Why Bitwise Strategist Juan Leon Calls Ethereum ($ETH) ‘The Comeback Kid of 2025’

As a seasoned analyst with over two decades of experience in the financial industry, I find Juan Leon’s perspective on Ethereum‘s potential resurgence in 2025 quite compelling. His insights into the role of Ethereum in tokenizing real-world assets, particularly given the current momentum and interest from major financial institutions, resonate with my understanding of market trends.

Juan Leon, a senior investment strategist at Bitwise Asset Management, predicts a major comeback for Ethereum in the year 2025. In a blog post dated December 17th, Leon posits that despite being outshone in 2024, Ethereum could see substantial growth due to the potential $100 trillion market of real-world assets.

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

In the last few weeks, Leon notes a significant change. He suggests that within the past ten days, there has been a massive influx of around $2 billion into Ethereum ETFs, which is a dramatic increase compared to the $250 million seen over the previous four months. Leon believes this surge is due to renewed trust in Ethereum by investors.

Leon attributes Ethereum’s position as the leading platform for converting tangible assets into tokens as a significant factor contributing to its resurgence. He considers tokenization, which involves digitizing conventional financial assets such as Treasury bills and real estate, to be an enormous prospect. By facilitating quicker, less costly, and more efficient transactions on blockchain networks, Leon proposes that tokenization could revolutionize the global financial markets.

Leon emphasizes that this is not a distant concept but an active trend gaining momentum today. Major financial institutions such as 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 tokenized fund assets will triple in 2025, with Ethereum at the center of this expansion.

Leon demonstrates Ethereum’s supremacy within this sector by highlighting its unrivaled security, decentralization, and reputation. He posits that since its introduction in 2015, Ethereum has earned a strong reputation as the most reliable platform for decentralized applications and smart contracts. Furthermore, Leon mentions that Ethereum commands approximately 81% of the market share in tokenized assets, making it the preferred choice among asset managers.

I, as a researcher, affirm that Ethereum stands out as a dependable and robust option for developers and institutions. Its robust infrastructure, reinforced by an extensive validator network, underscores its safety and reliability. This stability instills trust among those considering transferring real-world assets onto blockchain infrastructures, as it provides a secure foundation for such transformative endeavors.

Leon underscores the enormous size of the real-world asset market, estimated at $100 trillion globally. While he notes that shifting these assets to blockchain platforms will take time, he predicts fees generated from tokenized real-world assets could eventually surpass $100 billion annually. This amount would be more than 40 times Ethereum’s current year-to-date fees of $2.4 billion.

Leon mentions that more definite rules from the SEC, especially one that’s friendly towards cryptocurrencies, could hasten this transition. He thinks that beneficial regulations would make investing in Ethereum appealing, with considerable prospects for high returns.

Leon believes that tokenization is a key factor fueling Ethereum’s comeback in the future. Alongside the rising adoption of stablecoins and AI systems participating in cryptocurrency transactions, Leon anticipates that Ethereum’s role in tokenizing real-world assets will be a significant growth opportunity for 2025.

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2024-12-18 00:42