Bernstein: Three Factors Driving ETH Surge are Stablecoin and Tokenization Boom, Layer 2 Institutionalization, and ETH Short Covering

According to The Block, Ethereum has generally underperformed in this cycle, but its price has suddenly surged by 65% in the past 30 days, nearly doubling since its low in April. Bernstein analysts outlined three factors behind this rise: the stablecoin and tokenization boom, Layer 2 institutionalization, and ETH short covering. Analysts stated that this cycle is expanding beyond the store of value use case, refocusing on the underlying blockchain, with Ethereum representing 51% of the total stablecoin supply, becoming a key platform representative of this growth trend. Traditional financial giants like BlackRock and Franklin Templeton are also advancing the adoption of the real-world asset tokenization market, which is currently valued at over $22 billion, with Ethereum once again dominating. Additionally, Ethereum Layer 2 is playing an increasingly important role in institutional crypto infrastructure. The third driver of ETH's recent strong performance is more tactical. Over the past 12 to 18 months, crypto hedge funds have often used ETH as a delta-neutral hedging tool—going long on BTC and SOL while shorting ETH. However, they state that as the market narrative shifts towards institutional adoption of blockchain and stablecoin payments, and uses beyond its store of value function, the rationale for ETH's underperformance is becoming increasingly difficult to justify.