Ethereum ETFs ‘Open Up the Floodgates’ and Signify Strong Push For Mainstream Blockchain Adoption
One particular pudgy company is eager to promote the party
Some encouraging news for blockchain enthusiasts around the globe dropped Tuesday with the announcement by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that Ethereum (ETH) exchange-traded funds (ETFs) were ready to trade.
While degens worldwide are hoping the move furthers mainstream adoption of cryptocurrency, it remains to be seen if skepticism surrounding blockchain will lessen with the U.S. government’s announcement.
But that hasn’t stopped individuals and companies from going all in on Ethereum. Take web3 company Pudgy Penguins, for example, that launched an innovative ad with VanEck to show its support of the ETFs.
It’s a beautiful marriage of traditional finance and blockchain currency and culture, one that Pudgy Penguins’ chief executive officer Luca Schnetzler is excited to discuss.
“From our perspective, Pudgy Penguins wants to be the face of Etherum, and I think we’re really well positioned to be it,” Schnetzler said to me in a recent interview. “The Ethereum ETF is obviously a huge moment for the entire industry and we kind of went into a deeper dive with VanEck, who wanted to do a whole animatic. With Pudgy Penguins’ origin coming from Ethereum and our goal of wanting to be the face of Ethereum, the Ethereum ETF commercial seemed like an obvious no-brainer.”
The Ether ETF had net outflows over the first two days of trading, meaning more people sold than bought, according to an ETF tracker maintained by Farside Investors. After inflows of $107 million on July 23, $133 million of the securities were sold yesterday.
Because Schnetzler and Pudgy Penguins have a strong core belief that Ethereum is here to stay and ETFs will head down a long and prosperous road, they’re getting out in front of what they already believe to be the future of blockchain and cryptocurrency.
Despite the web3 landscape seemingly changing every three to six months, Schnetzler believes the US government’s vote of approval for ETH ETFs signifies a shift that the future of crypto has arrived.
“Institutional backing is always really important for financialized assets and I think that future door has been stamped with a level of credibility that is hard to mimic anywhere else,” he said.
A long wait
“The future of Ethereum is ultimately going to be this underlying infrastructure that powers a new generation of the Internet economy,” Schnetzler said. “This is going to be the beginning of a decentralized future—one that I know a lot of people have been wanting for a very long time.”
But not everyone has been enthusiastic about blockchain, its benefits or the positive role it can play in society. A great swath of the population actually has a poor association with blockchain and cryptocurrency, largely from the nonfungible token (NFT) scams and exchange collapses that have plagued the industry in the past.
So it might just be that the institutional backing of crypto Schnetzler referred to is the reassurance cryptocurrency skeptics need in order to become new web3 adopters.
“Specifically for the older generation,” Schnetzler said, “it's going to open up the floodgates.”
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