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A Bank of Italy economist has warned that a sharp fall in ether’s price could undermine Ethereum’s role as a financial settlement infrastructure.
The research argues that Ethereum now functions as critical infrastructure for payments, stablecoins and onchain lending rather than just a speculative crypto network.
Claudia Biancotti said a collapse in ETH value could lead validators to shut down, weakening network security and reliability.
She warned that reduced validator participation could slow block production and erode transaction finality during periods of market stress.
The study said disruptions would affect applications processing billions of dollars in transactions each day.
Biancotti described the risk as shifting from market volatility to infrastructure fragility as Ethereum becomes embedded in finance.
The analysis noted that proof-of-stake incentives depend on ETH retaining sufficient value to secure the network.
The findings echo concerns from global institutions about systemically important crypto infrastructure.
Regulators may need to decide whether public blockchains are suitable for regulated finance or require safeguards such as backup settlement plans.
The paper signals that Ethereum’s token economics are increasingly viewed as a matter of financial stability rather than an internal crypto issue.
At the time of reporting, Ethereum price was $3,325.80.