BlackRock's 2026 outlook confirms Ethereum powers 65% of tokenized assets. This isn't adoption—it's infrastructure lock-in, and it changes the conversation.
BlackRock doesn't usually telegraph its infrastructure bets this clearly. But in its 2026 thematic outlook, the firm stated plainly that Ethereum underpins 65% of tokenized assets—a data point that shifts how we should think about public blockchain adoption.
This isn't about retail sentiment or developer ecosystems. It's about where the actual capital is settling. When the world's largest asset manager points to one network as the dominant rails for tokenization, it's worth asking what that consolidation means for composability, liquidity fragmentation, and long-term moats.
The interesting part is the implied path dependency. If two-thirds of tokenized products are already built on Ethereum, the switching cost for new issuers becomes prohibitive. Network effects don't just favor early movers—they entrench them. And in TradFi, where interoperability and settlement finality matter more than narrative, that entrenchment compounds fast.
What I'm watching now is whether this creates a bifurcation: Ethereum as the institutional settlement layer, and everything else fighting for retail or niche verticals. Because if BlackRock's positioning this way publicly, others are already building with that assumption baked in.
