A $14 Trillion Wall Street Firm Just Changed Everything for Ethereum

“When I came up with Ethereum, my first first thought was, ‘OK, this thing is too good to be true.’ As it turned out, the core Ethereum idea was good – fundamentally, completely sound.”

– Vitalik Buterin, founder of Ethereum

July 18, 2025 — Back in 2022, I put out a video where I argued Ethereum wasn’t just another cryptocurrency…

It was starting to look like a global financial system that could one day compete with the U.S. dollar

Fast forward to this past week, where Ethereum (ETH) has jumped 22%, blowing past $3,400 and outperforming nearly every other major asset class.

Turn Your Images On

Ethereum prices have broken higher in recent weeks as cryptocurrency adoption accelerates
Source: coinmarketcap.com

Some analysts have attributed this rally to renewed optimism around crypto ETFs or broader market momentum.

Others pointed to Ethereum’s surging activity across Layer‑2 networks, which act like express lanes built on top of Ethereum to make transactions faster and cheaper.

But I believe something else played a much bigger role in this week’s ETH rally.

And it came from Fidelity.

The 78-year-old financial giant, which manages over $14 trillion in assets, just published a report that backs up exactly what I said back in 2022.

According to Fidelity, Ethereum isn’t a tech investment.

It’s a sovereign digital economy.

Here’s what that means…

Continued Below…

A Protocol With GDP

According to this recently released report, Fidelity’s analysts are now tracking Ethereum the same way governments track nations.

They’re measuring its GDP.

Of course, they can’t do this by measuring tax receipts or industrial output.

Instead, they get to this number by measuring ETH’s daily on-chain activity.

Ethereum is currently processing over 3 million daily users across its expanding web of Layer-2 chains like Arbitrum, Base and Optimism.

Turn Your Images On

Ethereum’s transactions and total value continue to rise, signaling increasing value of Ethereum itself, which should translate to higher prices
Source: Fidelity

These networks have become critical infrastructure, supporting everything from gaming and trading to social apps and decentralized finance.

Every time someone swaps tokens, mints an NFT or runs a smart contract on these networks, they pay a fee in ETH.

These are called gas fees, and they function like transaction taxes.

The more demand there is for Ethereum’s blockspace, the more users pay in gas.

And right now, that demand is sky high.

In fact, Ethereum generates millions of dollars in gas fees every single day.

According to Fidelity, 47% of those fees come from financial applications, while 25% come from trading and 6% are generated from art and entertainment.

Turn Your Images On

Ethereum continues to demonstrate a wide variety of use cases.
Source: Fidelity

This is the sign of a growing, diversified digital economy.

Yet contrary to what you might think, as more activity flows into Ethereum’s economy, ETH becomes more valuable.

That’s because ETH is the price of admission to use the network.

You can’t transact on Ethereum without paying gas. And you can’t pay gas in dollars or stablecoins.

Only ETH.

Every transaction, every contract and every app requires ETH to function.

In that sense, ETH isn’t just a token. It’s the currency of a digital nation.

And like any currency, how it’s issued and how much of it exists matters.

That’s why Ethereum’s approach to managing ETH supply is one of the most important design decisions it’s ever made.

Back in 2021, Ethereum implemented a major change to how fees are handled. Instead of paying all gas fees to miners or validators, a portion of those fees is now burned.

That means they are removed from circulation permanently.

The more demand there is for Ethereum’s blockspace, the more ETH gets destroyed. And the more ETH gets destroyed, the more valuable the remaining supply becomes.

It’s just like a central bank tightening the money supply in response to inflation.

Only there’s no central banker.

It’s all hard-coded.

Here’s My Take

You might have heard the argument that Ethereum is “the world computer.”

It means that Ethereum can run software, just like your laptop or phone. But instead of a single device, it runs across thousands of computers around the world.

It’s a decentralized platform where anyone can deploy code that executes exactly as written, but without a company in the middle.

In practice, this means Ethereum isn’t just a ledger for sending money.

It’s a programmable system where people can build financial apps, social networks, games and even entire companies…

All without asking permission from a central authority.

And the currency that powers it all is ETH.

Nearly three-quarters of all decentralized trades are settled in ETH.

The most trusted stablecoins are backed by ETH reserves.

And staking ETH, which involves locking it up to help secure the network, now yields regular returns that resemble a national bond market.

Meanwhile, Ethereum’s Layer-2 chains are onboarding users at a rate that would make any fintech company jealous.

Coinbase’s own L2, Base, has crossed a million daily users. Arbitrum and Optimism are close behind.

And each one increases the velocity and depth of economic activity flowing through Ethereum’s ecosystem.

In other words, ETH doesn’t behave like a stock.

It behaves like a currency, with a yield curve, a burn mechanism, a programmable monetary supply and a growing GDP.

No wonder Fidelity is treating it like a sovereign asset.

And right now, it’s one that’s growing faster than nearly any country on Earth.

Regards,

Ian King
Chief Strategist, Banyan Hill Publishing and Grey Swan Investment Fraternity

P.S. from Andrew: We love bitcoin as a long-term means of saving in the digital age. And we like Ethereum as the leading protocol trade.

Meanwhile, the crypto price cycle suggests that Ethereum and other top altcoins are ready to run higher.

This is a window of opportunity where you could buy altcoins, enjoy a massive rally, then convert those profits into bitcoin (or cash/gold) during a crypto winter.

If a new crypto boom is underway and you’re looking for the best places to invest, Ian has just released new research on the top opportunities.

Ian notes that Trump’s new digital asset mandate could change everything starting July 22… and kick off a $6 trillion crypto boom. It’s worth checking out if you’re looking for a space that could take off over the summer as the stock market starts to trade more violently sideways.

Your thoughts? Please send them here: addison@greyswanfraternity.com

“When I came up with Ethereum, my first first thought was, ‘OK, this thing is too good to be true.’ As it turned out, the core Ethereum idea was good – fundamentally, completely sound.”

– Vitalik Buterin, founder of Ethereum

July 18, 2025 — Back in 2022, I put out a video where I argued Ethereum wasn’t just another cryptocurrency…

It was starting to look like a global financial system that could one day compete with the U.S. dollar

Fast forward to this past week, where Ethereum (ETH) has jumped 22%, blowing past $3,400 and outperforming nearly every other major asset class.

Turn Your Images On

Ethereum prices have broken higher in recent weeks as cryptocurrency adoption accelerates
Source: coinmarketcap.com

Some analysts have attributed this rally to renewed optimism around crypto ETFs or broader market momentum.

Others pointed to Ethereum’s surging activity across Layer‑2 networks, which act like express lanes built on top of Ethereum to make transactions faster and cheaper.

But I believe something else played a much bigger role in this week’s ETH rally.

And it came from Fidelity.

The 78-year-old financial giant, which manages over $14 trillion in assets, just published a report that backs up exactly what I said back in 2022.

According to Fidelity, Ethereum isn’t a tech investment.

It’s a sovereign digital economy.

Here’s what that means…

Continued Below…

A Protocol With GDP

According to this recently released report, Fidelity’s analysts are now tracking Ethereum the same way governments track nations.

They’re measuring its GDP.

Of course, they can’t do this by measuring tax receipts or industrial output.

Instead, they get to this number by measuring ETH’s daily on-chain activity.

Ethereum is currently processing over 3 million daily users across its expanding web of Layer-2 chains like Arbitrum, Base and Optimism.

Turn Your Images On

Ethereum’s transactions and total value continue to rise, signaling increasing value of Ethereum itself, which should translate to higher prices
Source: Fidelity

These networks have become critical infrastructure, supporting everything from gaming and trading to social apps and decentralized finance.

Every time someone swaps tokens, mints an NFT or runs a smart contract on these networks, they pay a fee in ETH.

These are called gas fees, and they function like transaction taxes.

The more demand there is for Ethereum’s blockspace, the more users pay in gas.

And right now, that demand is sky high.

In fact, Ethereum generates millions of dollars in gas fees every single day.

According to Fidelity, 47% of those fees come from financial applications, while 25% come from trading and 6% are generated from art and entertainment.

Turn Your Images On

Ethereum continues to demonstrate a wide variety of use cases.
Source: Fidelity

This is the sign of a growing, diversified digital economy.

Yet contrary to what you might think, as more activity flows into Ethereum’s economy, ETH becomes more valuable.

That’s because ETH is the price of admission to use the network.

You can’t transact on Ethereum without paying gas. And you can’t pay gas in dollars or stablecoins.

Only ETH.

Every transaction, every contract and every app requires ETH to function.

In that sense, ETH isn’t just a token. It’s the currency of a digital nation.

And like any currency, how it’s issued and how much of it exists matters.

That’s why Ethereum’s approach to managing ETH supply is one of the most important design decisions it’s ever made.

Back in 2021, Ethereum implemented a major change to how fees are handled. Instead of paying all gas fees to miners or validators, a portion of those fees is now burned.

That means they are removed from circulation permanently.

The more demand there is for Ethereum’s blockspace, the more ETH gets destroyed. And the more ETH gets destroyed, the more valuable the remaining supply becomes.

It’s just like a central bank tightening the money supply in response to inflation.

Only there’s no central banker.

It’s all hard-coded.

Here’s My Take

You might have heard the argument that Ethereum is “the world computer.”

It means that Ethereum can run software, just like your laptop or phone. But instead of a single device, it runs across thousands of computers around the world.

It’s a decentralized platform where anyone can deploy code that executes exactly as written, but without a company in the middle.

In practice, this means Ethereum isn’t just a ledger for sending money.

It’s a programmable system where people can build financial apps, social networks, games and even entire companies…

All without asking permission from a central authority.

And the currency that powers it all is ETH.

Nearly three-quarters of all decentralized trades are settled in ETH.

The most trusted stablecoins are backed by ETH reserves.

And staking ETH, which involves locking it up to help secure the network, now yields regular returns that resemble a national bond market.

Meanwhile, Ethereum’s Layer-2 chains are onboarding users at a rate that would make any fintech company jealous.

Coinbase’s own L2, Base, has crossed a million daily users. Arbitrum and Optimism are close behind.

And each one increases the velocity and depth of economic activity flowing through Ethereum’s ecosystem.

In other words, ETH doesn’t behave like a stock.

It behaves like a currency, with a yield curve, a burn mechanism, a programmable monetary supply and a growing GDP.

No wonder Fidelity is treating it like a sovereign asset.

And right now, it’s one that’s growing faster than nearly any country on Earth.

Regards,

Ian King
Chief Strategist, Banyan Hill Publishing and Grey Swan Investment Fraternity

P.S. from Andrew: We love bitcoin as a long-term means of saving in the digital age. And we like Ethereum as the leading protocol trade.

Meanwhile, the crypto price cycle suggests that Ethereum and other top altcoins are ready to run higher.

This is a window of opportunity where you could buy altcoins, enjoy a massive rally, then convert those profits into bitcoin (or cash/gold) during a crypto winter.

If a new crypto boom is underway and you’re looking for the best places to invest, Ian has just released new research on the top opportunities.

Your thoughts? Please send them here: addison@greyswanfraternity.com

Our forecast will feel obvious in hindsight and controversial in advance — the hallmark of a Grey Swan.

Most analysts we speak to are thinking in terms of the history of Western conflict.

They expect full-frontal military engagement.

Beijing, from our modest perch, prefers resolution because resolution compounds its power. Why sacrifice the workshop of the world, when cajoling and bribery will do?

Taiwan will not fall.

It will merge.

Wars, technology races, and political upheavals — all of them rest on fiscal capacity.

In 2026, that capacity will tighten across the developed world simultaneously. Democracies will discover that generosity financed by debt carries conditions, whether voters approve of them or not.

Bond markets will not shout so much as clear their throats. Repeatedly.

Taken together, the seven Grey Swans of 2025 behaved less like isolated events and more like interlocking stories readers already recognize.

The year moved in phases. A sharp April selloff cleared leverage quickly. Policy shifted toward tax relief, lighter regulation, and renewed tolerance for liquidity. Innovations began to slowly dominate the marketplace conversation – from Dollar 2.0 digital assets to AI-powered applications in all manner of commercial enterprises, ranging from airline and hotel bookings to driverless taxis and robots.

Back in April, when we published what we called the Trump Great Reset Strategy, we described the grand realignment we believed President Trump and his acolytes were embarking on in three phases.

At the time, it read like a conceptual map. As the months passed, it began to feel like a set of operating instructions written in advance of turbulence.

As you can expect, any grandiose plan would get all kinds of blowback… but this year exhibited all manner of Trump Derangement Syndrome on top of the difficulty of steering a sclerotic empire clear of the rocky shores.

The “phases” were never about optimism or pessimism. They were about sequencing — how stress surfaces, how systems adapt, and what must hold before confidence can regenerate. And in the end, what do we do with our money?!

Our forecast will feel obvious in hindsight and controversial in advance — the hallmark of a Grey Swan.

Most analysts we speak to are thinking in terms of the history of Western conflict.

They expect full-frontal military engagement.

Beijing, from our modest perch, prefers resolution because resolution compounds its power. Why sacrifice the workshop of the world, when cajoling and bribery will do?

Taiwan will not fall.

It will merge.

Wars, technology races, and political upheavals — all of them rest on fiscal capacity.

In 2026, that capacity will tighten across the developed world simultaneously. Democracies will discover that generosity financed by debt carries conditions, whether voters approve of them or not.

Bond markets will not shout so much as clear their throats. Repeatedly.

Taken together, the seven Grey Swans of 2025 behaved less like isolated events and more like interlocking stories readers already recognize.

Back in April, when we published what we called the Trump Great Reset Strategy, we described the grand realignment we believed President Trump and his acolytes were embarking on in three phases.

At the time, it read like a conceptual map. As the months passed, it began to feel like a set of operating instructions written in advance of turbulence.