The Bank of Italy has published a research paper warning that a collapse in Ethereum's price could severely compromise the network's security and settlement capacity, potentially trapping more than $800 billion in tokenized assets on a failing blockchain.The paper, titled "What if Ether Goes to Zero? How Market Risk Becomes Infrastructure Risk in Crypto," was authored by Claudia Biancotti of the central bank's Directorate General for Information Technology and released on January 12, 2026. The analysis treats Ethereum not merely as a speculative asset but as critical financial infrastructure underpinning stablecoins, tokenized securities, and real-world assets.
