TL;DR
Ethereum advocacy firm Etherealize has secured $40 million in fresh funding to accelerate its mission of bringing the blockchain to the heart of institutional finance. The raise, led by Electric Capital and Paradigm, comes during a week when public companies have collectively added over $1.2 billion worth of Ether to their treasuries, signaling a growing corporate appetite for the asset.
Etherealize, launched in January with backing from the Ethereum Foundation and co-founder Vitalik Buterin, aims to bridge the knowledge gap between Wall Street and Ethereum. Etherealize’s Co-founder Grant Hummer has previously noted that while Bitcoin has seen significant institutional inflows, ETH remains underrepresented in trading volumes and ETF participation. The new capital will be used to expand educational outreach and build tools tailored for institutional engagement with Ethereum.
Etherealize plans to channel the $40 million into developing infrastructure for privately trading and settling tokenized assets. This includes a settlement platform designed for institutional tokenization workflows and applications for markets in tokenized fixed income products such as bonds. Co-founder Danny Ryan emphasized that Ethereum has evolved into a “battle-tested, open financial network” and that the raise will help upgrade institutional finance to more modern, secure, and globally accessible systems.
The funding announcement coincides with a surge in ETH acquisitions by public firms. According to Strategic ETH Reserve data, companies have added $1.26 billion worth of ETH this week alone. The Ether Machine led with a 150,000 ETH purchase valued at $654 million, while BitMine Immersion Technologies matched that volume and added another $65 million worth midweek. Sharplink Gaming and Hong Kong-listed Yunfeng Financial also made significant buys, worth $176 million and $44 million respectively.
Nick Forster, founder of crypto options platform Derive, sees the combination of corporate buying and potential Federal Reserve rate cuts as catalysts for ETH’s price. He estimates a 44% chance of ETH reaching $6,000 by year-end, with 30% odds of hitting that mark by October. Ether is currently trading just under $4,400, up 1.8% on the day but still 11.5% below its late August peak.
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