The crypto market welcomes dual catalysts of clear regulations and institutional布局

Recently, the crypto market has welcomed two major catalysts: the legislative push of the United States' "Cryptocurrency Week" and the intensive outbreak of institutional developments in Ethereum. This marks the entry of the crypto industry into the "policy turning point" and "capital turning point" in the second half of 2025. The industry’s deep logic is shifting from Bitcoin to Ethereum, stablecoins, and on-chain financial infrastructure. The clarification of U.S. policies and the institutional expansion of Ethereum indicate that the crypto industry is entering a structurally positive phase, and the market focus should transition from "price games" to "capturing institutional dividends of rules + infrastructure."

U.S. "Crypto Week": Three Major Bills Signal That Compliant Assets Will Undergo Value Reassessment

In July 2025, the U.S. Congress systematically advanced comprehensive governance of crypto assets for the first time in the form of a legislative agenda, marking the beginning of a historic "Cryptocurrency Week." Against the backdrop of dramatic changes in the global digital finance landscape and ongoing challenges to traditional regulatory models, these bills not only respond to market risks but also reflect America's attempt to dominate in the next round of financial infrastructure competition.

The landmark "GENIUS Act" establishes a complete regulatory framework for stablecoins, covering key elements such as custody requirements, audit disclosures, asset reserves, and clearing processes. This means that the stablecoin system, which has long been outside the purview of traditional financial regulation, is for the first time incorporated into the U.S. sovereign legal structure. The bill passed in the Senate with high votes, demonstrating a strong bipartisan support base, providing a systematic "stabilizer" for the entire crypto industry. Once officially in effect, the U.S. will become the first major economy in the world to establish a unified financial regulatory framework for stablecoins.

The "CLARITY Act" focuses on the classification of securities and commodities concerning encryption assets, aiming to clarify "which encryption assets are considered securities and which are not," and to define the regulatory boundaries between the SEC and CFTC. If this act is successfully passed, it will end the long-standing "regulatory gray area" for encryption assets, providing predictable legal grounds for project parties, exchanges, and fund managers, greatly unleashing the vitality of compliant innovation.

The "Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act" carries significant political symbolism. This bill prohibits the Federal Reserve from issuing a central bank digital currency, preventing the government from establishing real-time monitoring capabilities over individuals' financial activities through a digital dollar framework. This reflects the U.S. Congress's emphasis on financial privacy and market freedom while sending a signal that the United States does not intend to dominate the digital financial transformation through state monopoly, but rather chooses to support a market-driven, technology-neutral, and open interconnected crypto asset ecosystem.

Overall, the direction of these three major bills points to "regulatory promotion of innovation", with a focus on "clear boundaries and reducing uncertainty". The core demand shifts from "restriction" to "guidance". After the implementation of the legislation, three direct consequences are expected: First, the barriers that have prevented institutional investors from entering on a large scale due to compliance risk concerns will gradually be lifted; Second, the role of stablecoins as "on-chain dollars" will be confirmed by policy, and their application scenarios will be exponentially amplified; Third, compliant exchanges and custodial banks will gain policy endorsement, reshaping the trust structure of the global crypto market.

On a deeper level, this series of legislations is a strategic response to the new round of reshaping of the financial order in the United States. Stablecoins are becoming carriers for the digital expansion of the dollar's influence, and the U.S. Congress is attempting to inject institutional legitimacy through regulation. This is a game of strategic layout in financial geopolitical power and a direct response to China's central bank digital currency and the EU's MiCA regulatory framework.

"Crypto Week" is not only a moment for the market to reassess the valuation logic of crypto assets, but also a regulatory confirmation of the technological trend. This institutional pricing signal will inject more stable expectations into the market and provide investors with a pathway to identify "regulatable and sustainable" assets. Certainty in rules will gradually transform into certainty in valuation, with compliant assets, especially stablecoins, ETH, and their surrounding infrastructure, becoming the core beneficiaries of the next round of structural revaluation.

ETH Institutional Arms Race: Three Lines Advancing Simultaneously with ETF Entry, Staking Mechanism Transformation, and Asset Structure Upgrade

Recently, the price of ETH has rebounded strongly, and market confidence is gradually being restored. Behind this is a new round of "capital arms race" surrounding Ethereum. From Wall Street financial giants continuously increasing their positions through ETF channels, to more and more publicly listed companies including ETH on their balance sheets, Ethereum is undergoing a deep restructuring of its market structure. This not only indicates that traditional capital's recognition of ETH has entered a new stage but also signifies that Ethereum is accelerating its evolution from a high-volatility, high-tech-threshold decentralized asset to a mainstream financial asset with institutional-level allocation logic.

Since the launch of the Ethereum spot ETF in July 2024, it was once seen as an important catalyst for ETH price breakthroughs, but its performance in reality has disappointed the market. However, as we enter mid-2025, the situation has begun to quietly reverse. On-chain data shows that the institutional accumulation of ETH is taking place quietly and steadily. Since the launch of the ETF, the Ethereum spot ETF has attracted a net inflow of $5.76 billion, accounting for nearly 4% of its market value. In the past two months, the inflow of funds has significantly accelerated, with multiple ETH ETF products recording monthly net inflows exceeding $1 billion, and traditional financial players are clearly increasing their holdings.

The more symbolically significant change comes from the rise of publicly listed companies "strategic reserve Ethereum". Several public market companies have announced one after another that they will include ETH in their balance sheets, marking a narrative turning point in ETH's transformation from a "speculative asset" to a "strategic reserve asset". It is worth noting that SharpLink currently holds a total of more than 280,000 ETH, surpassing the Ethereum Foundation's 242,500 ETH, becoming the largest single institutional holder of ETH in the world. This has partially completed the "transfer of discourse power" on a symbolic capital level.

The current institutional participation structure can be divided into two camps: one is represented by SharpLink, the "Ethereum native camp," which gathers early Ethereum ecosystem participants; the other is represented by BitMine, the "Wall Street approach," which directly replicates the Bitcoin reserve logic, forming a capital amplification effect through leverage, financial operations, and financial report disclosures. This north-south encirclement type of institutional accumulation model is causing the value anchor and price support system of ETH to shift towards a mainstream capital framework that is institutionalized, long-term, and structured.

This trend not only affects prices but may also restructure the governance, discourse, and ecological dominance of the Ethereum network. In the future, if companies with significant ETH holdings continue to expand their positions, their potential influence on the direction of Ethereum's development will be hard to ignore. Although most of these companies currently still face financial pressure, their allocation of ETH is more driven by speculative hedging and capital operation considerations, and they have not yet fully shown a deep commitment to the ecological construction of Ethereum. However, their entry has already created a magnifying effect in the capital market: ETH is being revalued, and the market narrative is shifting from the crowded lanes of DeFi and L2 to a new space of "reserve assets + ETFs + governance rights."

It is worth noting that, unlike the Bitcoin reserve narrative which features Michael Saylor as a "spiritual leader" continuously reinforcing awareness and advocating for increased investment, Ethereum has yet to see a representative figure who possesses both a faith-based background and traditional capital appeal. The lack of endorsement from such figures has, to some extent, slowed down the path of trust conversion for Ethereum in the minds of institutional investors.

However, Ethereum is not lacking in institutional responses. Vitalik Buterin and the Ethereum Foundation have recently been vocal, emphasizing Ethereum's technical resilience, security mechanisms, and principles of decentralization. At the same time, they have begun to strengthen the "dual-track" structure of ecological governance, aiming to embrace institutional capital while avoiding governance power being controlled by a single entity. In a recent public article, Vitalik proposed that the interests of users, developer leadership, and institutional compliance must be balanced, and that decentralization must have "operability" rather than just being a slogan.

In summary, ETH is undergoing a comprehensive change in its capital structure: moving from a retail-driven open market to an institutional market structure driven by ETFs, listed companies, and institutional nodes. This transformation has far-reaching implications, as it will not only determine the future construction path of ETH's price center but may also reshape the governance structure and development pace of the Ethereum ecosystem. In this arms race, ETH is no longer just a representative of the tech stack; it is becoming a key asset in the wave of digital capitalism, serving both as a value-bearing tool and a focal point of power contention.

Market Strategy: BTC builds a high-level platform, ETH and mid-to-high quality application chains welcome the logic of catching up.

As Bitcoin successfully breaks through the $120,000 mark and gradually enters a platform period, the structural rotation pattern of the crypto market becomes increasingly clear. With BTC dominating the logic, Ethereum and high-quality application chain assets are entering a period of valuation recovery. From capital flows to market performance, the current market shows a typical "large-cap platform oscillation + mid-cap rotation attack" structure, with ETH and a batch of Layer 1/Layer 2 protocols that have both narrative and technical support becoming the most valuable direction for speculation after Bitcoin.

1. BTC is entering a high-level platform construction phase: there is support below, and there is fatigue above.

As the main driving asset of this round of market, Bitcoin has basically completed the main upward wave driven by the triple narrative of spot ETFs, halving cycles, and institutional reserves. The current trend has entered a consolidation phase; although it is still in a technical upward channel, the upward momentum is weakening in the short term. On-chain data shows that the number of active BTC addresses and trading volume have both declined to some extent, and the implied volatility of options in the derivatives market continues to decrease, indicating that the market's expectations for a short-term breakout are declining.

At the same time, the enthusiasm for traditional institutional allocation has not明显减弱. BTC ETF仍维持小幅净流入, indicating that底部资金支撑仍在, but due to the expectations being largely fulfilled, the subsequent上涨节奏 of BTC is likely to slow down and even enter a阶段性横盘整理. For institutions, Bitcoin has entered the "core allocation" stage, rather than continuing to chase short-term暴利.

This also means that the market's attention is gradually shifting from Bitcoin to other growth-oriented encryption assets.

2. The logic of ETH's rebound formation: revaluation from "lost leader" to "value pit".

Compared to Bitcoin, Ethereum's performance in the second half of 2024 was once regarded as "disappointing," with a significant price pullback and its ratio to BTC dropping to a three-year low. However, it was precisely during this downturn that ETH gradually completed its valuation repricing and optimized its holding structure. Currently, institutional recognition of ETH is rapidly increasing, not only with a continuous net inflow into spot ETFs, but also with the trend of listed companies reserving ETH becoming established, and even instances where Ethereum holdings surpass those of the foundation.

From a technical perspective, the price of ETH has broken through the previous downtrend line, starting to establish an upward channel, and has continuously reclaimed multiple key technical moving averages. Combining this with the funding situation and sentiment indicators, ETH has entered a new round of market sentiment switching cycle. During the sideways movement of BTC, the cost-effectiveness of ETH as a secondary mainstream asset is gradually increasing, combined with multiple factors such as the expansion of the L2 ecosystem, stable staking yields, and improved security, the market is re-evaluating its long-term value foundation.

From the perspective of asset allocation, ETH not only possesses the advantage of being a "valuation pit" at the current stage, but it has also begun to gain institutional recognition and narrative completeness similar to BTC, combining both technical and institutional advantages, making it the preferred asset for capital rotation.

3. The Rise of High-Quality Application Chains: Chains like Solana, TON, and Tanssi are迎来 structural opportunities.

Beyond BTC and ETH, the market is accelerating its shift towards "medium to high-quality application chain assets supported by real narratives." Chains such as Solana, TON, Tanssi, and Sui have rapidly attracted capital in this rebound due to their multiple advantages of "high performance + strong ecosystem + clear positioning."

Taking Solana as an example, the current ecosystem activity has significantly rebounded, with multiple on-chain applications returning to users.