Industry figures say 2026 could mark a turning point for Ethereum, as major financial institutions deepen their involvement and tokenization shifts toward yield-generating assets integrated with decentralized finance (DeFi).
Despite hitting a new all-time high this year, ETH’s performance has underwhelmed some long-time supporters when compared to the Ethereum network’s technical and economic progress. The project still sits between Bitcoin’s reputation as a store of value and the broader field of crypto tokens, without having reached Bitcoin-level status.
Each year, analysts and observers reassess Ethereum’s prospects. For 2026, the central question is whether the asset will finally see a sustained and substantial rise in value.
Some market participants argue that moment is near. Vivek Raman, co-founder of Ethereum-focused Wall Street firm Etherealize, told Decrypt that the network’s long-anticipated mass adoption is arriving.
“It’s now,” Raman said of Ethereum’s adoption moment. “And I don’t say that lightly.”
Raman said he has watched major Wall Street firms increase their engagement with Ethereum this year and expects ETH to become the “default asset” for a growing segment of the traditional economy moving on-chain. After roughly a decade of development, he believes a “hockey stick adoption moment” is finally emerging.
Tokenization is central to that thesis. As more assets are represented on-chain and institutions become more sophisticated in how they use them, advocates say this could bring billions of dollars in additional value into the Ethereum ecosystem.
James Smith, head of ecosystem at the Ethereum Foundation, drew a distinction between early experiments and the next phase of tokenization.
“Tokenizing a Treasury bill was 2024,” Smith told Decrypt. “Making it work inside DeFi is 2026.”
Smith expects that purely experimental tokenized assets will fade, while instruments that generate yield or can be used as collateral in DeFi will gain traction and attract capital. That shift could significantly increase the volume of value flowing through Ethereum-based applications, reinforcing ETH’s role as the native asset powering the network.
Supporters also see this trend as a step toward ETH evolving into a store of value, complementing Bitcoin rather than replacing it. However, they caution against expecting Ethereum to close the gap with Bitcoin in the near term.
“ETH, in the end, is going to elevate to becoming a store of value alongside Bitcoin,” Raman said. “But it’s basically five years before where Bitcoin’s inflection point was.”
For now, Ethereum’s backers are watching whether institutional adoption, tokenization, and DeFi integration in 2026 can provide the catalyst that long-time holders have been waiting for.