No. 74 - What if Ether Goes to Zero? How Market Risk Becomes Infrastructure Risk in Crypto

Markets, Infrastructures, Payment Systems
by Claudia Biancotti
January 2026
Vai alla versione italiana Site Search

Permissionless blockchains, the most common type of settlement infrastructure for crypto, continue to attract increasing attention from within the traditional financial system. Using these types of blockchain may have the added advantage of lower cost and higher speed as compared with their legacy solutions. There is, however, an oft-overlooked, close link between volatile crypto prices and infrastructure availability and security. Permissionless blockchains are operated by decentralized sets of independent validators, usually compensated in unbacked crypto-assets - known as native tokens. Should such tokens incur a substantial and persistent loss in market value, validators might cease operations. Transaction settlement could slow or stop, and the infrastructure's exposure to cyberattacks could increase.

Full text

  1. 12 January 2026
    No. 74 - What if Ether Goes to Zero? How Market Risk Becomes Infrastructure Risk in Crypto
    PDF 3 MB