Coinbase’s Research Head Thinks Ethereum Is Getting Overlooked

David Duong, who runs institutional research at Coinbase, said this week that Ethereum is mispriced. ETH was trading around $2,000, more than half off its August 2025 peak, and the market had largely moved on from the asset. Duong had not. His argument was not built on sentiment or momentum but on three specific developments he thinks the price has not caught up with yet.

The first is regulatory. On March 17, the SEC and CFTC jointly classified 16 crypto assets as digital commodities, with Ethereum on the list. For ETH specifically, that ruling matters more than it does for most assets because staking, which is central to how Ethereum works, is now explicitly outside securities law. Duong described it as a clean regulatory pass, and for any institution that has been sitting on the sidelines waiting for that kind of legal clarity, the question of whether to engage just got simpler.

The second is BlackRock. The asset manager launched a staked Ethereum ETF earlier this month and pulled in $254 million in its first week, the fastest start for any crypto ETF product in 2026. The fund plans to stake between 70% and 95% of its holdings. Duong’s point was that more institutional money coming in while staking locks up supply is a structural dynamic, not a sentiment trade, and it is not reflected in where ETH is currently priced.

The third thing he flagged was EthCC, opening in Cannes on March 30. A talk on the agenda titled “Issuance: The Cost of Inaction” caught his attention, and he indicated a meaningful announcement about Ethereum’s monetary policy could come out of the conference.

A survey Coinbase ran across roughly 350 institutional clients found that 73% planned to increase digital asset exposure in 2026, even with the survey conducted during January’s drawdown. Whether the market catches up to that sentiment is the question heading into the week.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR See More

Sophia Cruz

Financial Writer - Asian & European Desks

Sophia is an experienced writer, reporter and newsdesk member, mostly on the financial sectors. For the past 5 years Sophia has covered a wide variety of topics such as the financial markets, economics, technology, fin-tech and trading. Sophia has been a part of the FX Leaders team since 2017 and works on producing valuable content and information for traders of all levels of experience.

Russia’s 300k Ruble Retail Cap: A Strategic Pivot Toward Institutional Crypto Rails

1 day ago

Save

Google Quantum AI White Paper Sinks Bitcoin below $67K

2 d ago

Save

A Big Chunk of the Bitcoin Mining Industry Is Losing Money

3 d ago

Save