Author: Claude, Shenchao TechFlow
Deep潮 Overview: If you're still holding Ethereum and its price has dropped by more than half this year, you might be wondering who is still entering at this level.
The answer is the most conservative money on Wall Street. JPMorgan’s tokenized money market fund, JLTXX, saw its on-chain size surge from $200 million to nearly $700 million in just seven weeks—a 250% increase in one month—and it operates exclusively on Ethereum. In the same week, Tom Lee’s BitMine bought another $73 million worth of ETH in a single week, bringing its total holdings to 4.8% of Ethereum’s circulating supply. ETH’s price is falling, but institutions are accumulating—both things are happening simultaneously.
JPMorgan quietly turned a tokenized fund into one of the fastest-growing products in recent years.
According to crypto finance media The Defiant, the OnChain Liquidity Token Money Market Fund (ticker: JLTXX) from JPMorgan has seen its on-chain assets under management grow by approximately 250% over the past month, according to data from blockchain analytics platform Token Terminal. This fund operates exclusively on Ethereum.
Seven weeks, from 200 million to nearly 700 million—JPMorgan Chase initiated this with its own capital.
JLTXX launched on May 13, with JPMorgan initially investing $100 million of its own capital as seed funding, and custodian Anchorage Digital also participating in the initial token sale. On its first day, the total on-chain locked amount reached approximately $200 million. According to a tweet from ethereuminsti, seven weeks later, this figure rose to $695 million, a 248% increase—consistent with Token Terminal’s reported figure of approximately 250%.
The fund invests in nothing aggressive—only short-term U.S. Treasuries and overnight repurchase agreements fully collateralized by Treasuries or cash, identical to the safest assets in traditional money market funds. What truly sets it apart is where it runs. JPMorgan has its own private settlement network called Kinexys, but like JLTXX and the bank’s first tokenized fund, MONY, launched last December, it chose the public Ethereum mainnet over its own blockchain. For a bank with its own blockchain infrastructure to place its product on a public chain is itself a signal.
For those holding ETH, this means Ethereum is gradually transitioning from a speculative asset to the underlying ledger for compliant financial products in the eyes of institutions. This type of demand is not closely tied to short-term price fluctuations but will accumulate as long-term network usage.
The growth is driven by the demand for reserves backing stablecoins.
JLTXX is rising quickly, partly because it is being used as collateral for stablecoins.
According to Dune analytics accounts, this fund has been added to the reserve asset pool of the USDG stablecoin, alongside BlackRock’s BUIDL and Superstate’s STBXX. This move reflects a growing demand: stablecoin issuers need exposure to U.S. Treasuries that comply with the GENIUS Act and can be held on-chain. The GENIUS Act is U.S. stablecoin legislation passed in 2025, which specifies the requirements for reserve assets backing stablecoins—tokenized U.S. Treasury money market funds perfectly fit this criterion.
JPMorgan designed JLTXX to be purchasable with both cash and stablecoins, effectively positioning the fund at the intersection of regulated finance and native crypto infrastructure. It is not alone in this space: BlackRock has filed documents with the SEC for two tokenized money products, one of which tokenizes a share class of its existing $6.1 billion Select Treasury Liquidity Fund on Ethereum. BlackRock’s BUIDL is currently the world’s largest tokenized fund, with assets under management exceeding $2.8 billion as of early 2026, spanning eight blockchains.
Those looking to enter can gauge the direction here: stablecoin reserves are a cake that is definitively growing, and institutions are nearly unanimous in choosing Ethereum as the layer that will carry this cake.
BitMine purchased an additional $73 million in a single week, with holdings approaching 5% of the circulating supply.
While traditional finance moves closer to Ethereum from the asset side, on-chain hodlers haven’t stopped either.
According to a portfolio update released on Monday by BitMine Immersion Technologies (NYSE: BMNR), the Ethereum treasury company chaired by Tom Lee of Fundstrat purchased 42,197 ETH last week, valued at approximately $730 million at the time. This purchase increased BitMine’s total ETH holdings to 5,742,237 ETH, representing approximately 4.8% of Ethereum’s circulating supply. BitMine’s own accounting lists the total value of its crypto and other assets at $11.1 billion, with its ETH position valued at $1,800 per ETH, along with 206 BTC, a $180 million stake in Beast Industries, a $710 million stake in Eightco Holdings, and $527 million in cash and marketable securities.
A detail worth noting for holders: BitMine’s staked ETH amount has remained at 4,879,157, unchanged from last week, meaning no new ETH was staked this week. The company’s publicly stated goal is to control 5% of Ethereum’s total supply, and its weekly accumulation strategy is steadily approaching this threshold.
Risk Notice: BitMine’s holdings are highly sensitive to price fluctuations. Its ledger values ETH at $1,800, while the spot price of ETH as of July 6 was approximately $1,747—below its valuation benchmark. In June of this year, insiders raised concerns about a $30 million cash shortfall, a claim Tom Lee publicly denied at the time. For investors leveraging ETH exposure through such treasury companies, the dual leverage of both stock and token prices presents a double-edged sword.
Price is falling, but institutions are buying—how do you interpret this divergence?
Putting the two clues together creates an awkward picture: institutions are accelerating their entry, while the price is moving downward.
Ethereum has had a tough year. According to multiple market data sources, ETH has declined more than 50% from its all-time high of approximately $4,900 in August 2025, and has recorded three consecutive quarterly bearish candles through the first three quarters of 2026—the first such occurrence on record. Spot Ethereum ETFs also saw net outflows in June. On-chain activity has declined as well; according to Glassnode data, the 14-day average of active addresses fell from around 795,000 in early February to approximately 420,000 in June, a decrease of about 46%.
So, JPMorgan’s fund size, BitMine’s position growth, and secondary market token prices tell two different stories. Institutions are taking long-term positions in Ethereum as a settlement layer and compliant asset foundation, betting on the line of stablecoin reserves and tokenized assets; the secondary market is trading short-term liquidity, sentiment, and ETF funding flows. These two dynamics can diverge over the long term, and it’s unclear which will realize first.
For those holding or considering entering a position, the implication here is: institutional accumulation and tokenization narratives represent real, fundamental shifts—but they do not guarantee short-term price support. Historically, concentrated buying by large holders has not always been a clean buy signal; after the major whale accumulation in February, a local peak followed. It’s reasonable to view institutional entry as a long-term thesis, but treat it with caution as a timing signal for bottom-fishing.