American Bank Citizens said ether. could surpass $10,000 in the next two years, citing growing adoption, growing institutional inflows, and shrinking supply.
The bank said it expects accelerated adoption of Ethereum to provide powerful tailwinds for the blockchain’s native ether token, pointing to the network’s entrenched position as the leading smart contract platform.
Ethereum’s programmable infrastructure underpins decentralized finance (DeFi), tokenization and a rapidly growing ecosystem of on-chain applications, the bank said in Wednesday’s report. Its strong network effects, active developer base, and modular scaling roadmap are key differentiators that enable high-performing, secure transactions.
With regulatory clarity improving and institutions beginning to commit capital, ether is increasingly positioned as the native fuel and collateral for this expanding digital economy, according to the report.
Analysts see the cryptocurrency’s fundamental value as being driven by rising demand coupled with shrinking liquid supply, closely tying the valuation to the scale of economic activity on the network.
The firm pointed to institutional adoption, exchange-traded fund (ETF) inflows and real-world asset (RWA) tokenization as major drivers of net new demand, while staking, treasury absorption and the EIP-1559 fee burning mechanism are simultaneously reducing supply.
The bank estimated that by 2027, less than 50 million ether can remain truly liquid of the roughly 120 million currently in circulation, with 35 million already staked and more expected to be locked or burned as network activity accelerates. This dynamic reflects a corporate buyback effect, which adjusts the float as usage expands.
Analysts noted that on-chain settlement volumes are on track to grow exponentially, with ether market capitalization historically moving at the same pace as the total value secured on the network.
In a limited float environment, even moderate capital inflows could have a huge impact on the price, Citizens said, projecting that ether could rise well above $10,000 in its base case over the next two years.
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