Ether is not worth buying or using until Ethereum fixes its gas fees, which are too high. x.com
Biotech2k
Biotech Investor, AI-Driven Drug Discovery
Crypto is the democracy of money, where no one can be excluded and no one can manipulate it. About 5 billion people live without stable governments, banking systems or currency, arguably including Americans, since the dollar has lost 99.5% of its value over 250 years. The big coins, bitcoin, Ether, XRP and BNB, are the way to own that. x.com
Ethereum's strong ecosystem is not translating into enough ETH value capture to support significant appreciation unless that changes. The Ethereum Foundation selling ETH again is frustrating; buybacks and stronger incentives for L2s to accumulate and buy back ETH could improve the token's economics. Fundstrat, which owns roughly 5% of the supply, has a huge opportunity to push for better value capture. x.com x.com
Ethereum feels weak with no clear catalyst, despite an appealing story of institutional adoption for real utility and infrastructure. The crypto craze may have petered out after about 15 years, and bitter memories of losses from counterparty blowups such as Voyager and FTX may never fade. x.com
Ethereum's upside looks worth the bet because the payoff to its prior high is much larger than the downside, and buyers still respond to good news. There is roughly 16% down to $1,950 versus a little over 2x back to the prior all-time high. LIT caught a sharp bid around its US regulatory plans, and CHIP rallied 40% around a $1 million buyback; that response looks like a bull-market sign. x.com
Ethereum faces slightly higher near-term selling risk as net inflows raise Binance's sellable ETH supply. Some 55,471 ETH entered and 47,596 left, net 7,875, though both flows have slowed. If inflows persist this week with ETF outflows and high US Treasury yields, pressure could grow around the Fed decision. Rising cumulative ETH 2.0 transactions bode well for network use, not direct demand or relief today. Losing $2,280-2,300 adds downside risk; recovery needs flow and price confirmation. x.com
Bitcoin and ether liquidity is fleeing to AI and the SpaceX IPO, leaving crypto, the darling of 2020-2021, with no bid. The timeline now chases AI the way it chased crypto in 2021, which looks like Magnetar 2.0. Crypto has led markets for a long time and may be leading again, so it may be time to take profits. x.com x.com
Ether's near-term recovery is lagging Bitcoin as spot Ether ETFs lost $149 million over Monday and Tuesday while Bitcoin funds gained $286 million. Ether remains below its weekend high and 365-day average; the multi-model signal is still Long on both, with three of four models agreeing on Ether versus four of four on Bitcoin. x.com
ETH should stay stuck for a long time because of the many trapped buyers created by BitMine and Tom Lee. Nearly every use case for it has been tried since 2019, and tokenization is more exciting than ETH itself. x.com
Ether's distribution is its biggest weakness, because proof-of-stake enshrines the Cantillon effect and poorly distributed moneys always fail. Proof-of-work spreads supply through forced selling by miners, who have real costs. Ethereum's long proof-of-work history does make its distribution unusual among chains that started as proof-of-stake, and @lex_node raises fair points, but distribution would be a major reason if Ethereum fails. x.com x.com
Bitcoin and ether’s resilience despite months of speculative capital being disintegrated may be a tell. They are the investments to hold or add, not trade. x.com x.com
Layer-2 networks are Ethereum's competitors disguised as allies, slowly draining it in a vampire attack. They take the users, keep the fees and lobby the base layer to stay small, returning almost nothing; the small fraction of fees sent back to ETH only confuses the narrative. L2s will either migrate or become their own L1s, and either way ETH is left holding the bag. x.com x.com