With the first phase of Ethereum 2.0 due to launch within months, some analysts and experts believe it could trigger a major bull run and transform finance as we know it.

Adam Cochran, a partner at MetaCartel Ventures DAO and strategy developer at DuckDuckGo, has laid out several arguments for why ETH 2.0 “could prove to be the largest economic shift in society” in a blog post.

While that may wishful thinking, he’s on firmer ground when he suggests that staking could drive an Ether supply shock. Cochran believes that dependable staking rewards of 3-5 percent will attract capital from large investors until around 30% of the total supply is locked up. ETH’s forthcoming burn mechanism will contribute to the diminishing supply on markets.

Easy fiat on-ramps amplify retail FOMO

Cochran theorises this supply shock will create fear-of-missing-out (FOMO) buying among retail investors who are not interested in technical analysis and “just want in.”

Unlike the 2017 bull run where getting fiat into an exchange was a major headache, the FOMO could be amplified because it’s now significantly easier for newcomers to buy crypto with fiat on exchanges like Binance:

“With no stop-gap this time around, that means these users can all FOMO at the same time. All it takes is one crazy MSNBC headline about Ethereum growth to remind them about their Coinbase account, and the retail investors create a flurry.”

Price aside, Eth 2.0 could transform finance

Speaking to Cointelegraph, Alex Batlin, the founder and CEO of cryptocurrency custody platform Trustology, argued that the impact of ETH 2.0 will extend far beyond price fluctuations.

Batlin believes that ETH 2.0 will offer the scalability required to support mainstream adoption of decentralized finance protocols.

“For DeFi to really work, we need to get from twenty to one thousand to maybe a couple of thousand transactions per minute, and then we start to get really serious. And ETH 2.0 is getting there. If you look at the specs, it's pretty exciting.”

If ETH 2.0 continues on its current trajectory, Batlin believes that DeFi could scale to eventually become “the predominant mechanism by which we do finance.”

Whales appear to be accumulating

Whales appear to agree that ETH 2.0 could comprise a major bull catalyst, with trade volumes surging to record levels on several occasions over the past 12 months. The price is currently up 25% on 30 days ago, though it remains about $100 below its year-to-date high.

ETH/USD: Coin360

While ETH 2.0 is slated to see initial deployment this year, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has laid out a multi-year plan for its complete deployment. So the major bull run and transformation of global finance might still take a little while.