Ethereum backers launch institutional adoption group

• Ethereum (CRYPTO:ETH) supporters have launched Ethereum Institutional, a nonprofit focused on increasing adoption by banks, asset managers and financial institutions.
• The organisation is backed by Ethereum co-founder Joe Lubin, BitMine Immersion Technologies and SharpLink as competition for institutional capital intensifies.
• The group plans to expand into additional financial centres while providing research, education and industry standards for institutional participants.

Ethereum (CRYPTO:ETH) supporters have launched Ethereum Institutional, an independent nonprofit backed by Joe Lubin, BitMine Immersion Technologies and SharpLink to strengthen engagement with financial institutions.

The organisation said it aims to provide a single point of contact for banks, asset managers and other institutions exploring Ethereum, as rival blockchains compete for a larger share of institutional digital asset activity.

Ethereum Institutional said the ecosystem has lacked “a credible, independent front door” for engaging financial institutions.

The nonprofit plans to expand beyond New York, London, Hong Kong and Singapore while offering education, standards development, industry research and institutional events, and Token Terminal data shows Ethereum hosts nearly 58% of the tokenised real-world asset market while DeFiLlama estimates it supports roughly half of the US$311 billion stablecoin market.

Standard Chartered's Head of Digital Assets Research Geoff Kendrick said the launch of Ethereum Institutional and the earlier creation of Ethlabs have positive implications for Ethereum, its layer-2 networks and decentralised finance protocols.

The initiative comes as the Ethereum Foundation continues restructuring following leadership changes, workforce reductions of about 20% and the departure of co-executive director Hsiao-Wei Wang last month.

Ether was trading above US$1,620 with a market capitalisation of about US$195.4 billion at the time of publication, remaining below the level above US$4,000 reached in October.

At the time of reporting, Ethereum price was $1,608.82.