Ethereum at 10: Consensys Says “Trustware” Could Bring ETH to $15.8K
As Ethereum celebrates its 10-year anniversary, Consensys is redefining the blockchain’s purpose — envisioning it as critical infrastructure for a new era of trust, which it refers to as “trustware.”.
The company argues that the architecture of Ethereum is evolving beyond a smart contract platform into the foundation for programmable, verifiable trust in financial systems. This shift, it argues, could eventually push the price of Ether (ETH) to $15,800 by 2028.
Trustware: Ethereum’s Next Identity
Trust is the underpinning of the economy — from banks to justice systems — and Consensys estimates that over $9.3 trillion is spent annually on trust infrastructure. Yet, Ethereum, through its decentralized and transparent code, suggests a digital alternative: trustware.
Trustware is a new way of talking about the incredible value that Ethereum is already bringing to the economy,” said Jason Linehan, chief strategy officer at Consensys. In his view, Ethereum has become a programmable alternative to conventional intermediaries.
Cost-to-Corrupt: A New Valuation Model
At the heart of Consensys’ ETH bull thesis is the “cost-to-corrupt” framework. The framework ties Ethereum’s market capitalization to the security it provides to onchain value like stablecoins and tokenized real-world assets.
Given growth in these asset categories — $1T in stablecoins, $500B in tokenized RWAs, and $300B in DeFi TVL by 2028 — ETH would reach $15,800. Linehan characterizes these projections as conservative, with some estimates significantly higher.
Ethereum’s First Mover Advantage and Market Opportunity
Despite competition, Ethereum is still securing $220B of High-Quality Liquid Assets, compared to Solana’s $20.3B and Avalanche’s $3.7B. Moreover, the entire crypto market is only 0.3% of global wealth, with plenty of room for adoption.
Consensys believes the next era will be one of “agentic finance” — global scale finance managed by sophisticated algorithms, with Ethereum at its core.
A Decade of Innovation and Institutional Readiness
Ethereum’s architecture has been shaped by 21 network upgrades and a series of innovations — from smart contracts and DeFi to proof-of-stake and real-world assets tokenized. With over 1 million validators in 84 countries, it is a mainstay of decentralization and security.
As trustware becomes the critical infrastructure for global finance, Consensys thinks Ethereum is poised to capture trillions of value — and ETH holders are just beginning.
