Ethereum faces an identity crisis. Its native token, Ether (Eth), is under -priesting Against competitors, and long -time builders begin to question whether the chain’s technology is falling afterwards – and whether its society loses focus.

The Ethereum Foundation, the nonprofit that stewards Ethereum’s development, has been blamed for many of the network’s matches. Co -founder Vitalik Barterin is at the forefront of a massive leadership shakes the organization, but his central influence over the process has given rise to his own controversy.

Meanwhile, rival ecosystems like Solana utilize uncertainty, attract top talent and surpass ETH on the market.

In the middle of this turbulence, a new project, Etherealize, aims to bring Eth to Wall Street. Founded by former banker Vivek Raman, Etherealize is trying to bridge the traditional economy and Ethereum and place ETH as a serious asset class.

Raman, who spent a decade in banking before discovering crypto, believes his traditional financing background gives him a unique perspective. He has spent over the past four years laying the foundation of Etherealize and choosing to launch in January-a time of increased market optimism driven by expectations of a crypticly-related White House, even when Ethereum seizes internal disputes and pricing.

In a recent interview with Coindesk, Raman discussed his vision for ETH and the wider crypto arcade, including:

• His journey into Ethereum and the founding of Etherealize.

• Where etheric is the marketing of ETH to Wall Street.

• The Ethereum Foundation’s role and banks’ views on LAG-2 rollups.

This interview has been edited for briefness and clarity.

You have had all this experience in traditional funding and you call yourself a newcomer to the Ethereum world. Go through how you got into crypto, what was that moment?

Raman: I was a trader of four banks that traded with the most archaic, esoteric products-high-affected bonds, distressed bonds, geared loans and credit standard swaps and items. This is all the backbone of the economy, but I saw how ineffective they are.

When you watch the movie Wall StreetAnd you see everything that is traded on the phone, you are like “Oh, maybe the system is upgraded,” but it has not. It still acts like that.

I saw that for 10 years. I lived it. And I’m very lucky because I built a really good network, I have all these amazing mentors, all these people who drove banks and drive desks.

But after 10 years, the technological pace of Wall Street did not develop at all and I was like “let me find something else.”

Just when I left Wall Street, I went to Austin, Texas, and I met serendipently some of Ethereum Core developers in the research and development team. They worked on the merger and they taught me about Ethereum.

While I was on Wall Street, it was very anti-crypto because of the regulators. “Adoption Moment” wasn’t even close in the 10 years I was there. But when I found Ethereum, I realized this was the answer to Wall Street.

There are different components to ethereal, right? Where does the “Marketing” part come in?

Raman: So these are three interconnected things.

The first thing is that everyone uses Ethereum; Ethereum is the most adopted smart contract platform. Bitcoiners are just talking about Bitcoins – probably because there is not much tool, so all you can do is talk about it.

It’s almost like with Ethereum that is so much use that no one is actually talking about the ETH asset. But the asset is very important for the ecosystem; For better or for worse, people use the asset as a power of attorney for the health of the ecosystem. Part of the reason I think Solana has so much of the limelight is not because it is necessarily the best technology; That’s because the token went up a lot.

So the first thing is to talk about ether as an asset – as a portfolio -diversificator, as something complementary to Bitcoin – and to give this content, research and marketing to ETF issuers, to the wider public and to institutions.

The second is that Ethereum is obviously a tool platform. It is this new economic internet; They call it the “operating system for the financial economy.” So we teach about Ethereum as a platform and what you can do with it: You can tokenize assets. You can build layer-2 ecosystems where banks can actually have their own networks and can customize them to bring their customers to the chain.

And then thirdly, we are actually trying to call action. The call for action is to tokenize assets at Ethereum or build a layer 2 in Ethereum, and we build a product package to actually ease Wall Street trading at Ethereum Blockchain.

Ethereum is experiencing an identity crisis. Its price hangs far behind other cryptocurrencies, the Ethereum Foundation undergoes a shaker, and Crypto Community members pronounce their discrepancies on Vitalik Barterin’s central role in the ecosystem. Etherealize is going to be performed in a moment when the ecosystem is likely to need a marketing or advocate. Is Wall Street Savior for Ethereum?

Raman: I don’t think it’s a silver ball. The Ethereum Foundation should not have to do everything, and Vitalik should not have to do everything. Research and development and the high level, advanced strategy and roadmap for future ethereum in the next 100 years-it is Vitalik’s job.

Who is it to talk about these ecosystems? That’s the application layer. These are institutions such as etherealization.

The problem is that when the Overton window switched from regulatory attacks to regulatory acceptance, the other LAG-1 ecosystems that have very centralized and centrally planned companies behind them, the share of the mind and market share. But in the end, the best of the best Vitalik – the best of the best is the EC researchers.

I spent years developing this business plan and finding out when the right time for strike was. I got a unsubscribe from Vitalik and EC-DE gave us a small grants to get started last August. But I did a lot of due diligence. I examined many institutions and asked if this was the moment. And that was it.

You have discussed the role of Ethereum Foundation (EC). Some believe the foundation is responsible for running the ecosystem. How do you share the roles between EC and essential?

Raman: The EC has good marketers – there is just a lot to do.

We have this whole ecosystem of LAG-2s that need coordination. One of the people of the Ethereum Foundation’s management always says, “Ethereum does not have a business development arm, it has thousands of business development arms,” ​​which are all apps, Layer 2S, etc.

We are here to act as a cord for all the different apps and layers two. And we have access to people who will actually use Ethereum: The Wall Street players and institutions.

We go back and forth [with the EF] all the time. We have the best relationship with them, but we are arm length from them. I consider all this as a very positive sum.

You bring up Layer-2 networks. How does Wall Street see them? We know that Deutsche Bank is launching a Layer-2 at ZKSync, and UBS has also expressed interest in using Layer-2 technology. But what is their vision from what you have seen?

Raman: I think it will be very ironic when people look back on criticism for layers two as being worth extracting and diluted. I think Wall Street considers the layer two as an opportunity.

One of many reasons why I think Ethereum will win over other LAG-1’s is because it doubled on the LAG-2 schedule and realized that the whole world does not belong on a uniform chain.

There are different companies, different countries and different states. Everyone has their own culture. You can’t fill it all in one place with a set of rules.

Wall Street considers this an opportunity. Where is the place where you can make the most money from implementing assets and applications? It is on layer 2 .. On the application you can check your level of customization and privacy. By layer 2 you may have known-your-customer (KYC) features. Everything that becomes extremely critical.

Why has Wall Street held back – was it really pure just the legislative clarity aspect that has changed now that there is a new administration in Washington?

Raman: I think legislative clarity is the right answer, but maybe it’s a little too simplified.

I think the real question is that there was no financial incentive for Wall Street institutions to actually use blockchains. Many of them considered blockchains as competing or threatening. There was no way to make money using blockchains, especially with an oppressive regulatory regime.

With the shift in rules and expansion of technology like Layer-2s, Wall Street can now make a lot of money using blockchains specific at Ethereum, by building LAG-2s and driving assets on them. They can make a lot of money now, which is why they all rush in. That’s because they smell opportunity.

Read more: Ethereums Vitalik Butterin goes on offense in the middle of greater leadership shake-up