Ethereum (ETH) hit a new 2021 high in August, reaching $4,945, exceeding a market cap of $600 billion, and the exchange balance hit a record low.
Corporate bonds and spot ETFs currently control nearly 11% of the circulating supply. By all structural indicators, it should feel like ETH is having a moment.
it's not. No Bored Apes sells for seven figures. TikTok commentators don't get buzz. ETH appreciation in 2025 is real, measurable, and completely clinical. This is a quiet reallocation by institutions that treat Ethereum not as a speculative transaction, but as yield-producing infrastructure.
The cultural void raises more poignant questions. Is ETH moving from layer 1 casinos to institutional plumbing, and what will price discovery look like if buyers don't care about the hype?
ETH leaves exchanges
The supply history is clear. According to Coinglass data, as of December 21, only 10.5% of ETH was on centralized exchanges, one of the lowest shares since the network's inception and a 43% decline since July.
Additionally, over 35.6 million ETH is locked in staking as of December 20th.
This is operational infrastructure, not speculative hoarding. The composition of Nansen’s holders shows that the largest addresses are staking contracts, institutional investors, ETF wrappers, and not whale wallets.
Currency float is outflowing, but not into day trading accounts. It's moving into pipes like layer 2 bridges, protocol restaking, and treasury vaults.
A company's balance sheet tells the same story. Corporate holders and Spot Ethereum ETFs are estimated to currently control 10.72% of the circulating supply, according to Treasury Department data on December 19th. According to data from Strategic ETH Reserve, this is split into 5.63% corporate holdings and 5.09% ETFs.
BitMine has accumulated over 4 million ETH, representing 3.36% of the total supply, and has clear plans to reach 5%.
These are not venture bets, but strategic positions tied to Ethereum's role in stablecoin payments and tokenized asset rails.
ETF flows confirm the institutional tilt. Year-to-date, ETH-linked ETPs have seen approximately $12.7 billion in net inflows, while the U.S. Spot Ethereum ETF has seen $12.4 billion in net inflows.
Infrastructure is being built. The allocator is here.
ETH as infrastructure, not just a beta version
In the 2025 research cycle, we started treating ETH as a yield-producing infrastructure rather than a leveraged bet on tokens.
Citi’s September memo, which set a year-end target of $4,300, is clear that the driving force is demand for Ethereum-based stablecoins and tokenization, not speculative trading. The bank emphasizes staking yield as a differentiator for its corporate portfolio and envisions a bull market of $6,400 if stablecoin adoption progresses on an optimistic trajectory.
Binance Research argued that if stablecoin payments and Layer 2 scaling continue on the current trend, ETH’s valuation logic will shift from a “deflationary asset” to an “ecological infrastructure asset.”
Ethereum controls 66.6% of the tokenized real world assets (RWA) market, or $12.5 billion, according to data from rwa.xyz.
Ethereum’s growth in RWA tokenization since 2024 is impressive, increasing from $1.5 billion, representing a 735% increase from its current size.
Stablecoin usage also skyrocketed. According to Artemis data, Ethereum had a monthly stablecoin trading volume of $1.6 trillion and stablecoin supply of $172.1 billion as of December 21. Supply growth is 141% compared to $71.3 billion in January 2024.
The theories emerging from these reports are consistent. ETH is increasingly being treated as a rail asset in a yield-producing system in professional portfolios.
That means Ethereum is needed to serve as the plumbing for the tokenized dollars, securities, and derivatives that institutions are already building.
cultural void
NFTs are the most obvious cultural contrast. According to data from CryptoSlam, NFT art sales fell by about 87%, from nearly $16.5 billion in 2021 to just $2.2 billion in 2025.
LG shut down its Art Lab NFT Marketplace, Tennis Australia's Art Ball Collection saw its lowest price drop by about 90%, Cryptopunks was transferred to a non-profit organization, and the press bluntly observed that the “era of making money” was over.
According to Google Trends data, the number of crypto-related searches in the US is still well below the previous cycle's peak and will only rise to 100 if prices rise from July to August.
The composition of participants supports the shift.
Retail mania leans more towards individual US stock trading than altcoins. Ethereum ETP flows have been fluctuating between large inflow weeks and very large outflow weeks, resembling a tug-of-war between structured products rather than a one-sided retail rush.
What this means for price discovery
The mismatch between accumulation and attention creates a medium-term puzzle.
Traditional price discovery relies on a combination of underlying flows and narrative momentum. Ethereum in 2025 will have the former, not the latter.
ETFs and government bonds provide slow and steady demand. Staking locks supply and tokenization brings real-world assets to Ethereum.
But the cultural engine that drove 2021, consisting of retail users who treat every transaction like a statement, has stalled.
This is important because Ethereum's valuation has always been partially reflexive.
The more applications built on a network, the more valuable the network becomes. This is also because developers expect the value of the network to increase.
This virtuous cycle depends on momentum, not just infrastructure. When corporate buyers treat ETH as a tool to settle tokenized bonds rather than a bet on their financial future, the asset stabilizes, but its narrative arc flattens.
The wire shows the purchase of ETH. Data shows that supply from exchanges is drying up. What's missing is cultural proof that this matters to anyone outside the industry.
Ethereum may be moving from speculative layer 1 to financial plumbing, and if so, 2021 may not be the same again.
The question is whether the next phase of a stable, institutional, infrastructure-driven trend can maintain the reputation once assumed by retail mania.
