Bernstein: The three main factors driving ETH's rise are stablecoin and tokenization frenzy, Layer 2 institutionalization, and ETH short covering

【Bernstein: The three main factors driving ETH's rise are stablecoin and tokenization frenzy, Layer 2 institutionalization, and ETH short covering】 According to Golden Finance and The Block, Ethereum has performed poorly overall in this cycle, but its price suddenly rose by 65% in the past 30 days, nearly doubling since the low in April. Bernstein's analysts outlined three factors behind this rise: the stablecoin and tokenization frenzy, Layer 2 institutionalization, and ETH short covering. Analysts indicated that this cycle is expanding beyond use cases of value storage, refocusing on the underlying blockchain, with Ethereum accounting for 51% of the total supply of stablecoins, becoming a key platform representative of this growth trend. Traditional financial giants such as BlackRock and Franklin Templeton are also advancing the adoption of the real-world asset tokenization market, which is currently valued at over $22 billion, with Ethereum once again dominating. Furthermore, Ethereum Layer 2 is playing an increasingly important role in institutional crypto infrastructure. The third driving factor for ETH's recent outstanding performance is more tactical. Over the past 12 to 18 months, cryptocurrency hedge funds have often used ETH as a delta-neutral hedging tool—going long on BTC and SOL while shorting ETH. However, they indicated that as market narratives shift towards institutional adoption of blockchain and stablecoin payments, and uses beyond its value storage function, the rationale for ETH’s poor performance is becoming increasingly difficult to validate.