According to Milk Road, Ethereum (ETH) compares favorably with BTC, gold, and U.S. Treasuries by offering a bond-like staking yield, faster on-chain settlement than card networks, 24/7 trading, programmability, and no centralized custodian or issuer, source: Milk Road. Ethereum provides protocol-level staking rewards paid in ETH to validators, giving holders a native yield if they stake, while Bitcoin (BTC) has no protocol-level staking or native yield, sources: Ethereum.org Staking; Bitcoin.org Developer Guide. Ethereum transactions achieve on-chain finality within minutes under proof-of-stake, whereas Visa’s network authorizes payments instantly for consumers but clears and settles net positions between issuers and acquirers on a next-day basis in ordinary course, sources: Ethereum.org documentation on finality; Visa Inc. Form 10-K. The Ethereum network operates continuously and supports programmable smart contracts for decentralized applications, enabling 24/7 on-chain activity and self-custody at the protocol level, sources: Ethereum.org What is Ethereum; Ethereum.org Accounts. U.S. Treasuries offer market-determined yields and defined auction/settlement schedules, and major traditional markets run on set trading hours, giving ETH a contrasting 24/7 settlement and programmable yield profile for traders to compare across assets, sources: U.S. Department of the Treasury Yield Curve and Auction Calendar; NYSE Trading Hours; Ethereum.org Staking.

According to @LexSokolin, Ethereum addressed key financial infrastructure needs such as programmable money, composability, and settlement as far back as 2015, despite initial limitations in scalability, privacy, and regulatory integration. As these challenges are gradually overcome, Ethereum’s increasing functionality is enabling banks and fintechs to adopt blockchain solutions for programmable payments and secure settlements, which is expected to boost ETH’s role in institutional transactions and drive trading volumes. Source: @LexSokolin