Analysts warn of a global crisis due to the fall in Ethereum price

The Bank of Italy warned of the risk of a systemic crisis in the event of a sharp drop in the price of Ethereum ETH $3,137.56 Bridged Ether (StarkGate) 0.73% Market capitalization $72.1 million VOL. 24 hours $0.8 billion . A study by Claudia Biancotti, director of the Information Technology Department, says that a collapse in the token’s value could destroy the validator economy, shut down the blockchain, and freeze more than $ 800 billion in assets, including tokenized stocks, bonds, and stablecoins.

Unlike traditional settlement systems that are backed by regulators and central banks, Ethereum depends on independent validators whose profits are denominated in ETH tokens. If the price falls sharply, revenues will not cover costs, and operators will leave the network in droves. In extreme cases, this could lead to a complete halt in transaction processing.

The author also emphasizes that the price drop reduces the «economic security budget» of the network, making attacks cheaper and easier. In such a scenario, it is not speculators who are at risk, but real assets such as tokenized treasury bonds, corporate securities, and stablecoins. If property records are compromised, the financial shock could spread to traditional markets.

The report emphasizes that in the event of a crisis, a «flight to safety» may not be possible: inter-chain bridges are vulnerable to attack, and decentralized protocols are not able to respond quickly. In addition, there is no «lender of last resort» in the crypto ecosystem.

The document raises the question of whether public blockchains should be considered as critical financial infrastructure. Among the proposed measures is a requirement for issuers of tokenized assets to maintain backup off-chain databases and have predefined «contingency chains» to transfer assets in the event of a failure. Without such mechanisms, the financial system risks finding itself in a situation where a speculative token crash paralyzes legal markets.