Ethereum is undergoing a historic "change of hands" as market dominance shifts from crypto natives to traditional financial institutions. On-chain data reveals that the number of retail investors has hit a multi-year low, while institutional holdings have surged dramatically. Corporate treasuries and ETFs have accumulated over 10 million ETH, valued at nearly $40 billion.

Institutional Influx of Capital
In July 2025, Ethereum ETFs attracted $4.7 billion in inflows, with significant accumulations by institutions like BlackRock. Corporate treasuries are also accelerating their ETH allocations.

Wall Street’s Shift in Valuation Logic
ETH is no longer perceived as "Digital Gold 2.0" but rather as a cash flow-driven asset akin to infrastructure REITs. With annual network fee revenue exceeding $3 billion, it can now be analyzed using traditional valuation models.

Early Holders Reducing Positions
The number of addresses holding 100,000+ ETH has plummeted. Early investors are cashing out via centralized exchanges, and staking queue dynamics reflect a divided market.

Policy and Ecosystem Drivers
The U.S. has adopted a crypto-friendly policy shift under the Trump administration, boosting industry confidence. Ethereum ecosystem core players—such as Pantera Capital, ConsenSys, a16z, and Coinbase—are driving institutionalization through traditional financial instruments.

Market Structural Changes
Pricing power has shifted from retail to institutional investors. Liquidity is contracting due to long-term holdings and staking, while trading depth shows a bipolar trend.

Underlying Conflicts Revealed
A fundamental efficiency矛盾 exists between the ideal of decentralization and capital concentration. Institutional dominance may impact the network’s distributed characteristics.

This transformation signals the maturation of the cryptocurrency industry while prompting deeper reflection on the future of decentralization.

Summary
Ethereum is undergoing an unprecedented structural reshuffle—traditional finance is taking over, and crypto natives are cashing out.

New on-chain data indicates that ETH’s market dominance is shifting from retail to institutional investors. The number of retail investors has consistently hit multi-year lows, dropping to around 8 million. Meanwhile, institutional holdings have recently surged.

Currently, corporate treasuries and ETFs have accumulated over 10 million ETH, worth nearly $40 billion, with no signs of stopping. This likely marks a historic transition for ETH from a speculative asset dominated by "crypto natives" to a mature asset allocated by "traditional financial giants."

I. Wall Street’s ETH Awakening: From "Digital Gold 2.0" to "Infrastructure REITs"
1.1 Epic Influx of Institutional Capital
Wall Street capital has surpassed long-established crypto institutions like the Ethereum Foundation and Coinbase in just one month.

Wall Street’s interest in ETH is shifting from观望 to action at an astonishing pace.

• Record ETF Inflows: In July 2025 alone, Ethereum ETFs attracted $4.7 billion in inflows, nearly doubling the total since their launch. By month-end, ETH accounted for over 84% of the $1.9 billion invested in crypto ETFs, demonstrating overwhelming capital preference.

• BlackRock’s Clear Stance: BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager,单独增持 $1.2 billion worth of ETH in July, compared to only $267 million in BTC. This is not just a capital allocation but a value vote on Ethereum’s future potential.

• Corporate Treasury Allocation Race: From Bitmine Immersion Tech (BMNR) to SharpLink Gaming (SBET), Wall Street capital completed strategic ETH positions in just one month, surpassing the holdings of long-standing native crypto institutions. This indicates ETH is rapidly being incorporated into traditional corporate balance sheets.

1.2 Wall Street’s New Valuation Paradigm for ETH
Traditional finance has evolved its perception of ETH from the early "Digital Gold 2.0" concept to a more sophisticated cash flow-driven valuation framework.

• From Speculative Asset to Infrastructure Investment: Wall Street is redefining ETH’s value in traditional financial terms. It is no longer merely a store of value but the "fuel" and "toll station" of the entire Web3 economy. Tom Lee’s comparison to "crypto-style infrastructure REITs" is gaining traction.

• Cash Flow-Driven Valuation Logic: Unlike Bitcoin’s "digital gold" narrative, the Ethereum network generates billions in real annual revenue. In 2024 alone, network fees exceeded $3 billion, providing institutions with an analytical framework similar to traditional infrastructure investments, enabling quantitative valuation via DCF models.

II. Crypto Old Guards Gradually Exiting: A Tacit "Unloading Wave"
Wall Street’s entry perfectly coincides with the exit of another force.

2.1 Strategic Reduction by Early Holders
Data shows that many early Ethereum investors are strategically reducing their positions. The number of traditional crypto whales (addresses holding 100,000+ ETH) has plummeted from over 200 in 2020 to around 70 in 2025, a near-decade low. Whale monitoring indicates that many early supporters from the ICO phase are accelerating transfers to centralized exchanges to cash out.

2.2 Dynamic Divergence in Staking Queues
Recent ETH network staking entries and exits have reached two-year highs. This reflects market division and reorganization: on one hand, early stakers are unlocking and selling after Ethereum’s rebound from April lows; on the other, companies like SharpLink Gaming and BitMine Immersion are大幅增持 ETH and staking, moving tokens from circulation into long-term lockups.

III. Deep-Seated Drivers: A Historic Handover Weaved by Multiple Factors
3.1 Historic Release of Policy Benefits

• Trump Effect in Motion: Since the November 2024 U.S. election, crypto policy has done a 180-degree turn. New SEC Chair Paul Atkins’ crypto-friendly stance has reversed the regulatory hostility of the Gensler era. More importantly, Trump’s promised "National Strategic Bitcoin Reserve" plan has injected unprecedented policy confidence into the digital asset industry.

• Regulatory Arbitrage Window Opens: Wall Street敏锐ly captured this policy shift. Compared to the EU’s strict MiCA regulations, the U.S. is becoming a regulatory "oasis" for global crypto assets. This explains why global macro funds like Brevan Howard are urgently betting on U.S. crypto assets—they know this regulatory红利 won’t last long.

3.2 ETH "Native Giants’" Glorious Transition: A Wall Street Co-optation Led by OGs
When tracking these seemingly "Wall Street-led" investments, a startling fact emerges: the most active forces pushing ETH reserves are core players (OGs) of the Ethereum ecosystem. This indicates not a unilateral Wall Street action but a精密布局 orchestrated by crypto-native capital using traditional financial tools for asset transfer and capitalization.

• Pantera Capital: From ICO Angel to "Corporate Treasury" Creator
  As an early Ethereum ICO angel investor, Pantera Capital’s moves clearly demonstrate long-term belief in ETH. In 2025, they launched a Digital Asset Treasury (DAT) fund专门投资上市公司 holding digital assets as strategic reserves. They invested in SharpLink Gaming (SBET) and Bitmine Immersion Tech (BMNR), two of the largest corporate ETH holders. This is a sophisticated strategy: Pantera uses its capital to push traditional enterprises with clear ETH demand into the market, creating new, sustained buying pressure.

• ConsenSys: Transforming Infrastructure Value into Equity Gains
  As the developer of core ETH infrastructure like MetaMask and Infura, ConsenSys founder Joseph Lubin is a foundational figure in the ETH ecosystem. ConsenSys directly invested in SharpLink Gaming, with Lubin becoming its board chairman and holding 9.9% of shares. This milestone move shows how Ethereum OGs are converting ETH’s technological infrastructure value into equity and capital gains in traditional financial markets.

• Andreessen Horowitz (a16z): Dual Engine of Policy Lobbying and Ecosystem Penetration
  a16z, one of crypto’s most influential VCs, has a deep and multi-faceted ETH strategy. Beyond direct investments in ETH ecosystem projects, they are key players in political lobbying. They invested $70 million in Lido Finance, staking part of their own ETH, becoming major participants in the staking market. Crucially, a16z has invested heavily in Washington D.C., pushing for crypto-friendly policies. Their proposals, like the "safe harbor" suggestion to the SEC, cleared key regulatory hurdles for ETH spot ETF approvals.

• Coinbase: The Behind-the-Scenes Hero and Custodial Cornerstone of ETFs
  Coinbase plays an indispensable role as infrastructure provider in ETH’s institutionalization. Nearly all major ETH spot ETFs, including BlackRock’s iShares Ethereum Trust (ETHA), have chosen Coinbase as custodian. According to Coinbase Prime data, it custodies $171 billion in digital assets for institutional clients (as of March 31, 2024). This means that while institutional funds enter via ETFs, the underlying ETH assets are largely held by Coinbase. This makes it an invisible core in this "change of hands," further binding institutions to the ETH ecosystem through its staking services.

3.3 "Unloading Wave" Triggered by ETH’s Long-Term Underperformance

• Significant Relative Performance Gap: While BTC hit new highs from $69,000 to $120,000, ETH has fluctuated between $2,000-$4,000 for over three years, with its BTC ratio declining. This vast performance gap has left many ETH investors who bought at the 2021 bull market peak deeply trapped.

• Golden Exit Opportunity Provided by Institutional Rally: Wall Street’s large-scale entry offers these long-trapped retail investors a rare exit opportunity. Unlike previous rebounds, this institution-led rise has greater sustainability and certainty, giving trapped investors enough confidence and time to reduce positions.

• Perfect Match Between Unloading and Institutional Takeover: This creates an almost perfect market cycle—retail investors eagerly exit, while institutions urgently enter. Their interests align perfectly: institutions acquire relatively cheap筹码, and retail achieves long-awaited exits. However, behind this "win-win," ETH’s control has彻底 shifted from retail to institutions.

IV. Deep Evolution of Market Structure: A Capitalization Process of Technological Value
4.1 Historic Transfer of Pricing Power
The most profound impact of this "change of hands" is the complete transfer of ETH’s pricing power. Previously, ETH prices were driven by community sentiment and retail FOMO; now, institutional DCF models, risk parity allocations, and quantitative strategies dominate. Wall Street is re-evaluating Ethereum using traditional corporate valuation methods—treating it as a "decentralized tech company" with $3 billion in annual revenue.

4.2 Reshaping of Liquidity Structure

• Sharp Contraction of Floating Supply: Institutions’ long-term holding strategies and staking lockups further compress market liquidity. Companies like BitMine have explicitly stated they will hold ETH long-term, effectively permanently removing these funds from circulation.

• Bipolar Trading Depth: The spot market is showing clear stratification—large trades are executed via OTC and block trades, while retail trading concentrates on small spot and derivative markets. This structural divergence complicates ETH price discovery.

4.3 Technological Upgrade in Capitalization Methods

• Past Playbook: Attracting capital through native crypto narratives like ICOs, DeFi, and NFTs, hyped on Discord and Twitter, targeting speculative funds within the crypto space.

• Current Playbook: Attracting capital through traditional financial tools like financing and stock listings, promoted on mainstream financial media like CNBC and Bloomberg, targeting allocation funds from traditional institutions.

4.4 Fundamental Conflict Between Decentralization Ideal and Capital Efficiency
ETH faces a core矛盾: decentralized technical architecture and centralized capital control are inherently efficient矛盾. Distributed networks require numerous small participants to maintain decentralization, but capital market economies of scale naturally倾向 concentration. When Coinbase alone controls more staked ETH than the GDP of many small countries, we must question the long-term sustainability of this hybrid model.

Final Thoughts
ETH’s "change of hands" is not merely a market event but a significant标志 of the cryptocurrency industry’s maturation.

This process may be imperfect甚至 disappointing to some—after all, it means crypto is losing its initial "rebellious spirit" and becoming more like traditional finance. However, from another perspective, it also signifies that blockchain technology and crypto assets are gaining mainstream recognition, moving from the fringe to the center, from experimentation to application.

For investors, the most important task at this historic inflection point is to make the right choice:

• Continue immersed in the past "crypto mindset," or actively adapt to the new "institutional reality"?

• Complain about changing rules, or learn to survive and thrive under new rules?

Whatever path is chosen, one thing is certain: in this ever-changing and uncertain market, only those who maintain learning capability, adaptability, and independent thinking will succeed in the long-term game.

Ethereum is undergoing a historic "change of hands" as market dominance shifts from crypto natives to traditional financial institutions. On-chain data reveals that the number of retail investors has hit a multi-year low, while institutional holdings have surged dramatically. Corporate treasuries and ETFs have accumulated over 10 million ETH, valued at nearly $40 billion.

Institutional Influx of Capital
In July 2025, Ethereum ETFs attracted $4.7 billion in inflows, with significant accumulations by institutions like BlackRock. Corporate treasuries are also accelerating their ETH allocations.

Wall Street’s Shift in Valuation Logic
ETH is no longer perceived as "Digital Gold 2.0" but rather as a cash flow-driven asset akin to infrastructure REITs. With annual network fee revenue exceeding $3 billion, it can now be analyzed using traditional valuation models.

Early Holders Reducing Positions
The number of addresses holding 100,000+ ETH has plummeted. Early investors are cashing out via centralized exchanges, and staking queue dynamics reflect a divided market.

Policy and Ecosystem Drivers
The U.S. has adopted a crypto-friendly policy shift under the Trump administration, boosting industry confidence. Ethereum ecosystem core players—such as Pantera Capital, ConsenSys, a16z, and Coinbase—are driving institutionalization through traditional financial instruments.

Market Structural Changes
Pricing power has shifted from retail to institutional investors. Liquidity is contracting due to long-term holdings and staking, while trading depth shows a bipolar trend.

Underlying Conflicts Revealed
A fundamental efficiency矛盾 exists between the ideal of decentralization and capital concentration. Institutional dominance may impact the network’s distributed characteristics.

This transformation signals the maturation of the cryptocurrency industry while prompting deeper reflection on the future of decentralization.

Summary
Ethereum is undergoing an unprecedented structural reshuffle—traditional finance is taking over, and crypto natives are cashing out.

New on-chain data indicates that ETH’s market dominance is shifting from retail to institutional investors. The number of retail investors has consistently hit multi-year lows, dropping to around 8 million. Meanwhile, institutional holdings have recently surged.

Currently, corporate treasuries and ETFs have accumulated over 10 million ETH, worth nearly $40 billion, with no signs of stopping. This likely marks a historic transition for ETH from a speculative asset dominated by "crypto natives" to a mature asset allocated by "traditional financial giants."

I. Wall Street’s ETH Awakening: From "Digital Gold 2.0" to "Infrastructure REITs"
1.1 Epic Influx of Institutional Capital
Wall Street capital has surpassed long-established crypto institutions like the Ethereum Foundation and Coinbase in just one month.

Wall Street’s interest in ETH is shifting from观望 to action at an astonishing pace.

• Record ETF Inflows: In July 2025 alone, Ethereum ETFs attracted $4.7 billion in inflows, nearly doubling the total since their launch. By month-end, ETH accounted for over 84% of the $1.9 billion invested in crypto ETFs, demonstrating overwhelming capital preference.

• BlackRock’s Clear Stance: BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager,单独增持 $1.2 billion worth of ETH in July, compared to only $267 million in BTC. This is not just a capital allocation but a value vote on Ethereum’s future potential.

• Corporate Treasury Allocation Race: From Bitmine Immersion Tech (BMNR) to SharpLink Gaming (SBET), Wall Street capital completed strategic ETH positions in just one month, surpassing the holdings of long-standing native crypto institutions. This indicates ETH is rapidly being incorporated into traditional corporate balance sheets.

1.2 Wall Street’s New Valuation Paradigm for ETH
Traditional finance has evolved its perception of ETH from the early "Digital Gold 2.0" concept to a more sophisticated cash flow-driven valuation framework.

• From Speculative Asset to Infrastructure Investment: Wall Street is redefining ETH’s value in traditional financial terms. It is no longer merely a store of value but the "fuel" and "toll station" of the entire Web3 economy. Tom Lee’s comparison to "crypto-style infrastructure REITs" is gaining traction.

• Cash Flow-Driven Valuation Logic: Unlike Bitcoin’s "digital gold" narrative, the Ethereum network generates billions in real annual revenue. In 2024 alone, network fees exceeded $3 billion, providing institutions with an analytical framework similar to traditional infrastructure investments, enabling quantitative valuation via DCF models.

II. Crypto Old Guards Gradually Exiting: A Tacit "Unloading Wave"
Wall Street’s entry perfectly coincides with the exit of another force.

2.1 Strategic Reduction by Early Holders
Data shows that many early Ethereum investors are strategically reducing their positions. The number of traditional crypto whales (addresses holding 100,000+ ETH) has plummeted from over 200 in 2020 to around 70 in 2025, a near-decade low. Whale monitoring indicates that many early supporters from the ICO phase are accelerating transfers to centralized exchanges to cash out.

2.2 Dynamic Divergence in Staking Queues
Recent ETH network staking entries and exits have reached two-year highs. This reflects market division and reorganization: on one hand, early stakers are unlocking and selling after Ethereum’s rebound from April lows; on the other, companies like SharpLink Gaming and BitMine Immersion are大幅增持 ETH and staking, moving tokens from circulation into long-term lockups.

III. Deep-Seated Drivers: A Historic Handover Weaved by Multiple Factors
3.1 Historic Release of Policy Benefits

• Trump Effect in Motion: Since the November 2024 U.S. election, crypto policy has done a 180-degree turn. New SEC Chair Paul Atkins’ crypto-friendly stance has reversed the regulatory hostility of the Gensler era. More importantly, Trump’s promised "National Strategic Bitcoin Reserve" plan has injected unprecedented policy confidence into the digital asset industry.

• Regulatory Arbitrage Window Opens: Wall Street敏锐ly captured this policy shift. Compared to the EU’s strict MiCA regulations, the U.S. is becoming a regulatory "oasis" for global crypto assets. This explains why global macro funds like Brevan Howard are urgently betting on U.S. crypto assets—they know this regulatory红利 won’t last long.

3.2 ETH "Native Giants’" Glorious Transition: A Wall Street Co-optation Led by OGs
When tracking these seemingly "Wall Street-led" investments, a startling fact emerges: the most active forces pushing ETH reserves are core players (OGs) of the Ethereum ecosystem. This indicates not a unilateral Wall Street action but a精密布局 orchestrated by crypto-native capital using traditional financial tools for asset transfer and capitalization.

• Pantera Capital: From ICO Angel to "Corporate Treasury" Creator
  As an early Ethereum ICO angel investor, Pantera Capital’s moves clearly demonstrate long-term belief in ETH. In 2025, they launched a Digital Asset Treasury (DAT) fund专门投资上市公司 holding digital assets as strategic reserves. They invested in SharpLink Gaming (SBET) and Bitmine Immersion Tech (BMNR), two of the largest corporate ETH holders. This is a sophisticated strategy: Pantera uses its capital to push traditional enterprises with clear ETH demand into the market, creating new, sustained buying pressure.

• ConsenSys: Transforming Infrastructure Value into Equity Gains
  As the developer of core ETH infrastructure like MetaMask and Infura, ConsenSys founder Joseph Lubin is a foundational figure in the ETH ecosystem. ConsenSys directly invested in SharpLink Gaming, with Lubin becoming its board chairman and holding 9.9% of shares. This milestone move shows how Ethereum OGs are converting ETH’s technological infrastructure value into equity and capital gains in traditional financial markets.

• Andreessen Horowitz (a16z): Dual Engine of Policy Lobbying and Ecosystem Penetration
  a16z, one of crypto’s most influential VCs, has a deep and multi-faceted ETH strategy. Beyond direct investments in ETH ecosystem projects, they are key players in political lobbying. They invested $70 million in Lido Finance, staking part of their own ETH, becoming major participants in the staking market. Crucially, a16z has invested heavily in Washington D.C., pushing for crypto-friendly policies. Their proposals, like the "safe harbor" suggestion to the SEC, cleared key regulatory hurdles for ETH spot ETF approvals.

• Coinbase: The Behind-the-Scenes Hero and Custodial Cornerstone of ETFs
  Coinbase plays an indispensable role as infrastructure provider in ETH’s institutionalization. Nearly all major ETH spot ETFs, including BlackRock’s iShares Ethereum Trust (ETHA), have chosen Coinbase as custodian. According to Coinbase Prime data, it custodies $171 billion in digital assets for institutional clients (as of March 31, 2024). This means that while institutional funds enter via ETFs, the underlying ETH assets are largely held by Coinbase. This makes it an invisible core in this "change of hands," further binding institutions to the ETH ecosystem through its staking services.

3.3 "Unloading Wave" Triggered by ETH’s Long-Term Underperformance

• Significant Relative Performance Gap: While BTC hit new highs from $69,000 to $120,000, ETH has fluctuated between $2,000-$4,000 for over three years, with its BTC ratio declining. This vast performance gap has left many ETH investors who bought at the 2021 bull market peak deeply trapped.

• Golden Exit Opportunity Provided by Institutional Rally: Wall Street’s large-scale entry offers these long-trapped retail investors a rare exit opportunity. Unlike previous rebounds, this institution-led rise has greater sustainability and certainty, giving trapped investors enough confidence and time to reduce positions.

• Perfect Match Between Unloading and Institutional Takeover: This creates an almost perfect market cycle—retail investors eagerly exit, while institutions urgently enter. Their interests align perfectly: institutions acquire relatively cheap筹码, and retail achieves long-awaited exits. However, behind this "win-win," ETH’s control has彻底 shifted from retail to institutions.

IV. Deep Evolution of Market Structure: A Capitalization Process of Technological Value
4.1 Historic Transfer of Pricing Power
The most profound impact of this "change of hands" is the complete transfer of ETH’s pricing power. Previously, ETH prices were driven by community sentiment and retail FOMO; now, institutional DCF models, risk parity allocations, and quantitative strategies dominate. Wall Street is re-evaluating Ethereum using traditional corporate valuation methods—treating it as a "decentralized tech company" with $3 billion in annual revenue.

4.2 Reshaping of Liquidity Structure

• Sharp Contraction of Floating Supply: Institutions’ long-term holding strategies and staking lockups further compress market liquidity. Companies like BitMine have explicitly stated they will hold ETH long-term, effectively permanently removing these funds from circulation.

• Bipolar Trading Depth: The spot market is showing clear stratification—large trades are executed via OTC and block trades, while retail trading concentrates on small spot and derivative markets. This structural divergence complicates ETH price discovery.

4.3 Technological Upgrade in Capitalization Methods

• Past Playbook: Attracting capital through native crypto narratives like ICOs, DeFi, and NFTs, hyped on Discord and Twitter, targeting speculative funds within the crypto space.

• Current Playbook: Attracting capital through traditional financial tools like financing and stock listings, promoted on mainstream financial media like CNBC and Bloomberg, targeting allocation funds from traditional institutions.

4.4 Fundamental Conflict Between Decentralization Ideal and Capital Efficiency
ETH faces a core矛盾: decentralized technical architecture and centralized capital control are inherently efficient矛盾. Distributed networks require numerous small participants to maintain decentralization, but capital market economies of scale naturally倾向 concentration. When Coinbase alone controls more staked ETH than the GDP of many small countries, we must question the long-term sustainability of this hybrid model.

Final Thoughts
ETH’s "change of hands" is not merely a market event but a significant标志 of the cryptocurrency industry’s maturation.

This process may be imperfect甚至 disappointing to some—after all, it means crypto is losing its initial "rebellious spirit" and becoming more like traditional finance. However, from another perspective, it also signifies that blockchain technology and crypto assets are gaining mainstream recognition, moving from the fringe to the center, from experimentation to application.

For investors, the most important task at this historic inflection point is to make the right choice:

• Continue immersed in the past "crypto mindset," or actively adapt to the new "institutional reality"?

• Complain about changing rules, or learn to survive and thrive under new rules?

Whatever path is chosen, one thing is certain: in this ever-changing and uncertain market, only those who maintain learning capability, adaptability, and independent thinking will succeed in the long-term game.