
Ethereum Co-Founder Courting Heavyweight Investors: Will Sovereign Wealth Funds Boost ETH Adoption?
Consensys CEO and Ethereum co-founder Joe Lubin said Tuesday that there's sizable interest from institutions in building on ETH.[...]
Ethereum Co-founder Lubin Reveals Talks with Sovereign Wealth Funds and Banks for Ethereum Infrastructure
Joe Lubin, the co-founder of Ethereum and CEO of Consensys, has disclosed that his firm has been in discussions with "major sovereign wealth funds and banks" in a "very big" country about potentially building on the Ethereum network. This suggests a growing interest in the Ethereum ecosystem from institutional investors and nation-state actors.
In an interview on the "Fomo Hour" podcast, Lubin spoke extensively about Ethereum, predicting that the start of a new, ETH-driven decentralized supercycle may be on the horizon. He emphasized the structural issues in the current financial system, stating, "We're at the end of a supercycle, effectively, and the excesses of the financial industry, the financialization of America, the hollowing out of the middle class in America, is leading us all to essentially the end of this supercycle."
Lubin believes that "decentralized protocols are the answer to bringing forth a new global financial system," and the potential involvement of sovereign wealth funds and banks in the Ethereum ecosystem could be a significant step in that direction. He suggested that the path forward may involve infrastructure on the Ethereum layer-1 and their own "constructs at layer-2."
The news comes as Lubin and Consensys have recently led a $425 million investment into publicly traded SharpLink Gaming, which will establish an Ethereum treasury. This move differs from the Bitcoin-focused treasury strategies popularized by companies like MicroStrategy, as SharpLink aims to utilize Ethereum proactively through staking, restaking, and DeFi strategies.
Lubin remains optimistic about Ethereum's long-term prospects, despite the asset's recent price underperformance. He believes Ethereum will eventually become the "gold standard in trust" and may even surpass Bitcoin in value, stating, "Will that be more valuable than Bitcoin? Seems very likely."
As the Ethereum ecosystem continues to evolve and attract institutional interest, the potential implications for the broader crypto market and the future of decentralized finance remain intriguing.