ORIGINAL TITLE: "NEW HIGH PLEDGES, QUIT EMPTIED, ETH IS APPROACHING STRUCTURAL TURNING POINTS? "

Source: imToken

HOLD ETHER'S ETF AND GET INTEREST ON A REGULAR BASIS LIKE A BOND

AT THE BEGINNING OF THE MONTH, ETF (ETHE) HAD ALLOCATED TO THE CURRENT SHARE HOLDERS THE PROCEEDS OF THE FUND FROM THE PLEDGE BETWEEN 6 OCTOBER 2025 AND 31 DECEMBER 2025, WHICH ALSO MARKED THE DISTRIBUTION OF THE PROCEEDS FROM THE UNITED STATES' FIRST SPOT-ENCRYPTED ASSET-TRADING PRODUCT TO THE HOLDER。

It's just an ordinary chain in the eyes of a Web3 Native player, but it's a sign of an encrypted financial historyIt's the first time that the income from the Taifung has been packaged into the standard shell of traditional financeThere is no doubt that it is a milestone。

Of even greater concern is the fact that this is not an isolated event, and a series of changes are occurring simultaneously at the data level of the chain, with the continued rise of the soybdenum pledge rate, the gradual digestion of the queuing out of the certifiers and the re-emergence of the queue。

These seemingly dispersed signals are collectively pointing to a deeper problem:Is Taifeng evolving from a distributional asset centred on price volatility to a category of "interest-bearing assets" with stable return properties accepted by long-term fundingWhat

I. ETF PROCEEDS DISTRIBUTION: A "FIRST EXPERIENCE" OF TRADITIONAL INVESTORS

To be objective, for a long time, it was more like a technical experiment with a little more polite and limited to the "link world."。

Because it requires not only that users have the basics of encryption, such as wallets, private keys, but also that they understand the certificationer mechanism, consensus rules, lock-in cycles and punitive logic, while the LSD agreement, which is represented by Lido Finance, considerably lowers the threshold for participation, the pledge proceeds themselves remain largely in the encrypted original language (stETH, etc.)。

Ultimately, for most of the Web2 investors, the system is neither intuitive nor accessible, and is an insurmountable gap。

NOW, THIS DIVIDE IS BEING FILLED BY ETF. UNDER THE GREYSCALE DISTRIBUTION SCHEME, EACH SHARE HELD BY AN ETHE HOLDER WILL RECEIVE US$ 0.083178, WHICH REFLECTS THE PROCEEDS OBTAINED AND SOLD BY THE FUND THROUGH PLEDGE DURING THE CORRESPONDING PERIOD AND WILL BE DISTRIBUTED TO INVESTORS HOLDING ETHE SHARES AS OF 5 JANUARY 2026 (RECORD DATE)。

In short, it does not come from business operations, but from network security and consensus participation per se, which in the past existed almost exclusively within the encryption industry, but is now being packaged in familiar financial cases such as ETF, through United States share accounts, traditional 401 (k) or mutual fund investors without having access to private keys, to the primary gains (in the form of United States dollars) generated by consensus in the Taipei network。

IT SHOULD BE EMPHASIZED THAT THIS DOES NOT MEAN THAT FULL COMPLIANCE WITH THE TAIFENG PLEDGE HAS BEEN COMPLETED, NOR DOES IT MEAN THAT THE CHAIN OF CUSTODY HAS GIVEN A UNIFIED CALIBRE TO THE ETF PLEDGE SERVICE, BUT A KEY CHANGE HAS TAKEN PLACE IN THE ECONOMY:For the first time, non-encrypted primary users have indirectly benefited from consensus on the Taifung network without understanding nodes, private keys and chain operations。

From this point of view, ETF revenue distribution is not an isolated event, but a first step towards a broader capital perspective with Staking。

The greyscale is also not unique, and ETF under the Shares flag announced that the proceeds obtained through the pledge ETH would be distributed to existing share holders. This allocation amounts to $0.010378 per unit and the related interest-delay and assignment process has been simultaneously disclosed。

There is no doubt that this is a good start, especially for the greyscale, 21 Shares, institutions that have influence in both the TradFi and Web3 fields, whose demonstration effect is far more than once, and will no doubt drive the agencyTHE EFFECTIVENESS AND PREVALENCE AT THE DE FACTO LEVEL OF THE OVERLEAF PLEDGE AND PROCEEDS ALSO SIGNAL THAT ETF IS NO LONGER A SHADOW ASSET FOLLOWING PRICE FLUCTUATIONS, BUT A FINANCIAL PRODUCT THAT IS TRULY CAPABLE OF GENERATING CASH FLOWS。

In the longer term, as this model is validated, the future does not exclude the follow-up layout of traditional asset management giants, such as BlackRock and Fidelity, or the injection of hundreds of billions of levels of long-term allocation to the Taifeng。

II. Innovative high pledge rates and disappearing "out line"

IF ETF GAINS ARE MORE A BREAKTHROUGH AT THE NARRATIVE LEVEL, THEN CHANGES IN THE TOTAL PLEDGE RATE AND PLEDGE QUEUE REFLECT MORE DIRECTLY THE FINANCIAL BEHAVIOUR ITSELF。

First of all, it's a record high in the sofa, and according to The Block statisticsTHERE ARE NOW MORE THAN 36 MILLION ETH PLEDGES ON THE ETHERAK BEACON CHAIN, ACCOUNTING FOR NEARLY 30 PER CENT OF THE NETWORK'S TRAFFIC SUPPLY, AND THE VALUE OF THE PLEDGE EXCEEDS US$ 118 BILLION, A RECORD HIGHThe highest share of network traffic was recorded at 29.54 per cent in July 2025。

Source: The Block

IN TERMS OF SUPPLY AND DEMAND, THE LARGE NUMBER OF ETH PLEDGED MEANS THAT THEY HAVE TEMPORARILY WITHDRAWN FROM THE FREE-FLOW MARKET, WHICH ALSO INDICATES THATA SIGNIFICANT PORTION OF THE ETH IN CIRCULATION IS MOVING FROM HIGH-FREQUENCY TRADED ASSETS TO LONG-TERM CONFIGURED ASSETS WITH FUNCTIONAL ROLES。

In other words, ETH is no longer merely a Gas, a medium of trading or a means of speculation, but is assuming a role as a "product of production" — it is involved in the network through pledgeing and continues to produce returns。

At the same time, there have been interesting changes in the certifier queue. At the time of the communication, the current pledge exits with the Taifung PoS is almost empty, while the pledge is increasing (over 2.73 million) and, in short, there are now a large number of ETH options locked into the system for long periods。

Unlike transactions, the pledge itself is a low-mobility, long-term, stable-reward configuration, and funds are willing to re-enter the pledge queue, which means at least one thing, that is, at this stageMore and more participants are willing to be locked in for this long term and accept its opportunity costsI don't know。

A RELATIVELY CLEAR TREND CAN BE SEEN WHEN THE ETF PROCEEDS ARE DISTRIBUTED TOGETHER, THE PLEDGE RATE IS HIGH AND THE QUEUE STRUCTURE CHANGES:The Taicha pledge is evolving from an early participant dividend in the chain into a TradFi structural yield layer that has been gradually accepted by the traditional financial system and reassessed by long-term finance。

None of them alone is enough to make trend judgements, but together they are mapping out the contours of the developing economy of Staking。

The future of accelerated maturity in the market

BUT THIS DOES NOT MEAN THAT THE PLEDGE HAS TURNED ETH INTO A “RISK-FREE ASSET”, BUT RATHER THAT, AS THE PARTICIPANTS' STRUCTURE CHANGES, THE TYPE OF RISK TO WHICH THEY ARE EXPOSED IS SHIFTING, TECHNOLOGICAL RISKS ARE GRADUALLY DIGESTED, AND STRUCTURAL RISKS, LIQUIDITY RISKS, AND MECHANISMS UNDERSTAND COSTS BECOME MORE IMPORTANT。

It is well known that during the last regulatory cycle, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) used to wave clubs and take enforcement action on a number of projects of a mobile nature, including charges of unregistered securities against MetaMask/Connsys, Lido/steh, Rocket Pool/reth, which at one time created uncertainty over the long-term development of ETF。

FROM A REALISTIC PATH, WHETHER AND HOW ETF IS INVOLVED IN PLEDGEING IS ESSENTIALLY A PRODUCT PROCESS AND COMPLIANCE STRUCTURE DESIGN ISSUE RATHER THAN A DENIAL OF THE ETA NETWORK ITSELF. AS MORE INSTITUTIONS EXPLORE BORDERS IN PRACTICE, MARKETS ARE VOTING WITH REAL FUNDS。

For example, Bitmine has pledged over 1 million ETHs to the EtherpoS, amounting to 103.2 million ETHs, valued at about US$ 32.15 billion, which is one quarter of its total holding warehouse (4.443 million)。

All in all, it is no longer a small game in the polar circle that the Taifeng pledge to this day。

WHEN ETF STARTS TO STEADILY DISTRIBUTE ITS REVENUES, WHEN LONG-TERM FUNDING WOULD RATHER WAIT 45 DAYS TO ENTER THE CONSENSUS LEVEL, WHEN 30% OF ETH IS TURNED INTO A SECURITY BARRIER, WE'RE WITNESSING ITA system of primary benefits accepted by global capital markets was formally constructed with the Taifaf。

Understanding the change itself is perhaps as important as participation。

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