Ethereum is standing at an unprecedented node of "multiple narrative resonance."
On the on-chain level, the scale of ETH staking continues to climb, gradually establishing an "anchor for a risk-free interest rate." On the traditional finance level, the spot ETF has been operating for over a year, with trading volume and net inflows rapidly increasing, signaling the continued influx of compliant capital. On the corporate level, more and more US-listed companies are strategically adding ETH to their treasury reserves.
Staking, ETFs, and corporate treasuries—these three seemingly independent threads are echoing each other, collectively pushing ETH from being a single cryptocurrency towards becoming a comprehensive financial asset with yield attributes, compliant channels, and corporate reserve value.
If Bitcoin's story is "digital gold," then Ethereum's narrative is quietly shifting towards a "global ledger," approaching a critical "resonance moment" in 2025.
Staking Steadily Climbs, ETH's "Benchmark Interest Rate" Emerges
Since the Shanghai upgrade in April 2023 enabled staking withdrawals, Ethereum completely resolved the potential backlog exit issue, unleashing the growth potential of the staking ecosystem. Subsequently, the LSD-based derivatives market rapidly expanded, driving the ETH staking rate ever higher.
As of the time of writing, the amount of staked ETH has exceeded 33.8 million coins, worth approximately $140 billion at current prices, accounting for over 25% of the total supply. This is a significant increase compared to the staking rate of around 10% several years ago. This not only strengthens network security but also enhances ETH's scarcity from a supply and demand perspective.
More importantly, ETH staking is gradually becoming the "interest rate anchor" for on-chain finance.
Over the past year, the 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 treasury bond yield," forming an implicit comparison with the US Treasury yield curve. This attribute means ETH is no longer just a trading asset but possesses the underlying logic of a fixed-income-like product.
Of course, a noteworthy counter-trend has emerged recently—since July 16th, requests to unstake ETH surged sharply. Validator exit requests skyrocketed from less than 2,000 to 475,000 on July 22nd, and the waiting time lengthened from less than an hour to over 8 days.
According to The Block data, the current exit queue contains about 670,000 ETH (approximately $3.1 billion), far exceeding new staking demand, with an estimated processing time of nearly 12 days. The main reasons driving this large-scale unstaking are the unwinding of leveraged staking loops amid rising prices, LST de-pegging risks, and arbitrage opportunities. Hence, Lido, EthFi, and Coinbase are the primary sources of exits.
However, despite the short-term volatility caused by the unstaking wave, from a long-term perspective, ETH staking has gradually become an on-chain "anchor for a risk-free interest rate," becoming one of ETH's underlying financial logics.
It is worth noting that in 2024, US Treasury yields remained in the 4%–5% range for an extended period, which once made the ETH staking rate seem unattractive. However, with the Federal Reserve opening the interest rate cut channel in 2025, ETH's 3%–5% staking yield has regained competitiveness and is even considered "excess return" in some risk models.
This means a deeper implicit connection is being established between ETH's on-chain interest rate and the global liquidity environment. This is especially true as restaking protocols like EigenLayer have already absorbed over tens of billions of dollars worth of ETH participation, giving rise to a chain logic of "staking yield → restaking premium → protocol security."
In other words, ETH is not only an asset itself but is gradually becoming the underlying collateral for the Web3 financial system.
ETF Becomes the Main Channel for Traditional Capital
In May 2024, the US SEC approved the 19b-4 applications for 8 Ethereum spot ETFs, which officially began trading on July 23rd, marking the official opening of a compliant channel between ETH and Wall Street. The Ethereum spot ETF has now been operating for over a year.
Objectively speaking, as a "compliant entry point," ETFs provide traditional institutions with a direct channel to allocate to ETH and reduce compliance friction at the financial and audit levels. According to SoSoValue data, as of now, the total net asset value of US Ethereum spot ETFs has exceeded $27 billion, accounting for about 5.34% of Ethereum's market capitalization. Since listing, the cumulative net inflow has reached $12.4 billion.
However, the market often overestimates the short-term effects of new things initially and underestimates their long-term impact. The development of the ETH spot ETF is a microcosm of this rule, as the true explosion of the ETF did not appear immediately—before May of this year, the average daily trading volume of ETH ETFs was still relatively low, and market interest was limited.
The turning point occurred on August 11, 2025, when the net inflow of Ethereum ETFs exceeded $1 billion in a single day for the first time. Among them, BlackRock's ETHA attracted $640 million, and Fidelity's FETH attracted $277 million. The capital siphon effect of these two giants was prominent, indicating the institutional shift of Ethereum ETFs.
The significance of ETFs lies in the fact that they are not only a "channel" for funds but also provide "legitimate status" on 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, concentration of ETF holdings has begun to show. The two major ETFs from BlackRock and Fidelity account for two-thirds of the US ETH ETF market. This trend towards dominance not only brings a capital siphon effect but may also mean that the "institutional pricing" characteristic of ETH will become increasingly apparent in the future.
ETH Accelerates Its Entry into US Stock Balance Sheets
If MicroStrategy's adoption of BTC is a milestone case of a publicly traded company incorporating crypto assets into its balance sheet, then starting in 2025, ETH is also reaching a similar turning point.
Recently, more and more US-listed companies are choosing to include ETH in their treasuries, and not just symbolically, but through large-scale, strategic allocations.
Taking BitMine as an example, according to official disclosures, its crypto asset holdings have exceeded $6.612 billion, an increase of about $1.7 billion compared to $4.9 billion the previous week. Among these, BitMine holds 1.523 million ETH (calculated at the current price of $4,326 per coin), while also holding 192 BTC.
At the same time, Nasdaq-listed company Cosmos Health also announced a securities purchase agreement of up to $300 million with a US institutional investor to initiate an ETH treasury strategy, with custody and staking infrastructure provided by BitGo Trust.
This trend of active treasury adoption differs from the passive allocation of ETFs: ETFs primarily serve the exposure needs of financial products, whereas companies directly purchasing ETH and adding it to their treasury signifies that ETH is becoming an actual settlement medium and reserve asset. Whether for financial diversification, cross-border payments, or employee and R&D incentives, ETH is beginning to demonstrate the application potential of a "liquid asset."
Overall, after a previous wave of widespread pessimism, Ethereum's multiple narratives are forming a synergistic force:
Staking yield provides ETH with a treasury-like interest rate anchor;
ETFs open a channel for compliant capital allocation;
Corporate treasuries further endow ETH with the real value of reserve and payment;
The three interweave, collectively pushing ETH from a "cryptocurrency token" towards a "financial infrastructure asset."
If Bitcoin represents "digital gold" in corporate treasuries, then Ethereum's value narrative is gradually pointing towards the "liquidity core of the global ledger."
