Investor Vivek: ETH Will Become Core Collateral Asset for Institutions
Investor Vivek pointed out in a public speech that as the Ethereum ecosystem expands, institutional allocation of ETH will become an "inevitable" trend. He believes that in the global asset tokenization process, there is a need for an asset that is not controlled by a single country and can serve as neutral collateral, and ETH possesses this attribute.
He emphasized that the key value of ETH lies in its "uncensorable trust foundation," which can be used for inter-party transactions and collateral systems. Once this positioning is accepted by institutions, its valuation will be repriced to multi-trillion dollar levels. Similar views have appeared in some English crypto research and institutional reports, viewing ETH as the foundational collateral asset of the on-chain financial system.
Source: Public Information
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This definition's core is shifting ETH from an "application platform token" to a "global collateral." In traditional financial systems, collateral determines the boundaries of credit expansion; the importance of U.S. Treasuries lies not in their yield but in their function as a risk-free asset for collateral. Vivek's judgment attempts to position ETH in this role.
The so-called "neutral asset" essentially serves as a supplementary logic to the dollar system. Dollar settlements rely on the U.S. financial and legal systems, while ETH, as a decentralized network asset, is theoretically not directly controlled by a single sovereign. If global transactions and assets gradually move on-chain, the demand for "non-sovereign collateral" will naturally rise.
However, the premise for this logic is extremely stringent: ETH must achieve "quasi-sovereign asset" levels in terms of security, liquidity, price stability, and regulatory acceptance. Currently, its price volatility and regulatory uncertainty are still significantly higher than traditional collateral, which determines that in the short term, it is closer to being a "high-risk collateral asset" rather than a "foundational collateral asset."
From a longer-term perspective, this narrative belongs to an attempt at "collateral diversification." Against the backdrop of continuously expanding global debt and the relative scarcity of quality collateral, the market is indeed searching for new credit anchors. If the on-chain financial system continues to expand, ETH could potentially become one type of collateral, but whether it can enter the core layer depends on its ability to cross the institutional threshold from "crypto asset" to "financial infrastructure."