With 90% of institutions exploring stablecoin integration, van Eck believes that financial firms must adapt or risk losing relevance. This is very similar to warnings from Eric Trump. His stance also aligns with VanEck’s Ethereum ETF, which holds over $284 million in assets. Ethereum’s recent all-time high above $4,946, coupled with more than $6 billion in corporate treasury purchases, sheds some light in its growing momentum on Wall Street and institutional players.
VanEck Backs Ethereum
Jan van Eck, the CEO of investment management firm VanEck, believes that Ethereum will emerge as the dominant blockchain as banks and financial services brace for a wave of stablecoin adoption. In an interview with Fox Business, van Eck described Ethereum as “the Wall Street token,” and explained that every bank and financial institution will need a reliable blockchain to process stablecoin transactions. He argued that the ultimate winner in this race will be Ethereum or a network modeled on Ethereum’s methodology.
His comments were made after the recent passage of the Genius Act, the first federal law in the United States to focus exclusively on payment stablecoins, which President Donald Trump signed into law last month. The total stablecoin supply also surged past $280 billion, which proves the growing role of digital dollars in the financial system.
Van Eck explained that companies are under pressure to adapt quickly, and a May survey by Fireblocks showed that 90% of institutional players are exploring stablecoin integration. “Companies have to employ technology to enable stablecoin usage over the next 12 months,” he said, and added that no financial institution wants to risk turning away clients who prefer to transact in stablecoins.
(Source: Fireblocks)
Eric Trump also said earlier this year that banks must embrace crypto or risk extinction within a decade. Van Eck’s bullish stance on Ethereum is also aligned with his firm’s financial products. VanEck launched an Ethereum-based exchange-traded fund (ETF) in 2024 after receiving SEC approval. The fund tracks the price of Ethereum without holding the asset directly and currently manages over $284 million in assets.
Additionally, the comments also coincide with a period of strong market performance for Ethereum, which recently hit a new all-time high above $4,946. Institutional adoption has been a driving force behind Ethereum’s momentum, with companies increasingly holding ETH in their treasuries.
ETH’s price action over the past month (Source: CoinMarketCap)
Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan recently said that treasury adoption solved Ethereum’s narrative problem by giving traditional investors a framework they can understand, causing fresh inflows of capital. In the past month alone, corporate treasury firms like BitMine and SharpLink collectively purchased more than $6 billion worth of ETH.
