{"id":1187,"date":"2025-05-28T10:34:48","date_gmt":"2025-05-28T10:34:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/ethereum-pivots-from-retail-trading-to-institutional-settlement-hub-bitwise-says\/"},"modified":"2025-05-28T10:34:48","modified_gmt":"2025-05-28T10:34:48","slug":"ethereum-pivots-from-retail-trading-to-institutional-settlement-hub-bitwise-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/ethereum-pivots-from-retail-trading-to-institutional-settlement-hub-bitwise-says\/","title":{"rendered":"Ethereum pivots from retail trading to institutional settlement hub, Bitwise says"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div class=\"post-detail__content blocks\">\n<p class=\"is-style-lead\">Bitwise data shows Ethereum now handles more institutional stablecoin flows than retail retail trades.<\/p>\n<p>Ethereum (ETH) isn\u2019t just for non-fungible tokens or and decentralized finance degens anymore. According to a <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/Bitwise_Europe\/status\/1927639555747860700\" target=\"_blank\">new analysis<\/a> from Bitwise Europe, the network\u2019s base layer is quietly transforming into a heavyweight settlement system for institutional money \u2014 while retail activity shifts elsewhere.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">\ud835\udc13\ud835\udc21\ud835\udc1e \ud835\udc00\ud835\udc25\ud835\udc2d \ud835\udc15\ud835\udc22\ud835\udc1e\ud835\udc30\ud83d\udd0e<\/p>\n<p>We see Ethereum evolving from a retail toll road to a freight terminal for institutional-grade use cases. The infrastructure is in place: blobspace, validator incentives, and governance upgrades.<\/p>\n<p>The challenge now? Activating demand.<\/p>\n<p>This chart breaks\u2026 <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/t2r27FCucE\" target=\"_blank\">pic.twitter.com\/t2r27FCucE<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Bitwise Europe (@Bitwise_Europe) <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Bitwise_Europe\/status\/1927639555747860700?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\">May 28, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>The data reveals that Ethereum is \u201cevolving from a retail toll road to a freight terminal for institutional-grade use cases\u201d as stablecoin transactions now account for the majority of on-chain activity. With more than $127 billion in stablecoins circulating on Ethereum\u2019s blockchain, the trend suggests institutions are increasingly using the network \u201cfor institutional treasury flows and on-chain dollars,\u201d the analysts say.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, the DeFi frenzy and NFT mania that once characterized Ethereum have largely migrated to layer-2 solutions.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>\u201cNFT activity spiked sharply during the 2021\u20132022 cycle but has since dropped significantly. This reflects both market cooling and migration to L2s, which now harbour new NFT launches.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Bitwise Europe<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Ethereum\u2019s mainnet now primarily handles core infrastructure functions: ETH transfers, regulated tokenized assets, and the fundamental systems supporting rollups and cross-chain bridges. The transition appears intentional.<\/p>\n<p>    <!-- .cn-block-related-link --><\/p>\n<p>With upgrades like Pectra already live and PeerDAS\/Fusaka coming soon, Ethereum is \u201cno longer scaling for smaller protocols,\u201d the analysts write, adding that the network is now aiming billions of layer-2 transactions, tokenized treasuries, and institutional settlement flows.<\/p>\n<p>The evolution of Ethereum\u2019s mainnet role has been foreseen by its developers for some time. In early 2024, Ethereum core developer Eric Conner suggested that the network\u2019s mainnet in the long term won\u2019t serve as the platform where daily users would want to transact tokens.<\/p>\n<p>Addressing the prevalent concern about high transaction fees on Ethereum, Conner pointed out that while Ethereum\u2019s mainnet may not be the ideal platform for daily transactions in the long term, it will still serve as the foundation for decentralized applications and settlement layers.<\/p>\n<p>    <!-- .cn-block-related-link --><\/p><\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bitwise data shows Ethereum now handles more institutional stablecoin flows than retail retail trades. Ethereum (ETH) isn\u2019t just for non-fungible tokens or and decentralized finance degens anymore. According to a&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1064,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1187","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cryptocurrency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1187","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1187"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1187\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1188,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1187\/revisions\/1188"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}