Ethereum Signals Strength As Citigroup Eyes $5.5 Trillion Tokenized Asset Boom

Ethereum’s funding rate climbed to its highest level since August 23, 2025 on May 31, even as the token slipped below the $2,000 mark. The move pointed to heavy long positioning, and that crowding showed up again on June 1 when about $84 million in long ETH bets were wiped out.

Citigroup Sees Tokenization Breakout

Citigroup’s new Tokenization 2030 report put the tokenized asset market at $17 billion today and projected a base-case value of $5.5 trillion by 2030. The bank also laid out a wider range, with a low case of $2.7 trillion and a high case of $8.2 trillion, depending on how fast adoption spreads.

The forecast leans heavily on US Treasury bills and public equities. Citi said about 10% of the US Treasury bill market could be tokenized by 2030, while public stocks could make up another 3% of the total, with on-chain money and tokenized deposits helping settle those trades.

Citi: Tokenized securities market could reach $5.5T by 2030

Citi said in its Tokenization 2030: Wall Street On-Chain report that the real-world asset tokenization market could grow from $17 billion today to $5.5 trillion by 2030, with estimates ranging from $2.7 trillion to $8.2… pic.twitter.com/OwwUCtPpFW

— Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) June 1, 2026

Citi also said a shift by 10% of US retail investors to on-chain trading could create about $2.6 trillion in demand for tokenized public equities. The report framed the change as a gradual one, with legacy systems and blockchain-based rails likely to run side by side for a long stretch.

Ethereum Still Sits In The Middle

The report and the market reaction both placed Ethereum in the middle of the tokenization story. Reports have it that Wall Street firms are already using Ethereum for tokenization, citing BlackRock’s BUIDL fund and the firm’s plan to tokenize money market funds on the blockchain using Ethereum.

Even so, the price action has stayed weak. Ethereum was trading around $1,985 when the piece was published, after a drop of 0.85% on the day, and the token had already fallen below the psychological $2,000 level.

The report also pointed to a support band between $1,980 and $1,990, which had formed a demand zone on May 29. A bounce from that area, it said, could push ETH back above $2,000 and later toward $2,220.

Technical pressure was still hanging over the chart. ETH formed a double-top pattern on April 17 and May 6, then broke below the neckline and fell toward the $2,000 area after a second drop of about 9% from the $2,460 peak.

Featured image from Unsplash, chart from TradingView