Revolut and several European banks have taken concrete steps toward Ethereum integration, driving institutional flows and revised price forecasts for ETH. Ethereum is emerging as the technological layer for payments, asset tokenization and regulated stablecoins, factors that explain higher market targets and capital reallocation.
Practical adoption is coming from the banking and fintech sectors. Revolut integrated Polygon (a Layer 2 solution for Ethereum) for remittances in stablecoins and, since December 2024, has processed around $700 million in transactions on Polygon, according to reports. Deutsche Bank is developing its own L2 using ZKsync technology — Project DAMA 2 — with an MVP expected in 2025, focused on asset tokenization, contractual privacy and regulatory compliance. Layer 2 (L2): layers that scale the base chain by processing transactions off the main layer and then consolidating them, reducing costs and latency.
An alliance of nine major European banks, including ING and UniCredit, is working on an euro-compatible stablecoin aligned with MiCAR with a target launch in September 2025, aiming to offer a regulated alternative to stablecoins pegged outside the EU. In addition, banks such as N26 and Raiffeisenlandesbank are expanding retail access to cryptoassets and Swiss banks are running tokenized funds live, evidencing that the infrastructure is moving into production.
Flows, price and tokenization as demand drivers
Institutional flows have notably favored Ethereum, explaining upward pressure on ETH demand. In August 2025, Ethereum ETFs attracted $4,000 million, while Bitcoin ETFs saw $803 million in outflows; in Q3 2025, Ethereum accumulated approximately $33,000 million in institutional inflows versus $1,170 million of outflows in Bitcoin. Standard Chartered raised its targets to $7,500 by the end of 2025, $12,000 in 2026 and $25,000 for 2028, reflecting greater institutional conviction about the network’s utility.
The tokenization of real-world assets already exceeds $30,000 million, with more than $24,300 million in assets tokenized on Ethereum, and compliance standards such as ERC-1400 and ERC-3643 facilitate use by regulated entities. Staking and yield also attract capital: estimated staking yields between 3.5% and 6% add an income-generation argument beyond mere speculation.
The convergence between European banks, L2 solutions and large capital inflows positions Ethereum as a candidate for programmable financial infrastructure. The real test will be the MVP of Project DAMA 2 in 2025 and the potential launch of the euro stablecoin in September 2025, with the price path now depending more on operational and regulatory realization than on speculative narrative.
