21Shares compares Ethereum potential to early Amazon

Ethereum’s (CRYPT:ETH) current stage resembles Amazon’s early days in the 1990s, according to 21Shares, as Wall Street remains largely unaware of its transformative potential. 

21Shares Research Analyst Leena ElDeeb believes Ethereum could eventually see large-scale adoption, similar to Amazon’s evolution from an online bookstore to a tech powerhouse. 

"Ethereum is complex, akin to Amazon in the 1990s — promising vast potential but less straightforward in its use cases," ElDeeb noted.

21Shares Vice President Federico Brokate highlighted that Ethereum’s growth trajectory mirrors Amazon’s, which transformed entire industries beyond books. 

"Just as Amazon evolved beyond books to redefine entire industries, Ethereum may surprise us with revolutionary use cases that we can’t fully envision today," Brokate explained. 

Despite Ethereum’s $320 billion market cap being a fraction of Amazon’s $2 trillion valuation, Brokate pointed out a unique advantage: Ethereum’s developer community. 

"By the end of the 1990s, Amazon employed around 7,600 people. In contrast, the Ethereum network today features over 200,000 active developers," he added.

Despite competition from other Layer-1 networks like Solana (CRYPTO:SOL), Ethereum remains the top platform for decentralized finance (DeFi), stablecoins, and real-world asset markets. 

Major financial institutions, including BlackRock and UBS, have utilised Ethereum for tokenising funds. 

Payment giants like PayPal and Visa are also building on Ethereum, demonstrating its potential as a backbone for digital finance.

However, institutional interest in spot Ether ETFs remains modest. 

According to Brokate, “only a few investors understand Ethereum’s potential,” with many staying cautious. 

Inflows to spot Ether ETFs are currently only 9% of Bitcoin’s, partially due to regulatory constraints and investor hesitancy.

Katalin Tischhauser, Head of Research at Sygnum Bank, remarked that the next year could bring significant changes. 

At the time of reporting, the Ethereum (ETH) price was $2,454.40.