Ethereum Primed for Resurgence in 2025 as Tokenization Trend Gains Momentum

Juan Leon, senior investment strategist at Bitwise Asset Management, believes Ethereum is primed for a significant resurgence in 2025.

Investment strategist Juan Leon of Bitwise Asset Management believes that a significant resurgence is on the horizon for Ethereum in 2025. In a blog post on Dec. 17, Leon argues that despite being overshadowed in 2024, Ethereum is poised to gain massively from the $100 trillion market for real-world assets.

While Bitcoin and Solana dominated headlines this year, Leon points out that Ethereum remained largely overlooked. Bitcoin surged on the back of spot Bitcoin ETFs and historic capital inflows, posting a 130% year-to-date return. Solana, buoyed by retail-driven meme coin speculation, delivered a 106% gain. In comparison, Ethereum's 66% year-to-date return seemed lackluster.

However, a pivotal shift has occurred in recent weeks, according to Leon. Over the past 10 days, spot Ethereum ETFs attracted $2 billion in net inflows, in stark contrast to the $250 million recorded over the preceding four months. This, says Leon, indicates renewed investor confidence in Ethereum.

According to Leon, a driving factor behind Ethereum's comeback is its role as the dominant platform for tokenizing real-world assets. He believes that tokenization, the process of digitizing traditional financial assets like Treasury bills and real estate, presents a massive opportunity. By enabling faster, cheaper and more efficient transactions on blockchain networks, Leon suggests that tokenization could transform global financial markets.

This is not a distant concept but an active trend gaining steam today, Leon emphasizes. Major financial institutions like BlackRock and UBS are already bringing tokenized real-world assets on-chain, spanning government securities, commodities, real estate and private equity. For instance, BlackRock operates a $578 million tokenized Treasury fund, and Leon predicts that tokenized fund assets will triple in 2025, with Ethereum at the center of this expansion.

Leon credits Ethereum's dominance in this space to its unmatched security, decentralization and track record. Since launching in 2015, Ethereum has established itself as the most trusted platform for decentralized applications and smart contracts, he argues. Moreover, Ethereum holds 81% of the market share in tokenized assets, making it the platform of choice for most asset managers.

Due to its proven infrastructure and expansive validator network, Ethereum serves as a safe and reliable choice for developers and institutions, adds Leon. This stability, he suggests, instills confidence for those seeking to shift real-world assets onto blockchain rails.

Leon highlights the vast size of the real-world asset market, which is pegged at $100 trillion globally. While shifting these assets to blockchain platforms will take time, he predicts that fees generated from tokenized real-world assets could eventually cross $100 billion annually. This amount is over 40 times Ethereum's current year-to-date fees of $2.4 billion.

A U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that supports pro-crypto policies and provides greater regulatory clarity could accelerate this shift, adds Leon. Favorable regulations, he believes, would make Ethereum an attractive investment opportunity with the potential for substantial gains.

Leon identifies tokenization as one of the key drivers of Ethereum's resurgence. In conjunction with other growing trends, such as the increasing use of stablecoins and AI agents engaging in crypto transactions, Leon sees Ethereum's central role in tokenizing real-world assets as a major opportunity for growth in 2025.