[On-site] "AI proxy payments · institutions adopt, only Ethereum" ... domestic experts agree in unison

Leading domestic Ethereum ecosystem institutions and experts gathered in Seoul to hold in-depth discussions around the disconnect between Ethereum’s price and fundamentals, conditions for institutional adoption, and the potential for combining Ethereum with the AI agent economy.

On the 16th, at the second panel meeting of “Ethereum Korea One” held at the DSRV office building in Seoul—“Ethereum as an Asset II: Korea Institutional Adoption”—DSRV co-founder Kim Jong-kwang, KODA representative Zhao Chen-shuo, and future asset securities AI and digital asset analyst Han Jong-moo attended as panelists, while Non-Classic representative Kang Yu-bin served as the moderator.

■ “On-chain fundamentals hit a historic high… and the disconnect from price is actually an opportunity”

The first agenda item was the disconnect between Ethereum’s on-chain performance and soft price action. Future asset securities analyst Han Jong-moo said, “Based on the stablecoin issuance volume tied to Ethereum, there was a net inflow of $8.5 billion over the past month, while in the same period the stablecoins based on Solana recorded net outflows.” He added that Ethereum’s daily transaction count also hit 3.64 million on the 12th, setting a new all-time high, and that the number of new users has grown 4 times each quarter over the past two years.

He said, “From an analyst’s perspective, it will take time to build a framework to evaluate value using Ethereum, but structural demand continues to flow in—and this disconnect is actually the most interesting moment.”

DSRV co-founder Kim Jong-kwang summed it up more directly. “The direction is correct and there are no competitors. The only chain that has been validated for over 10 years is Ethereum. Isn’t that the structure Warren Buffett likes the most?” he said with a smile. But he also pointed out, “We’re not able to wait for 10 years like Warren Buffett’s ‘saints.’ For speed, we need to focus on two catalysts: regulation and the AI agent economy.”

■ KODA representative Zhao Chen-shuo: “Custody alone isn’t enough… institutionalization of DeFi at the institutional level is the key”

Based on his experience from 2022 onward engaging with more than 500 enterprises and institutions, KODA representative Zhao Chen-shuo diagnosed the real bottlenecks in institutional adoption. He emphasized, “Bitcoin has a clear ‘digital gold’ narrative, and discussions around adoption are active, but Ethereum itself has low levels of understanding, with fewer consultations.” “Institutional adoption requires moving beyond simple custody—institutionalization of staking, lending, and institutional-level DeFi services—so that institutions will truly adopt.”

He called for the current digital assets basic law being advanced to not be Bitcoin-centric, but instead designed to support Ethereum smart contracts and DeFi. “It’s a positive change that Ethereum has actively held events aimed at institutions this year,” and “by directly presenting empirical case studies and references to institutional decision-makers, market adoption will be accelerated.”

■ “The integration of AI agents and Ethereum is inevitable”… explained with the GPT router case

Among the remarks at the day’s meeting, the most watched talk was about the possibility of combining the AI agent economy with Ethereum. Analyst Han Jong-moo first pointed out that “in the short term it may be overestimated, but in the medium to long term it is an underestimated topic,” and then listed specific cases.

He used the router functionality introduced starting with GPT-5 as an example to illustrate: “The process in which agents browse countless web pages, communicate with other agents, and handle payments belongs to ultra-high-frequency, micro-amount payments—credit cards or account transfers can’t achieve this.” He then stressed, “Coinbase and Cloudflare are developing this communication protocol X402 protocol, and the Ethereum Foundation and Google are also involved.” “In the era of agent commerce, stablecoins and the Ethereum ecosystem will inevitably become essential infrastructure.”

Kim Jong-kwang, co-founder, also added: “AI agents can’t have bank accounts, but they can have Ethereum accounts.” “Only Ethereum can handle high-frequency trading, micro-payments, and the agent economy.”

■ Closing remarks… “Only Ethereum combines stability, guarantees, and speed”

In the one-sentence messages from each panel toward the end of the meeting, confidence in Ethereum was also evident. Analyst Han Jong-moo said, “AI is the conversion of energy into intelligence, and the resources that accumulate excess energy might be Bitcoin, but the protocol used to make it liquid and trade it will ultimately be Ethereum.” Zhao Chen-shuo, representing KODA, asserted, “For institutions to adopt, they need infrastructure stability, contractual guarantees for smart contracts, speed, and predictable Gas fees—and only Ethereum has all of these.”