Electric Capital, Paradigm lead $40 million investment into institutional Ethereum advocacy group Etherealize

Etherealize, the advocacy group for the second-largest blockchain formed of heavy hitters like former Ethereum Foundation lead developer Danny Ryan and former Wall Street trader Vivek Raman, has raised $40 million, according to an announcement on Wednesday.

The funding round was led by Electric Capital and Paradigm. The round appears to be the firm’s first cash injection since receiving grants from Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin and the Ethereum Foundation in 2024 to kickstart its operations.

Etherealize is part of a growing trend within the Ethereum community to formalize operations and fully make the case for the blockchain as "the settlement layer for the world." Other changes include shakeups at the Ethereum Foundation, which hired two new co-directors and is attempting to right what had been a confusing development schedule.

"Over the past decade, Ethereum has gone from an experiment to the world's most battle-tested, open financial network. This raise kicks off the 'Institutional Merge' — upgrading institutional finance to modern, safer, globally accessible rails," Etherealize President Danny Ryan, who led development of Ethereum’s switch to proof-of-stake called the Merge, said in the release. 

Raman previously told The Block that Etherealize is specifically aiming to pitch institutions on the decentralized blockchain and ETH as an asset. One of the first official moves from the group was to publish a price report that suggested ETH could reach $8,000-$80,000 in the "short-term" as a monetary reserve and commodity asset.

Additionally, Etherealize builds institutional-grade, zero-knowledge privacy infrastructure. It is also working on a "settlement engine optimized for institutional tokenization workflows" and a "suite of applications designed to bring utility and liquidity to tokenized fixed income markets," according to the announcement. 

Since officially launching in January, Etherealize says it has made inroads with Wall Street, including "top banks, asset managers, and payment networks" to influence their product development as well as regulators. Notably, Raman testified before the House Financial Services Committee during deliberations on the Clarity Act.