutional supporters launched Ethlabs, a nonprofit research organization focused on increasing Ethereum’s scalability.
Related: Buterin blasts critics of the Ethereum Foundation and recommits to neutrality
StanChart sees a silver lining in the news
Standard Charter’s Geoff Kendrick said today’s announcement, coupled with the earlier launch of Ethlabs, “has direct positive implications for both Ethereum’s Layer 1 and Layer 2, as well as Ethereum-derived DeFi protocols.”
“Very importantly, the primary funders of both organizations are three commercial giants in the Ethereum ecosystem,” global head of digital asset research StanChart said in a note to clients on Wednesday. “Their expertise will drive commercialization of the Ethereum ecosystem as TradFi enters at scale.”
Kendrick recently confirmed his ETH price predictions of $4,000 by the end of 2026 and $40,000 by the end of 2030.
