Ethereum’s “application TVL” has acted as a valuation backstop for Ether for more than five years, according to crypto analyst Leo Lanza, a contributor at ETHDigitalOil.COM, citing on-chain research from Token Terminal.
Token Terminal tracks “ecosystem TVL,” which measures the dollar value of user deposits across Ethereum applications. These include lending markets, trading pools, and stablecoin systems.
Its chart compares that figure with Ethereum’s fully diluted market cap, which estimates the network’s value by applying the current ETH price to the full token supply.
Since 2020, Ethereum’s total valuation has remained higher than the value sitting inside its applications. Lanza said that gap matters because TVL measures money people actually park in Ethereum apps to use them, such as lending, trading, or stablecoin transfers.
In his framing, those deposits tend to be working capital, not quick in-and-out trades. That is why he treated the FDV-above-TVL relationship as a sign of underlying demand for ETH tokens.
The comments came as ETH’s price struggled to hold above the $3,000 mark. The downside happened as US President Donald Trump’s latest tariff warning to certain EU nations spooked risk investors.
Wall Street remains bullish on ETH. Standard Chartered, for instance, projected ETH to reach $7,500 by the end of 2026, almost thrice than today’s rate. Fundstrat’s Tom Lee predicted the coin to hit $9,000 in the same period.
$120 Trillion Worth of “Turbo Tokenization” Will Benefit Ethereum
NYSE’s blockchain-exchange push could accelerate tokenization across traditional markets, where global stocks and bonds total roughly $120 trillion. In Lanza’s framing, even a small on-chain shift toward the Ethereum ecosystem would matter.
That is because tokenized assets need cash rails. They often use stablecoins for settlement. They also need applications for trading, custody, lending, and collateral. Those uses can increase deposits inside Ethereum apps. That can lift the application TVL.
“Imagine what’s going to happen as the NYSE announces their blockchain exchange,” Lanza wrote, adding:
“$120T worth of stocks and bonds are about to be turbo tokenized.”
