Overview
Ethereum has emerged as a leading candidate for institutional adoption, according to Joseph Chalom, former head of digital assets at BlackRock and now co-CEO of Sharplink. In a recent interview, Chalom described Ethereum not merely as a blockchain for speculative assets, but as a robust financial infrastructure capable of supporting secure, high-liquidity operations at scale. He emphasized three core attributes—trust, security and liquidity—that position Ethereum as the optimal platform for asset managers, custodians and financial institutions seeking to digitize traditional finance.
Background and Experience
Chalom’s two-decade tenure at BlackRock included scaling the firm’s Aladdin risk management system to serve trillions of dollars in assets under management. He later spearheaded BlackRock’s entry into the crypto market, backing Circle, supporting the launch of the firm’s flagship bitcoin ETF, IBIT, and investing in tokenization ventures such as Securitize. This experience, he says, shaped his conviction that Ethereum’s architecture aligns with the rigorous requirements of institutional stakeholders, from regulatory compliance to operational resilience.
Staking and Restaking Strategies
At Sharplink, Chalom oversees billions of dollars in staked ether, seeking to demonstrate how proof-of-stake yields can produce durable, on-balance-sheet returns without the volatility typical of decentralized finance (DeFi). Sharplink has developed partnerships with Consensys, Linea and EigenLayer to explore restaking mechanisms, whereby staked ether secures additional protocols while funds remain under regulated custody. These strategies aim to unlock incremental yield, reduce counterparty risk and maintain compliance with institutional risk controls.
Institutional Implications
Chalom believes that as more institutions seek productive yield alternatives, Ethereum’s native staking yield of roughly 3 percent per annum becomes a compelling substitute for idle assets. He predicts that over time, the distinction between traditional finance and decentralized finance will dissolve, yielding a unified financial ecosystem underpinned by Ethereum’s network. “We won’t call it DeFi or TradFi,” he said. “We’ll just call it finance, and Ethereum will be the infrastructure.”
Outlook and Challenges
While enthusiasm for Ethereum is high among experienced asset managers, significant challenges remain. Network scalability, gas fee predictability and regulatory clarity are key factors that will determine the pace and scale of institutional adoption. Chalom argues that Ethereum’s ongoing upgrades, including sharding and layer-2 rollups, address throughput constraints, while active engagement with regulators can establish robust compliance frameworks.
By leveraging its proven architecture and expanding ecosystem of staking and restaking services, Ethereum could fulfill its promise as the foundational layer for the next generation of global financial systems.
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