Citizens of an American bank declared the ether could climb above $10,000 in the next couple of years, driven by growing adoption, increased institutional flows, and diminishing supply.
The bank said it expects Ethereum’s accelerated adoption to generate strong tailwinds for the blockchain’s native token ether, underscoring the network’s well-established position as a leading smart contract platform.
Ethereum’s programmable infrastructure supports decentralized finance (DeFi), tokenization and a fast-growing ecosystem of on-chain applications, the bank said in Wednesday’s report. Its powerful network effects, active developer base, and modular scaling roadmap are key differentiators, enabling secure, high-throughput transactions.
With regulatory clarity improving and institutions beginning to commit capital, ether is increasingly positioned as the native fuel and collateral of this expanding digital economy, the report states.
Analysts view the cryptocurrency’s fundamental value as driven by growing demand alongside contracting liquidity supply, closely tying valuation to the scale of economic activity on the network.
The company highlighted institutional adoption, exchange-traded fund (ETF) inflows, and real-world asset (RWA) tokenization as key drivers of net new demand, while staking, treasury absorption, and the EIP-1559 fee burn mechanism simultaneously reduce supply.
The bank estimates that by 2027, less than 50 million ether could remain truly liquid of the roughly 120 million currently in circulation, of which 35 million is already staked and more expected to be locked or burned as network activity accelerates. This dynamic reflects a corporate buyout effect, tightening the float as usage grows.
Analysts have noted that on-chain settlement volumes are poised for exponential growth, with Ether’s market capitalization historically moving in sync with the total value secured on the network.
In a limited float environment, even moderate capital inflows could have an outsized impact on prices, Citizens said, forecasting that ether could climb well above $10,000 in its base case over the next two years.
Read more: Ether Treasuries Go Mainstream: Crypto Investment Firm Bitwise
