Ethereum’s total value locked (TVL) may surge ten-fold in 2026 as adoption expands across multiple use cases and institutional investors, according to Sharplink’s co-CEO Joseph Chalom.
Sharplink Gaming is the second-largest public Ethereum treasury company, holding 797,704 ETH (ETH), worth roughly $2.33 billion at the time of publication, according to Ethereum Treasuries data.
“The stablecoin market will hit $500B by the end of next year,” Chalom predicted in an X post on Friday, as the total stablecoin market capitalization currently sits at around $308.46 billion. A move to $500 billion would represent an increase of about 62%.
With over half of the total stablecoin activity (54%) taking place on Ethereum, such a rise could potentially contribute to an increase in the network’s TVL.
Tokenized RWA market to reach $300 billion in 2026: Chalom
Chalom also expects tokenized real-world assets (RWAs) to see significant growth, forecasting the market will reach $300 billion in 2026. “Tokenized assets will 10X in AUM in 2026, going from tokenizing individual funds, stocks, and bonds to full fund complexes,” Chalom said.
He pointed to rising interest over the past year from financial services companies including JPMorgan, Franklin Templeton, and BlackRock as a major catalyst.
An increasing TVL is often seen as a sign of growing interest in the network, which can bolster market sentiment and potentially influence the price of the asset. At the time of publication, Ethereum’s TVL is around $68.20 billion, according to DeFiLlama.
However, crypto analyst Benjamin Cowen said on Tuesday that Ether is unlikely to hit new highs in the coming year, given current conditions for Bitcoin. At the time of publication, Ether is trading at $2,924, down 3.12% over the past 30 days, according to CoinMarketCap.
Sovereign wealth fund eye increased Ethereum holdings
Chalom anticipates Ethereum holdings and tokenization activity by sovereign wealth funds to grow five- to tenfold over the next year.
Related: Ethereum in 2026: Glamsterdam and Hegota forks, L1 scaling and more
“In 2026 this will amplify meaningfully as competitive dynamics take hold. When no one was willing to touch crypto from this pool of allocators, it was safe to stay sidelined,” Chalom said.
Chalom also predicted that onchain AI agents and prediction markets will “go mainstream,” which he said will drive more activity and value to the ecosystem.
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