Joseph Chalom: Ethereum Is Going On Offense (Full Thesis)

**Joseph Chalom** (0:00)
Ethereum has the license to win, but it needs to go on offense for the first time in years to actually win.

**Andy** (0:06)
I think we have a possibility of onboarding about 10 to 20 trillion dollars or more of real world assets and tokenized assets.

**Joseph Chalom** (0:13)
If you look at the scoreboard, it is dominating across every category of crypto and real world activity. The US government believes that stable coins are a strategic national imperative. There is something missing in the ecosystem, which is what I call permanent benevolent capital. And the foundation of my whole career was building trust and solving hard problems. Why do we need a new financial ledger? And what will Ethereum's role be? The only decentralized platform that intermediaries and participants can trust. I'm not lowering our standards. We're going to raise the standards of the industry.

**Andy** (0:53)
Just like the streets of Manhattan, I'm gonna keep this quick. Over 70% of our viewers are not subscribers. Yes, you. Every week, we interview some of the best entrepreneurs and investors in the financial industry. The easiest way to support our channel is to hit the like and smash the subscribe button. Now sit back, relax, and enjoy today's show. All right, Joe, great to have you back.
It's a beautiful day in New York if you prefer the rain and the clouds.

**Joseph Chalom** (1:17)
Andy, great to be here. I would take rain in New York City over 100 degrees any day. I'm bullish.

**Andy** (1:24)
Well, Joe, the theme of this video today is Ethereum going on offense. I think, given some context of Ethereum here over the last two years or so, there was this consensus amongst the community that a shift was needed. There was the Ethereum Foundation, there was the institutional route of Ethereum, there's marketing and many other aspects of the protocol from the tech side all the way to the community, to the social layer that almost just felt tangled, and a bit all over the place. And when we look back in that time period compared to where we are now, it feels like the community and what has happened as of late have made this shift.
Some could call it a pivot, some call it a turnaround. Whatever it is, it feels like the Ethereum redirection is in full steam and is looking stronger than ever.
Joseph Chalom, you run, you are the CEO of Sharplink, one of the largest corporate treasury holders of Ethereum. And we are here today to talk about this new direction in Ethereum going on offense. Great to have you as always.

**Joseph Chalom** (2:28)
It is great to be here. And you're right. I think we had a bit of messaging challenge. I think we had a bit of a leadership malaise.
But that doesn't mean that Ethereum wasn't working for the last couple of years. It's just kind of ironic that in the past two years, it's seen its greatest institutional success, you know, 50 plus percent of stable coins, which are growing rapidly, dominating tokenized assets, dominating DeFi, building the bridge for agentic. But you're absolutely right. The message was not coming through because you need both the facts, which is that Ethereum is the most credibly neutral, decentralized protocol, but you also need narrative and you need sponsorship. And I think what you're starting to see is very intentional ecosystem stewards, not controllers, because this is going to be decentralized, stepping up to fund, stepping up to provide support, and stepping up to be louder voices in the ecosystem to just tell the truth of what's going on and what the forward opportunity is. So you're right, the messaging wasn't great, the narrative wasn't great, the vibe wasn't great, but it was actually building and attracting market share.

**Andy** (3:41)
Yeah, and I think this redirection, I would say we are at the end of the beginning of that redirection, and we are very much in the meat of that move. Ethereum going on offense, Joe, what does that mean? What is going on offense truly mean for the investor community? And from your perspective, what are some of the most important offensive moves that the Ethereum community and protocol and builders and developers are currently taking?

**Joseph Chalom** (4:07)
I think there was just this assumption in the ecosystem that there are certain assets that don't need messaging and don't need stewardship because they speak for themselves. And I'll go backwards. Bitcoin doesn't have a foundation. Bitcoin just has this singular, no one's competing with it. It is the first cryptographic decentralized store of value, and it had a message and the narrative took over.
Ethereum also had that view that it's the first, most decentralized, credibly neutral smart contract platform. If you look at the scoreboard, it is dominating across every category of crypto and real world activity. But there was almost a feeling that it spoke for itself. But we're living in a world where there actually is incredible competition from other L1s, from corporate chains, from other chains where it might be bank owned, who actually have foundations with tokens, they're willing to spend, they're willing to put on large educational conferences, and they have large marketing and BD budgets. And I think we have to be more realistic. Ethereum has the license to win, but it needs to go on offense for the first time in years to actually win. And in some ways, it's Ethereum's to lose and we're not going to lose.