Ethereum’s Value Drops 57% from Peak, Yet Still Surpasses Toyota

Quick Summary

Ethereum (ETH) has dropped over 57% from its all-time high price, yet its market capitalization remains higher than major global corporations, including Toyota. Despite recent declines, Ethereum’s valuation highlights its significant role in the digital economy and decentralized finance (DeFi).

Ethereum’s Current Market Position

At the time of writing, Ether trades around $2,088, significantly lower than its peak of nearly $4,900 in November 2021. However, Ethereum’s market capitalization stands at approximately $252 billion, surpassing:

• Toyota ($250 billion)
• Total market value of platinum ($245 billion)
• Companies like IBM, McDonald’s, General Electric, Shell, and Disney

If Ethereum were a company, it would rank as the 50th largest globally, just behind Nestlé ($256 billion).

Why Ethereum Remains Valuable

Experts attribute Ethereum’s sustained valuation to several factors:

• Speculative interest and appeal to younger investors.
• Its role as decentralized infrastructure rather than a traditional business.
• Transition to proof-of-stake (PoS), enhancing its attractiveness as a potentially deflationary asset.

Alex Obchakevich, founder of Obchakevich Research, emphasized Ethereum’s appeal to younger investors, stating:

“Ethereum is about the future, about new financial technologies and solutions. The project is still very young and attracts many new and young investors who are ready to take risks. I believe that the average Zoomer will choose Ethereum for investment rather than Toyota or IBM shares.”

Flavio Bianchi, Polkadot ambassador and CMO of Polimec, noted Ethereum’s value comes from its usage and potential rather than traditional revenue metrics:

“Ethereum isn’t a business—it’s infrastructure. Its value doesn’t come solely from revenue or profit but from usage and belief in its future role. It enables people to build, transact, issue assets and coordinate without intermediaries.”

Is Ethereum Deflationary?

Ethereum’s inflation rate recently turned positive again, reaching approximately 0.73% annually over the past month. The inflation or deflation rate depends on:

• ETH fees burned through network activity (since EIP-1559 implementation in 2021).
• Newly issued Ether after the PoS transition.

Recent data shows Ethereum’s daily transaction fees dropped significantly, reaching their lowest levels since June 2020.

Ethereum network transaction fees per day. Source: YCharts

Ethereum’s Market Cap Compared to Countries

Ethereum’s market capitalization now exceeds the GDP of countries like Greece ($243.5 billion) and surpasses the combined GDP of Slovenia and Croatia. According to Obchakevich, this comparison is more than just trivia:

“For institutional investors, it is a sign of legitimacy. Ethereum is valued for smart contracts, and DeFi has a TVL [total value locked] of over $124 billion, seeing it not only as speculation but as the infrastructure of the future.”

Pradeep Singh, CEO of Gateway FM, added:

“What we’re witnessing is a growing recognition that significant portions of the global economy will eventually migrate to this infrastructure. Ethereum’s market capitalization is essentially pricing in its future role as the settlement layer for everything from financial services to supply chain management.”

Future Developments

Ethereum continues to evolve, with developers introducing innovations such as native rollups, further expanding its capabilities and potential use cases in the digital economy.