CoinDesk
Wall Street has moved from running proof-of-concept blockchain pilots to treating public chains as production infrastructure, according to Etherealize cofounder Vivek Raman. In a CoinDesk interview, he said the shift over the past 18 months has been decisive: "A year and a half ago it was proof-of-concept, dip your toe in. Now it's: we need to jump in head first and use public chains just like we all use the internet."
Raman's pitch is that Ethereum is in a transitional phase — the infrastructure is largely built, but the wave of tokenized stocks, bonds, real estate and investment funds has yet to land onchain at scale. He argues the long institutional sales cycle, not the technology, is the lag, and that Ethereum's existing dominance in stablecoins and liquidity has created a network effect pulling the next asset classes onto the same rails.
Why it matters
The framing matters because it reframes the ETH-price-versus-fundamentals debate that has frustrated holders. If Raman is right, the disconnect isn't a signal of weak adoption — it's a timing artefact of multi-year institutional procurement cycles running behind an already-built settlement layer. The Ethereum Foundation's role is also in scope: Raman argued the foundation's recent willingness to step back is a feature, not a flaw, because "the substrate for the financial system can't have a party controlling it."
Market impact
The read for ETH is that price discovery lags the onchain migration rather than leads it. Raman pushed the long-horizon framing: "When you look at the headlines in retrospect, it'll be: the global financial system's internet moment happened on Ethereum." That doesn't move today's tape on its own, but it does set the bar for what would invalidate the thesis — a sustained reversal in tokenized-asset migration, or institutional capital visibly routing around Ethereum's liquidity hub. Watch the stablecoin and tokenized-fund flow data over the coming quarters for the early signal.
Frequently asked questions
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Who is Vivek Raman and what is Etherealize?
Vivek Raman is the cofounder of Etherealize, a company whose stated goal is bringing Ethereum to Wall Street. He spoke to CoinDesk about the shift from blockchain pilots to production deployments on Ethereum.
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Why hasn't ETH's price reflected growing institutional adoption?
Raman attributes the gap to timing. He says the long institutional sales cycle, not the technology, is the lag — infrastructure is largely in place, but tokenized assets have not yet migrated onchain at scale.
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What asset classes are Wall Street firms moving onto Ethereum?
Beyond stablecoins, Raman said the conversation is expanding to tokenized stocks, bonds, real estate and investment funds, with Ethereum's existing liquidity and stablecoin dominance acting as the pull.
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What did Raman say about the Ethereum Foundation?
Raman argued the foundation's willingness to step back is a feature, not a flaw, because the substrate for the financial system cannot have a single party controlling it. He said its job is to defend core values and ship long-horizon work like zero-knowledge proofs and quantum resistance.
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What would invalidate the Raman thesis on Ethereum?
A sustained reversal in tokenized-asset migration onto Ethereum, or visible institutional capital routing around its liquidity hub, would break the framing that ETH's price is lagging an already-built onchain migration wave.
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