Ether gains as tokenization demand meets weak network data

Ether moved higher into the end of the week, giving crypto investors a clean example of a market split between narrative and usage data. The tokenization story around Ethereum is getting stronger, while some measures of activity on the network are still losing steam.

Market data cited by Cointelegraph showed ETH at $1,834.80, up 2.69%, after Ether gained about 3% between Thursday and Friday and outpaced the broader crypto market. Bitcoin was listed at $64,190.18, up 0.57%.

The move came as investors focused on tokenization, the process of putting assets such as stocks, bonds or commodities on a blockchain. Ethereum remains a major venue for that market, and Robinhood’s new layer-2 network added another reason for traders to watch ETH.

Robinhood Chain adds fresh attention to Ethereum

Robinhood Chain, a newly launched layer-2 blockchain, uses ETH as its native gas token. Gas is the fee users pay to process transactions on a blockchain. Cointelegraph reported that the network had drawn $106 million in bridge deposits, meaning users moved assets onto the chain from elsewhere.

Robinhood is also offering tokenized stocks to customers in 120 countries, according to Cointelegraph. Because Robinhood Chain is compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine, the software environment used by Ethereum apps, its growth can strengthen the broader Ethereum app ecosystem.

Data from Rwa.xyz showed Ethereum with a 47% share of the real-world asset market. Real-world assets, often shortened to RWAs, are traditional assets represented as blockchain tokens. Excluding stablecoins, Cointelegraph highlighted SKY’s Tether Gold, Ondo US Dollar Yield and Franklin Templeton’s government bond product iBENJI. It also named Strategy’s PP variable from xStocks and Circle Group from Ondo among tokenized stock leaders.

Leon Waidmann, head of research at Lisk, said on X that Ethereum’s total value locked had reached $260 billion, above Ether’s $210 billion market capitalization. Total value locked, or TVL, measures the value of assets deposited in blockchain applications. Waidmann argued that the gap suggested ETH was “underpriced” compared with the value sitting in the ecosystem.

Usage data tells a cooler story

The stronger tokenization backdrop has not erased weaker signs from Ethereum’s own activity data. DefiLlama figures cited by Cointelegraph showed Ethereum decentralized applications generated $11 million in weekly revenue, down from $20 million in the first quarter of 2026.

Active addresses also fell to 3.2 million from 5.4 million in the first quarter, according to DefiLlama. Active addresses track wallets interacting with the network, so a drop can point to lower user activity, though one user can control multiple wallets.

Cointelegraph said the 2026 bear market has weighed on blockchain demand, while rival chains have gained ground in areas such as synthetic perpetual futures and automated yield vaults.

Derivatives data also looked less enthusiastic. Laevitas data cited by Cointelegraph showed Ether’s perpetual futures annualized funding rate fell to 3% on Saturday, below a 6% level described as neutral. A funding rate is a recurring payment between traders in perpetual futures, a type of futures contract with no expiry date. Higher positive rates can signal stronger demand for leveraged long positions.

Institutional accumulation remained a supportive factor in the report. Arkham Intelligence flagged a 20,500 ETH withdrawal worth $36 million from Galaxy Digital to a new wallet on Thursday, which Cointelegraph said resembled earlier purchases linked to Tom Lee’s BitMine Immersion. BitMine added 198,370 ETH over the past 30 days and held $10.3 billion in reserves, according to Cointelegraph.

The result is a market with two clear signals: Ethereum is getting more attention from tokenized assets and corporate treasury buying, while app revenue, active addresses and futures positioning show more caution.

This story draws on original reporting from Cointelegraph.