The growth of stablecoins towards the $500 billion mark is XEM as a major driver for activity on Ethereum.
Ethereum's TVL could increase tenfold by 2026 as institutional participation deepens and new use cases emerge, according to Joseph Chalom, co-CEO of Sharplink Gaming .
This forecast comes amid a surge in the presence of major financial institutions on public blockchains, as well as accelerating Capital flows into Tokenize assets. Sharplink Gaming is currently the second-largest listed company holding Ethereum, owning 797,704 ETH, worth approximately $2.33 billion, according to data from Ethereum Treasureries.
Ethereum's TVL is expected to surge as the stablecoin market heads toward $500 billion.
Chalom stated that Ethereum's next growth phase will be less reliant on retail speculation and more driven by stablecoins, Tokenize assets, and infrastructure for institutional migration to on-chain. In a blog post on X, he predicted the stablecoin market size will reach $500 billion by the end of next year, an increase of approximately 62% from its current level of nearly $308 billion.
With over half of global stablecoin activity taking place on Ethereum, Chalom believes that the issuance and trading of stablecoins will be able to significantly boost the network's TVL.
Beyond stablecoins, he also highlighted Tokenize real-world assets (RWAs) as a key catalyst. Chalom expects the Tokenize RWA market to reach $300 billion by 2026, as the industry shifts from single products to large-scale fund structures represented on the blockchain. Over the past year, institutions such as JPMorgan , Franklin Templeton , and BlackRock have expanded their testing and deployment of Tokenize products, demonstrating increasing acceptance from traditional finance.
According to defillama , Ethereum's TVL is currently around $68.2 billion. A significant increase would likely reflect greater institutional participation rather than just speculative DeFi activity. A rise in TVL is often XEM as a measure of network utility and Capital commitment, thereby influencing long-term market confidence.
However, price movements haven't kept pace with the adoption story. Ether has fallen more than 12% in the past 12 months and is trading around $2,924, according to CoinMarketCap . Crypto analyst Benjamin Cowen recently stated that Ether is unlikely to reach new highs in the short term due to market conditions tied to Bitcoin's cycle.
National wealth funds could increase their exposure to Ethereum 5–10 times by 2026.
However, Chalom focuses on structural demand rather than short-term price volatility. He expects sovereign wealth funds to increase their Ethereum holdings and exposure to Tokenize by 5–10 times in the next year, as competitive pressure among large Capital allocators intensifies. He believes that staying on the sidelines used to be the safest option, but this is gradually changing.
Chalom also predicts that on-chain AI and market-driven technologies will gain widespread acceptance by 2026, further adding activity to the Ethereum ecosystem. Meanwhile, ETHZilla , backed by Peter Thiel, has begun scaling back the strategy that once made it one of the most active Ethereum holders, selling off $74.5 million worth of ETH, indicating a shift away from a purely crypto treasury model.
