Once lauded as Bitcoin’s biggest rival, Ethereum struggles to keep up in the crypto world. Bitcoin and other tokens like solana and xrp have seen huge price increases while ethereum has only risen 40 percent in the past year. A brand new startup called Etherealize is helping out, as Ethereum’s founder Vitalik Buterin as well as the Ethereum Foundation are behind it.
Etherealize was founded by a former Wall Street bond trader Vivek Raman, with the aim to make Ethereum accessible to financial institutions. Based in New York, the company describes itself as a ‘marketing and product arm’ of Ethereum. The aim is to further Ethereum as the most trusted and safe blockchain for banks and companies.
Ethereum’s blockchain was renowned for complex financial transactions enabled by ‘smart contracts’, but the competition such as Solana is outpacing it and attracting more developers. For instance, Solana grabbed headlines with Trump-backed memecoins recently, leaving Ethereum scrambling to fight its way back to being the outlier.
The idea behind Etherealize is to undo this narrative. Then the startup wants to improve Ethereum’s adoption on Wall Street by providing tokenization solutions that would make Wall Street financial products into digital assets to trade on the blockchain. According to Raman, Ethereum’s 10 years of security and regulatory clarity put it in the best position for institutions.
However, challenges remain. There are many who have criticized Ethereum in the past for being slow to adapt to changes in the market. However, Buterin recently addressed these concerns by promising big leadership changes within the Ethereum Foundation to refocus efforts on mainstream adoption.
There is the hope that Ethereum can regain some momentum behind the push of Etherealize and others. Whether it will be able to catch up with Bitcoin and market rivals like Solana depends on how well it will entice Wall Street’s attention.
This could be the make or break moment to regain the leadership position in the crypto space for Ethereum.
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