VanEck CEO Jan van Eck said banks must adopt the blockchain to facilitate stablecoin transfers within 12 months or risk falling behind. Jan van Eck, the CEO of investment management firm VanEck, speculated that Ethereum will be the clear “winner” among blockchains as banks prepare for a flood of stablecoins.
During an interview with Fox News Business on Wednesday, van Eck said banks and financial services will have to adopt a blockchain to handle stablecoin transactions, and he thinks Ethereum should be the one.
“It’s very much what I call the Wall Street token. And what I mean by that is, if you think that because of stablecoins, now every bank and every financial services company has to have a way of taking in stablecoins,” he said.
“So the winner is, who’s going to be building on these blockchains? It’s going to be Ethereum or something that uses Ethereum kind of methodology, which is called ECM.”
Last month, the US House passed the Genius Act, which was then signed into law by President Donald Trump. The legislation focuses on stablecoins and is the country’s first federal law focused exclusively on payment stablecoins. Meanwhile, the total stablecoin supply has just crossed $280 billion.
Ethereum or a Similar Platform Poised to Be the Stablecoin Blockchain
The CEO of VanEck also predicted that with many companies making efforts toward adopting stablecoins, banks will need to adapt or lose out.
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A May 14 report from enterprise-grade digital assets platform Fireblocks found that the use of stablecoins in their operations is being explored by 90% of institutional players surveyed.
“Companies have to employ technology to enable stablecoin usage over the next 12 months. It will take a while, but no financial services company wants to say, ‘no, don’t send me that digital dollar,’” van Eck said.
“If I want to send you stablecoins, your bank has to figure it out, or you will find some other institution to do that.”
Similar remarks were made by Eric Trump, executive vice president of the Trump Organization and son of U.S. President Donald Trump, in April, but he went a step further and said banks must adopt crypto or be extinct in 10 years.
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VanEck Launches an Ether ETF
Jan van Eck’s comments could be expected as his company, VanEck, offers an Ether-based exchange-traded fund. The firm was given the green light to launch the investment product by the US Securities and Exchange Commission in July 2024.
It only tracks the price of Ether (ETH), and doesn’t hold it directly. As of Wednesday, over $284 million in assets were held by it.
Ether Reaches New All-Time High in August
Van Eck’s comments came as Ether reached a new all-time high on Sunday, crossing above $4,946, according to CoinGecko. The token was trading at $4,566, down 1% in the last 24 hours, at the time of writing.
Significant momentum has been gained by Ethereum through corporations’ adoption of Ether for treasuries.
Matt Hougan, chief investment officer at Bitwise, told in July that treasury adoption has solved Ethereum’s narrative problem by packaging the digital asset in a way that traditional investors understand, drawing in more capital.
Over the past month, more than $6 billion worth of Ether has been acquired by corporate treasury firms, with BitMine and SharpLink among the most active buyers.
