Unchained Why It's Easy to Pitch TradFi on Ethereum: 'It's the Only Game in Town'
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Mar 7, 2026 
Danny Ryan, Ethereum researcher and Etherealize co-founder, and Joseph Chalom, former BlackRock exec and CEO of SharpLink, discuss why institutions favor Ethereum. They cover L2 roles and roadmap upgrades. They talk privacy unlocking DeFi, ETH as settlement for tokenized assets, evolving ZK tech, multidimensional gas, and AI agents routing to Ethereum.
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L2s Survive As Specialized Integration Layers
- L2s remain valuable as bespoke infrastructure layers for privacy, front-end integration, and business distribution even as L1 throughput increases.
- Danny Ryan highlights Base as an L2 example that succeeds because of deep integration into its parent app's distribution channels.
How To Pitch Ether To Institutional Investors
- Pitch ETH by explaining Ethereum's role as the future settlement layer and Ether as the trust commodity securing transactions.
- Joseph Chalom advises avoiding short-term price predictions and framing ETH as intrinsic value, not a Bitcoin derivative.
L2s Must Find Differentiators Beyond Scale
- Vitalik's critique pushes L2s to justify themselves beyond mere scaling; future L2s must add unique VM features or privacy to differentiate.
- Danny Ryan expects privacy-first L2s like Aztec and business-focused ones like Base to persist.