Bernstein’s analysts argue that while Bitcoin still has the potential to breach the $200,000 mark this cycle, the broader narrative is shifting away from Bitcoin’s hedge-asset status and toward the underlying rails of blockchain finance. With Ethereum hosting cutting-edge developments such as real-world asset (RWA) tokenization and stablecoin issuance, institutional capital is increasingly flowing to ETH.
“It’s no surprise that as institutional awareness grows, we’re seeing a resurgence of inflows into Ethereum ETFs,” the report notes. Over the last 20 days, capital inflows to Ethereum exchange-traded products (ETPs) totaled $815 million, bringing the year-to-date net inflow to a positive $658 million. Bernstein characterizes this moment as a leap from speculative token markets to the realm of blockchain-based financial innovation.
Notably, in the week from June 2 to June 6, 2025, spot Ethereum ETFs recorded more than $280 million in net inflows—further underscoring ETH’s appeal as institutional demand accelerates.
Bernstein’s analysts also highlight that major payments giants—Visa, Mastercard, and Stripe—are already experimenting with stablecoins. This underscores the growing value of the blockchain infrastructure (“rails”) that enables such innovations, boosting the intrinsic worth of the underlying networks and their native tokens.
The report emphasizes that Ethereum is now at a classic “inflection point”—the stage where the slope of the curve may shift sharply upward, marking the transition from stagnation or decline to robust growth.
To illustrate ETH’s momentum, the asset closed May with a nearly 41% gain, propelled by factors such as deep undervaluation and renewed institutional interest early in the month.