Ex-BlackRock Executive Says Ethereum Will Power Wall Street’s Future

Ethereum, the world’s second-largest blockchain, is increasingly emerging as the financial industry’s preferred digital infrastructure — at least according to one of Wall Street’s former insiders.

Joseph Chalom, co-CEO of Sharplink and former head of digital assets at BlackRock, says Ethereum offers the very attributes that legacy finance depends on: trust, security, and liquidity. These, he argues, are the cornerstones of institutional adoption — and they’re why he’s betting his post-BlackRock career on Ethereum’s success.

“Ethereum has the majority of stablecoins, tokenized assets, and high-quality smart contract activity,” Chalom said in an interview. “If you’re going to digitize finance, you need a chain institutions can trust — and it’s Ethereum.”

From BlackRock to Blockchain

Chalom spent two decades at BlackRock, where he helped scale the firm’s Aladdin platform, a system that has become one of the most important portfolio and risk management tools in global finance. 

In his later years at the firm, he led BlackRock’s digital assets push — backing Circle, launching the company’s blockbuster spot Bitcoin ETF (IBIT), and investing in tokenization platform Securitize.

That experience cemented his view that Ethereum’s architecture was uniquely suited to support the next generation of financial infrastructure. 

Bitcoin is a great store of value, he said, “but Ethereum is multi-purpose — capable of supporting lending, trading, NFTs, and complex applications.”

Chalom believes this versatility is what will attract Wall Street to the blockchain. 

The Case for Ether as a “Productive Asset”

One of the network’s key differentiators, Chalom argues, is its yield-bearing design. Through proof-of-stake, ether holders can earn roughly 3% annual yield simply by helping secure the network — something Bitcoin cannot replicate.

Sharplink, which holds nearly $3 billion worth of ether, has staked nearly all of its holdings to capture that yield. The company is also experimenting with so-called “restaking” — a process that allows staked assets to be redeployed for additional yield — through partnerships with Consensys, Linea, and EigenLayer.

According to Chalom, this model allows institutions to capture DeFi-like returns without the associated volatility or smart contract risk that plagues retail users. 

“If you’re willing to lock duration, you can be the ‘L’ in total value locked,” he said. “That opens up access to safer and better returns.”

Ethereum as the Backbone of Digital Finance

Ethereum’s dominance in tokenized assets and stablecoins continues to grow, making it the backbone of the emerging digital asset ecosystem. 

Ethereum stablecoin issuance (Source: DefiLlama)

With institutions now issuing tokenized treasury products, launching funds, and experimenting with blockchain-based settlements, the line between traditional finance (TradFi) and decentralized finance (DeFi) is blurring.

Chalom predicts that in the near future, those distinctions will disappear altogether. “Over time, we won’t call it DeFi or TradFi,” he said. “We’ll just call it finance. And Ethereum will be the infrastructure underneath.”

His vision mirrors a broader institutional trend. BlackRock’s tokenized fund, JPMorgan’s Onyx network, and Franklin Templeton’s on-chain money market fund all operate on Ethereum or Ethereum-compatible networks. 

Together, they signal that the world’s largest financial players are no longer treating blockchain as a curiosity — but as the next chapter in capital markets infrastructure.

Sharplink’s Bet on Institutional ETH

Chalom’s new firm, Sharplink, is positioning itself as a bridge between institutional capital and decentralized finance. Its nearly $3 billion ether position — most of it staked — underpins a strategy built on long-term conviction rather than short-term speculation.

SharpLink’s ETH holdings (Source: StrategicETHReserve)

By working with regulated custodians and established blockchain partners, Sharplink aims to prove that staking and restaking can become core components of institutional treasury management. 

The Road Ahead

Chalom’s bullish stance on Ethereum shows how deeply tokenization and yield generation are reshaping institutional thinking. While regulatory hurdles remain, the trajectory appears clear: Wall Street’s future will increasingly be written in smart contracts.

As the ETH ecosystem continues to mature, Sharplink’s experiment could serve as a blueprint for how traditional finance embraces blockchain at scale. If Chalom’s vision plays out, the world’s next financial superhighway may already be running — quietly, and irrevocably — on Ethereum.