Asset management giant Fidelity: Ethereum is a "national currency"

A recent research report released by asset management giant Fidelity compares the Ethereum ecosystem to a "digital sovereign state" with a complete economic system, and ETH is the "native currency" of this emerging digital economy.

This report, written by Fidelity's star analyst team, points out that Ethereum has gone beyond the scope of a simple blockchain project. The monetary policy (ETH issuance mechanism), fiscal system (Gas fees) and judicial structure (smart contracts) contained in its ecosystem make it closer to an independently operated economy. This upgraded positioning provides a new perspective for the value assessment of ETH.

Ethereum's "Digital GDP": Economic Deconstruction from the Perspective of Wall Street

The most groundbreaking part of the Fidelity report is that it creatively applies the classic framework in macroeconomics - consumption, investment, government spending and net exports - to quantify Ethereum's economic activities, trying to construct Ethereum's "digital GDP":

• Government spending: Fidelity compares it to Ethereum's issuance of ETH (inflation rewards) to ensure network security, as well as various grants provided to incentivize developers and ecosystem construction. This expenditure constitutes "public investment" in the development of the Ethereum ecosystem.

• Investment: This is reflected in staking ETH to participate in network verification and injecting assets into the liquidity pool of decentralized exchanges (DEXs). These are the "capital" provided for Ethereum infrastructure and financial services.

• Net exports: mainly refers to cross-chain activities. Including the flow of assets between Ethereum and other blockchains, as well as stablecoins and decentralized physical infrastructure network (DePIN) systems issued based on Ethereum, which are regarded as "digital products" produced within Ethereum and "exported" to the entire crypto ecosystem.

The data also confirms Ethereum's economic growth. Fidelity cited Artemis data and pointed out that since 2018, Ethereum's user activity (number of active wallets) and transaction volume have continued to rise. As of 2025, the number of daily active addresses of Ethereum has exceeded 2.5 million, and the average daily transaction volume in the ecosystem is close to 20 million. At the same time, Flipside data shows that in 2024, ETH will account for as much as 74% of the transaction volume of Ethereum decentralized exchanges (DEXs), and ETH's position as a core transaction medium is becoming increasingly solid.

Diversified industrial structure: ETH's "multiple supports"

Fidelity particularly emphasized in the report that the diversified composition of Ethereum network activities is the key to its digital economy's resilience. This coincides with the fact that traditional national economies should not be overly dependent on a single industry.

Specifically, Ethereum's network fee income is quite diverse: 47% comes from financial-related applications (DeFi), 25% from trade (such as exchanges), 22% from other broad categories, and 6% from art and entertainment (NFTs, GameFi). This broad cross-sector demand is like a country's economy with multiple pillars, making it more resilient to shocks that may occur in any single sector.

The report further explains this by analogy with two theoretical countries with equal GDP: one is completely dependent on a single industry, while the other's economic output comes from ten different industries.

The conclusion is obvious: the latter is more resilient to negative growth in any one industry. This strongly supports Fidelity's assertion of the resilience of Ethereum's "digital economy."

ETH value: supply and demand logic under decentralization

Fidelity's report also deeply analyzes the source of value of blockchain assets such as ETH. It clearly points out that unlike fiat currencies controlled by central banks, the value of ETH is not determined by any centralized institution. Its value comes directly from users' demand for Ethereum network services and their participation in ensuring the operation and security of the network.

The report points out: "Ethereum is designed so that there is a direct relationship between economic activity and the net issuance of ETH, and it affects all ETH holders regardless of whether users participate in staking." This means that the more active the Ethereum network is, the stronger the value support of its native token ETH. Fidelity believes that this concept of "digital economic framework" has universal applicability across different blockchain networks.

The giant sets the tone: Is ETH's surge just a prelude?

Fidelity's report coincides with ETH's recent strong market performance. At the time of the article's publication, the price of ETH had stabilized at $2,981, and once broke through the $3,020 mark during the session, with a daily increase of nearly 6%. This is not just a coincidence, but also a reassessment of the market's intrinsic value and future potential of Ethereum.

The report concluded that the digital economy and its native currencies provide investors with new options for diversified value storage, while also being able to participate in the growth of these "digital economies". Like the traditional economy, some digital currencies offer better value storage characteristics, while others have greater growth potential.

Fidelity's in-depth analysis undoubtedly provides institutional investors with a new framework and tools to understand and evaluate Ethereum. It elevates Ethereum from a technical project to a digital "country" with a complete economic cycle and value system. When TradFi, with an asset management scale of $5.9 trillion, began to evaluate Ethereum using the sovereign state framework, this game of value revaluation has just entered the hot stage.