Regarding the future of Ethereum, a prophecy is gradually coming true. Industry insiders generally believe that 2026 will become a critical turning point in Ethereum's development — not just a market expectation, but a reality driven by institutional funding, protocol innovation, and on-chain asset integration.

From a financial perspective, large sums of capital are flowing in. The scale of stablecoins and tokenized real-world assets (RWA) continues to expand, coupled with the participation of sovereign wealth funds, all of which are pushing up Ethereum's total value locked (TVL) on the chain. Industry research predicts that by 2026, the stablecoin market could reach a size of $500 billion, tokenized RWA could surpass $300 billion, and assets held by sovereign funds could increase five to ten times. The actions of whales confirm this outlook — recently, Bitmine staked 74,880 ETH in a single transaction, and SharpLink adjusted its positions during the same period. These major players' strategic moves are a precursor to industry pattern changes.

Technological breakthroughs are equally noteworthy. Ethereum is evolving towards zero-knowledge proof (ZK) solutions, which will fundamentally change verification mechanisms and scalability logic. Once this system matures and is implemented, Ethereum's throughput is expected to surpass 10,000 transactions per second, representing an exponential leap in network capacity and efficiency. 2026 is widely regarded as the year when this technological turning point will truly materialize.

Whether from capital influx or technological evolution, Ethereum is indeed poised to deliver a "surprise" to the market in 2026.