A Messari analyst sparked heated debate over the weekend after declaring Ethereum is “dying” as community income declined in August.
In an X submit on Saturday, Messari analysis supervisor AJC stated that “Ethereum’s fundamentals are collapsing,” as Ethereum’s income from charges in August was $39.2 million, down over 40% year-over-year and roughly 20% month-over-month.
However many who learn the submit disagreed, pointing to Ethereum’s rising metrics, app income, stablecoin provide, continued L2 scaling and a distinction between Ethereum being a commodity, somewhat than a tech inventory — which means it shouldn’t be valued based mostly on income.
Ethereum remains to be a vibrant ecosystem
A big a part of Ethereum’s fall in revenue has come on account of the Dencun upgrade in March 2024, which lowered transaction charges for layer-2 scaling networks utilizing it as a base layer to submit transactions.
Talking to Cointelegraph, Henrik Andersson, chief funding officer of funding agency Apollo Crypto, stated it’s unlikely Ethereum is dying, as a result of knowledge from Ethereum L2s analytics software growthepie shows it’s nonetheless “a vibrant ecosystem with stablecoin provide, throughput, and lively addresses are all at or near all-time excessive.”
As of Aug. 30, there have been additionally over 552,000 day by day lively addresses on Ethereum according to funding analysis platform YCharts, representing a 21% enhance because the identical time in 2024.
“We imagine each Ethereum and Bitcoin have a spot in a crypto portfolio,” Andersson stated.
“Ethereum is changing into the impartial decentralized base layer for finance and similar to Bitcoin isn’t valued on income however as a retailer of worth, we don’t imagine Ethereum might be valued solely on its income.”
In response to critics, nevertheless, AJC defended his use of income to worth the layer-1 blockchain, explaining that as a result of it’s collected in Ether (ETH), one of many largest historic demand drivers of consumption is now “trending towards zero.”
On the identical time, AJC argued that lively addresses and transactions are “meaningless statistics because it pertains to demand.”
Ethereum has been declared “lifeless” 40 occasions this yr
Ethereum has been declared by varied sources a minimum of 150 occasions since 2014; most of those deaths have been recorded this yr, with about 40, in response to Ethereum Obituaries.
Ryan McMillin, chief funding officer at Merkle Tree Capital, informed Cointelegraph that Ethereum continues to adapt and is usually declared lifeless in moments of narrative weak spot, falling charges, transaction trending decrease, or when opponents outpace it.
He stated that in idea, as a result of smart contracts are a aggressive sector, builders and capital may slowly however completely migrate elsewhere.
“However in follow, its developer group, entrenched DeFi protocols, and regulatory acceptance give it extra endurance than the obituaries counsel; its present narrative is it is going to be the TradFi chain of alternative, though the SOL ETF might disrupt that too,” McMillin stated.
“The larger story is that crypto is maturing into an ecosystem of differentiated belongings, and Ethereum will stay one of many central items for years to come back, and competitors with different L1s may be very wholesome.”
McMillin stated he doesn’t suppose Ethereum is “dying,” however stated it has been caught in a “tough spot” for practically two years as a result of it’s trapped between Bitcoin’s narrative as digital gold and Solana’s pitch because the quicker, cheaper various.
Associated: Ether whales have added 14% more coins since April price lows
“Ethereum’s ultra-sound cash framing was by no means going to win towards Bitcoin’s tougher financial premium, and in terms of throughput and value, Solana merely gives magnitudes of enchancment,” he stated.
One space that has helped Ethereum in 2025 is its spot exchange-traded funds, which unlocked conventional finance flows and positioned Ether as a levered play on stablecoin adoption and community development, in response to McMillin.
“However that benefit might not final lengthy, spot Solana ETFs are anticipated within the coming weeks, which may shortly stage the enjoying area for mainstream capital inflows.”
Journal: Korean bill to legalize ICOs, Chinese firm’s Ethereum RWAs mystery: Asia Express
