Key Takeaways
- Vitalik Buterin defended Ethereum’s long-term focus on decentralization, privacy, and censorship resistance.
- Bitcoin maximalist Samson Mow and consultant Austin Campbell intensified criticism of Ethereum.
- Ethereum’s recent price weakness and volatile ETF flows have fueled debate over the network’s direction.
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has defended what he called Ethereum’s “unreasonable” ideals amid growing criticism over the network’s performance and ETH’s long-term value proposition.
At the same time, Bitcoin maximalist Samson Mow said he “feels sorry” for Ethereum, which continues to lag behind Bitcoin.
In a lengthy post on X, Buterin argued that Ethereum should prioritize decentralization and privacy over simply maximizing speed, as debate intensifies over its price weakness.
The comments come as Ethereum trades around $2,117, down nearly 10% over the past month and still far below its all-time highs, while Bitcoin has significantly outperformed the crypto in recent years.
Vitalik Buterin Defends Ethereum’s ‘Unreasonable’ Vision
Buterin said Ethereum must remain focused on what he described as the “CROPS” dimension — censorship resistance, openness, privacy, and security — even if that approach appears less commercially aggressive than rival blockchains.
“I think Ethereum should scale,” Buterin wrote.
“But I think Ethereum should strive the hardest to be deeply impressive in a different dimension: the CROPS dimension.”
He warned that competing solely on transaction speed would reduce Ethereum to “mediocrity.”
“Being as fast and as scalable as possible, and only a small epsilon more decentralized than the others, is a route to mediocrity, and if we try it, we will lose,” he said.
Buterin also pushed back against criticism of the Ethereum Foundation’s treasury management and ETH sales, emphasizing his own exposure to the ecosystem.
“Nearly 90% of my net worth is in ETH,” he wrote, adding that most of the remainder of his holdings had already been allocated toward open-source projects.
The Ethereum co-founder also said the Ethereum Foundation was intentionally reducing ETH sales and narrowing its focus toward “longevity over breadth.”
“This means we sell less ETH,” Buterin said while describing the Foundation’s evolving strategy.
His comments come as the Ethereum Foundation pursues an ambitious roadmap through 2026.
Upcoming upgrades such as Glamsterdam and Hegota are expected to introduce higher gas limits and enhanced security features.
Ethereum Ecosystem’s Mixed Reaction To Buterin’s Comments
Buterin’s remarks triggered mixed reactions across the crypto community, with some users praising his commitment to Ethereum’s long-term principles while others criticized ETH’s recent market performance.
One X user argued that Ethereum’s future value would depend less on treasury decisions and more on network activity.
“Reduced ETH selling pressure is positive,” they said, adding: “but long term value will still depend more on… ecosystem growth than foundation treasury decisions alone.”
Others were more critical.
One commenter said: “Because people are sick and tired of his dumping. ETH has burned their own bridges and people are not buying into the b******t anymore.”
The debate reflects broader tensions inside the Ethereum community between those prioritizing decentralization and protocol values and investors increasingly focused on price performance.
Despite weak sentiment among some retail traders, on-chain data has shown continued accumulation by large ETH holders, with whale wallets reportedly adding millions of ETH in recent months while exchange balances trend lower.
On May 25, X account Whale Alert reported that a dormant pre-mine address containing over $4M Ethereum had been activated after 10.8 years.
The 2000 ETH was worth just $620 in 2015.
Samson Mow Says He ‘Feels Sorry’ for Ethereum
Following Buterin’s comments on Ethereum, Bitcoin advocate Samson Mow also weighed in on Ethereum’s struggles, saying even committed Bitcoin supporters were beginning to pity the network’s position.
“I hate Ethereum as much as the next Bitcoin Maximalist but even I can’t help but feel a bit sorry for how bad things are for them now,” Mow wrote on X.
Mow, the CEO of JAN3 and one of the most prominent bitcoin maximalists in the industry, has long argued that Bitcoin is fundamentally superior to all alternative cryptocurrencies.
He has repeatedly predicted BTC could eventually reach $1 million per coin.
In a recent interview, he argued Bitcoin remains undervalued despite trading above six figures earlier this cycle.
“Anything under 120,000, 110,000 I think is below fair market value,” he said.
“This is a deep, deep discount right now, and it’s because people don’t really understand Bitcoin.”
Why Are Some Bearish On ETH?
Founder and managing partner of Zero Knowledge Consulting, Austin Campbell, also added to the criticism, arguing Ethereum’s long-term valuation model remains unclear compared to Bitcoin’s.
“So I’ve gotten a bunch of counter-arguments here that I think have made me dramatically more bearish about ETH,” Campbell wrote on X.
Campbell compared ETH’s performance to Bitcoin’s, noting that Ethereum had failed to sustainably break above previous-cycle highs.
“BTC got into the low 60k range in 2021, then hit the 120s in 2025, and now sits at roughly $77k, well above the 2021 ATH, and vastly outperforming ETH over that timeframe,” he wrote.
Campbell questioned whether Ethereum holders could clearly explain why the asset should retain value if fee generation weakens over time.
“If you don’t think there will be a future link to ETH collecting fees, you are essentially saying ETH will have value because people want to own it, and they want to own it because it has value,” he wrote.
“This is a fundamentally circular argument.”
He added that if Ethereum ultimately serves as a low-cost infrastructure layer with limited value capture, it could behave more like a commodity utility than a scarce financial asset.
“In the case of BTC, it’s clear that value comes from a psychological belief in the monetary premium,” Campbell wrote.
Ethereum Struggles to Regain Momentum
Ethereum’s recent price weakness has intensified scrutiny around the network’s direction, particularly as Bitcoin continues to dominate institutional inflows and broader crypto market attention.
Spot Ethereum ETFs have experienced volatile flows in recent weeks, with periods of strong inflows followed by renewed outflows as investors rotate toward other sectors and asset classes.
Ethereum remains significantly below its previous highs despite ETH continuing to dominate decentralized finance.
Kurt Robson is a London-based reporter at CCN, specialising in the fast-moving worlds of crypto and emerging technology. He began his career covering local news in Cornwall after graduating from Falmouth University with First Class Honours in Journalism. There, he cut his teeth on everything from council meetings to missing swans.
He quickly rose through the ranks to become a frontline journalist at several of the UK’s leading national newspapers. Over the years, he has interviewed musicians and celebrities, reported from courtrooms and crime scenes, and secured multiple front-page exclusives.
Following the upheaval of the COVID-19 pandemic, Kurt shifted his focus to technology journalism—just ahead of the AI boom. With a natural curiosity and a trained eye for emerging trends, he has found a new rhythm in reporting on innovation.
At CCN, Kurt's work focuses on the cutting edge of crypto, blockchain, AI, and the evolving digital world. Drawing on his background in people-first reporting and his deep interest in disruptive tech, Kurt delivers stories that are insightful, entertaining, and human-centric.
