Arthur Hayes Says Ethereum Could Hit $5,000 as Robinhood Chain Fuels Institutional Adoption

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Arthur Hayes predicts that Ethereum price will rise to about $5,000 in the next 12 months, citing Robinhood’s ETH▲$2,518.27 adoption as a potential model for other financial firms. Hayes spoke about this prediction at EastPoint: Seoul 2026 on Sept. 28, saying that Robinhood’s use of Ethereum technology is creating a new story for Ethereum.

The chief investment officer of Maelstrom said major financial firms interested in implementing blockchain technology now have Robinhood to use as an example. The chief investment officer expects other firms to follow the Robinhood model. When he made the statement, ETH was priced at about $2,650. If the price rises to $5,000, that will be an increase of about 89%.

Robinhood Chain is an example of this thesis. Robinhood Chain’s mainnet went live on July 1. Robinhood Chain is an Ethereum Layer 2 using Arbitrum technology that supports financial and other tokenized assets. According to Robinhood, the network is permissionless and compatible with Ethereum network. ETH is the native gas token on Robinhood Chain.

The chain relies on Ethereum blobs for data availability and uses the canonical Arbitrum bridge to link to Ethereum. Robinhood’s mainnet integration includes partners like Alchemy, BitGo, and Chainlink. Uniswap built specialized liquidity infrastructure for the chain. These integrations help ensure technical connections between Layer 2 and Ethereum.

Robinhood states that its network will be used for tokenized securities like stocks and ETFs as well as native crypto applications. According to Robinhood, it had over 1 million funded international customers in the second quarter of 2026. Robinhood announced that it made Stock Tokens available to eligible users in over 120 countries

Hayes’ prediction is still a goal and not a certainty. Ethereum price has dropped below $2,800 recently, making Hayes’ $5,000 goal seem even more out of reach. To achieve this target, ETH price would need to rebound from recent price levels and increase by a large amount.

Ethereum staking queue data shows ongoing interest in staking Ethereum. As of late September, over 1.6 million ETH were staked and waiting to validate transactions, compared to about 161,000 ETH staked and planning to exit the network.

A larger entry backlog limits the amount immediately available to new validators. Staking activity does not directly affect current and future ETH prices.

The key premise of Hayes’ price prediction is imitation by other firms: If Ethereum-related tools and services offered by Robinhood lead other financial firms to offer similar tools and services, Hayes thinks that story and user demand for ETH will justify a higher price for the cryptocurrency. Widespread adoption by other firms is the main factor affecting Hayes’ 12-month ETH price forecast of $5,000.

Source: bitcoinfoundation.org