[DigitalToday reporter Jinju Hong] Etherealize, an Ethereum think tank, presented a long-term price outlook for Ethereum (ETH) of $250,000.

On April 21 (local time), blockchain media outlet The Block reported that the figure is lower than the $740,000 presented in its first public communication last year. Still, compared with the current price of about $2,300, it assumes a sharp rise.

Etherealize, an institutional marketing and product organisation in the Ethereum ecosystem, defined Ethereum as an asset with a rare character in monetary history. Co-founder Vivek Raman (비벡 라만) said Ethereum will become the foundation of the global financial system and that one or two digital assets will establish themselves as store-of-value assets. He added that if Bitcoin (BTC) has effectively taken the first spot, Ethereum is another candidate. The outlook did not include a target date.

Etherealize argued that Ethereum is both a store-of-value asset, like gold and bitcoin, and a yield-generating asset. Under its proof-of-stake consensus structure, Ethereum pays network security costs, and staking yields arise in the process. It calculated that the combined size of the monetary premium for gold and bitcoin is currently about $31 trillion, and that if Ethereum secures the same premium, the price based on the current circulating supply of 121 million ETH could exceed $250,000.

Etherealize also said Ethereum is underpinned by real economic activity based on DeFi and stablecoins. Unlike pure monetary assets such as gold and bitcoin, it has underlying economic activity, which it said could partly defend the downside even if the monetary premium is priced in slowly. Mike McGuinness (마이크 맥기니스) said Ethereum staking yields of 2 to 4 percent per year are not high, but are a relatively safe way to build returns.

It also raised criticism of Bitcoin's structure. McGuinness viewed gold and bitcoin as assets that do not generate yield, and argued that after all 21 million bitcoins are mined, network security incentives could weaken if transaction fees do not sufficiently replace block subsidies.

Etherealize assessed Ethereum as already the dominant settlement layer for tokenised assets, stablecoins and DeFi. It also cited as a reason that some transaction fees are burned, limiting the supply growth rate to 1.5 percent a year, and that the structure could become deflationary if usage increases. It acknowledged, however, that competitive dynamics have intensified over the past year with Canton, Tempo and Solana. Raman said these alternative layer-1 networks largely compete with Ethereum layer-2 in practice and are not assets that compete directly with ETH itself.