Author: imToken
Ethereum stands at an unprecedented node of 'multiple narrative resonance.'
On the on-chain level, the scale of ETH staking continues to rise, gradually establishing itself as a 'risk-free interest rate anchor point'; on the traditional financial level, spot ETFs have been running for over a year, with trading volume and net inflows rapidly increasing, marking the continuous ramp-up of compliant funds; at the corporate level, an increasing number of U.S. publicly listed companies are strategically choosing to incorporate ETH into their treasury reserves.
Staking, ETFs, and corporate treasuries—these three seemingly independent threads are resonating with each other, jointly promoting ETH from a single cryptocurrency to a comprehensive financial asset with income attributes, compliant channels, and corporate reserve value.
If Bitcoin's story is 'digital gold,' then Ethereum's narrative is quietly shifting towards 'the global ledger,' heralding a critical 'resonance moment' in 2025.
Staking steadily rises, and ETH's 'benchmark interest rate' emerges.
Since the Shanghai upgrade in April 2023, which opened up the staking withdrawal feature, Ethereum has fundamentally resolved the bottleneck of withdrawal risks, unleashing the growth potential of the staking ecosystem. Subsequently, the derivatives market based on LSD has rapidly expanded, driving ETH staking rates continuously higher.
As of the time of writing, the amount of ETH staked has surpassed 33.8 million, valued at approximately $140 billion at current prices, accounting for over 25% of the total supply, a significant increase from about 10% a few years ago. This not only strengthens network security but also enhances the scarcity of ETH from the supply-demand perspective.
More importantly, ETH staking is gradually becoming the 'interest rate anchor point' of on-chain finance.
Over the past year, a 3%-5% annualized staking return has been widely accepted by the market, even regarded by some institutional research reports as the 'on-chain version of government bond yields,' forming an implicit comparative relationship with the U.S. Treasury yield curve. This attribute has transformed ETH from merely a trading asset into one with the underlying logic of quasi-fixed income products.
Of course, a noteworthy reverse trend has emerged recently—since July 16, requests for ETH unstaking have surged, with validator exit requests skyrocketing from less than 2,000 to 475,000 by July 22, and the waiting time has extended from less than an hour to more than 8 days.
According to The Block data, there are currently about 670,000 ETH (approximately $3.1 billion) in the exit queue, far exceeding new staking demand, with an estimated processing time close to 12 days. Factors such as the unwinding of leveraged staking cycles in the context of rising prices, the risks of LST decoupling, and arbitrage opportunities are the main reasons driving a large amount of ETH unstaking, making Lido, EthFi, and Coinbase the primary sources of exits.
Source: The Block
However, despite the volatility brought by the recent wave of unstaking in the short term, from a long-term perspective, ETH staking has gradually become an 'anchor point for risk-free interest rates' on the chain, representing one of the underlying financial logics of ETH.
It is noteworthy that the long-term yield on U.S. Treasuries is expected to remain in the 4%-5% range in 2024, making ETH staking rates seem less attractive at times. However, as the Federal Reserve opens the interest rate reduction channel in 2025, the 3%-5% staking returns of ETH regain competitiveness and are even seen as 'excess returns' in certain risk models.
This means that a deeper implicit correlation is being established between ETH's on-chain interest rates and the global liquidity environment, especially as re-staking protocols like EigenLayer have absorbed over $10 billion worth of ETH, creating a chain logic of 'staking rates → re-staking premiums → protocol security.'
In other words, ETH is not just an asset itself but is gradually becoming the underlying collateral of the Web 3 financial system.
ETFs have become the main channel for traditional funds.
On May 2024, the U.S. SEC approved the 19 b-4 applications for 8 Ethereum spot ETFs, which officially listed and started trading on July 23, marking the formal opening of the compliant channel between ETH and Wall Street. To date, Ethereum spot ETFs have been running for over a year.
Objectively speaking, ETFs, as 'compliance gateways,' provide traditional institutions with direct channels to allocate ETH, while also reducing compliance friction in financial and audit aspects. According to SoSoValue data, as of now, the total net assets of U.S. Ethereum spot ETFs have exceeded $27 billion, accounting for approximately 5.34% of Ethereum's market value, with a cumulative net inflow of $12.4 billion since listing.
However, the market often overestimates the short-term effects of new things while underestimating their long-term influence. The development of ETH spot ETFs is a microcosm of this principle, as the true explosion of ETFs did not manifest at the beginning—before May of this year, the average daily trading volume of ETH ETFs remained low, with limited market interest.
Source: SoSoValue
The turning point occurred on August 11, 2025, when the net inflow of Ethereum ETFs for a single day broke through $1 billion for the first time. BlackRock's ETHA attracted $640 million, and Fidelity's FETH attracted $277 million, highlighting the capital siphoning effect of the two giants, revealing the institutional shift of Ethereum ETFs.
The significance of ETFs is that they are not only a 'channel' for funds but also provide a 'legitimate status' for compliance audits and financial statements, greatly reducing the resistance for institutions to hold ETH. Another profound implication is that it opens up arbitrage and allocation paths for cross-border financial institutions.
More importantly, the concentration of ETF holdings has begun to manifest, with BlackRock and Fidelity's two ETFs accounting for two-thirds of the U.S. ETH ETF market. This trend of concentration not only brings about a capital siphoning effect but may also indicate that the 'institutional pricing' characteristics of ETH will become increasingly apparent in the future.
ETH accelerates influx into U.S. stock balance sheets.
If MicroStrategy’s treatment of BTC is a milestone case for publicly listed companies incorporating crypto assets into their balance sheets, then starting in 2025, ETH is also approaching a similar turning point.
Recently, an increasing number of U.S. publicly listed companies have chosen to incorporate ETH into their treasuries, and not just symbolically, but on a large scale and strategically.
Taking BitMine as an example, according to official disclosures, its holdings of crypto assets have exceeded $6.612 billion, an increase of about $1.7 billion compared to $4.9 billion a week earlier. BitMine holds 1.523 million ETH (calculated at the current price of $4,326 each) and also holds 192 BTC.
Source: BitMine
At the same time, Nasdaq-listed company Cosmos Health announced a securities purchase agreement with a U.S. institutional investor worth up to $300 million to initiate an ETH treasury strategy, providing custody and staking infrastructure through BitGo Trust.
This trend of actively incorporating into corporate treasuries differs from the passive allocation of ETFs: ETFs primarily cater to the exposure demand of financial products, while companies directly purchasing ETH and incorporating it into their treasuries means that ETH is becoming an actual medium of settlement and reserve asset. Whether for financial diversification, cross-border payments, or employee incentives and research and development incentives, ETH is beginning to demonstrate the application potential of 'liquid assets'.
Overall, after experiencing a wave of widespread pessimism, Ethereum's multiple narratives are forming a force:
Staking returns have brought ETH a quasi-'government bond' interest rate anchor point;
ETFs have opened up the allocation channel for compliant funds;
Corporate treasuries further bestow real value on ETH as a reserve and payment medium;
The interplay of these three factors is driving ETH from being a 'crypto token' to a 'financial infrastructure asset.'
If Bitcoin represents 'digital gold' in corporate treasuries, then the value narrative of Ethereum is gradually pointing towards 'the liquidity core of the global ledger.'
