Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin is repositioning ETH as a store of value, moving away from fee burning as its primary value driver.
Buterin stated in a thread that "ETH as fee-burning token never was as strong as it seemed." He warned that optimizing for fee burning would undermine Ethereum's decentralization and capture resistance.
Instead, Buterin argues ETH's value should derive from stability rooted in decentralization and CROPS—censorship and capture resistance, open source, privacy and security. He contends these attributes will command higher value in an "era of AI disruption."
The timing is stark. Median transaction fees crashed from 35 cents in January to 3.5 cents in October—a 90 percent decline—even as daily transactions on Ethereum jumped more than 50 percent over the same period. The collapse kills the "ultrasound money" narrative that gained traction after the 2021 EIP-1559 upgrade, when elevated fees and token burns fueled claims of scarcity-driven value.
Bitcoiners immediately attacked the pivot. Dan Held, founder of Held Media, called it "ETH trying to pivot to Bitcoin's SoV narrative after all of its previous narratives collapsed. Again." Held questioned whether a protocol with "constantly changing monetary policy" could qualify as sound money.
Ethereum defenders countered that monetary policy has remained fixed since The Merge in 2022, with each subsequent change reducing rather than increasing ETH issuance.
Gabriel Shapiro, attorney at MetaLeX, endorsed Buterin's direction as a "nature is healing moment," arguing ETH fundamentals make it a superior store of value candidate compared to ZEC and BTC. Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko agreed that tying protocol value to transaction fees was unsustainable, though he offered subtle criticism of Ethereum's overall product strategy.
Despite Democratic control of both chambers, pro-crypto majorities now exist in Congress. Fifty of 100 senators are designated pro-crypto versus 33 anti-crypto. The House counts 241 pro-crypto representatives against 106 opposed.
But power imbalances loom. Brown, who received substantial crypto-industry opposition spending, is expected to join the Senate Agriculture Committee. Senator Elizabeth Warren is anticipated to chair the Senate Banking Committee—both positions hold sway over crypto regulation.
