Overview
- The paper argues a persistent collapse in ETH’s dollar price could push validators to exit, slowing or halting final settlement on Ethereum.
- It estimates an economic security budget of roughly 17 million ETH (about $71 billion as of September 2025) and warns the dollar cost to attack falls as price and active stake decline.
- More than $800 billion in tokenized assets and major stablecoins on Ethereum could face illiquidity or manipulation, including theoretical double‑spending targeting exchanges.
- The note says few practical escape routes exist, citing fragile cross‑chain bridges, about $85 billion locked in DeFi, and the absence of a lender of last resort.
- Authored by Claudia Biancotti as Technical Note No. 74, the 11‑page analysis proposes off‑chain ownership records and preselected contingency chains and has intensified regulatory scrutiny in Italy.