From "spiritual leader" to "RATS", is the crypto market too harsh on Vitalik?

Vitalik has been silent on social media for more than 20 days. During this period, the price of Ethereum has repeatedly fallen below the psychological threshold of investors. On March 12, the ETH to BTC exchange rate hit a new low since June 2020, dropping to 0.022676. The ETH to BTC exchange rate continues to decline, early investors are fleeing, retail investors are panicking, and negative sentiment is spreading.

In February, a debate erupted within the Ethereum community. The community hoped that Vitalik would pay attention to current industry hotspots. In the face of criticism, Vitalik stated that he did not believe the current popular competitive model was the best product for blockchain, and that he and Ethereum were committed to developing higher quality products.

During the time Vitalik was silent, two founders of a trading platform actively interacted on social media, leveraging the support of investment institutions to spark a wave of on-chain Meme tokens.

In this market cycle, Meme tokens are hot, competition is fierce, and speculative sentiment is high. However, beyond that, a broader sense of confusion hangs over the crypto community, as the true innovations that could drive the industry to thrive seem to have disappeared.

The industry is desolate, and Memes have become the main topic. People are starting to reminisce about the prosperous development of DeFi on Ethereum in the summer of 2020.

From "V God" to "Little V"

Once, people respectfully called him "V God" and regarded him as a spiritual leader, relying on him to guide the direction of encryption development. Now, people call him "Little V" and ask him to "leave" Ethereum.

Vitalik recently became the focus of public opinion in early February. At that time, the community was filled with doubts about Ethereum. In response to various doubts, suggestions, and criticisms, Vitalik ultimately stated on social media that he does not agree that the current competitive model is the best product, and he is pursuing a better product. Regarding the calls for innovation from the Ethereum Foundation, Vitalik also expressed his helplessness towards those who provide suggestions without knowing anything about the foundation's internal workings.

It was unimaginable two years ago that Vitalik would become a target of criticism.

Groups often yearn for powerful leaders, eagerly needing someone to idolize, thereby gaining psychological reliance and guidance. This drives them to create idols, infinitely amplifying the merits of an individual, shaping an all-powerful "god". Once this constructed "god" fails to meet the overly high expectations of the public, the shift in group attitudes is also extremely swift and brutal. They instantly turn from blind worship to fierce criticism, forcefully pushing the "god" off the pedestal, and venting their disappointment and anger through insults and slanders.

Vitalik has completely experienced a process of being both deified and demonized by the crypto community. Once, within the crypto community, Vitalik's remarks and thoughts pointed the way for the industry. Vitalik was keen to express various ideas, such as the concepts of SBT and network states from earlier years, which were either proposed or strongly supported by him. Under his promotion, these new concepts once became industry hotspots, pursued and practiced by numerous project parties.

Especially during bear market periods, major projects actively position themselves in tracks that may explode during a bull market. At that time, Vitalik was optimistic about Web3 social, and entrepreneurs flocked to it, but this wave quickly faded after a brief rise during the bear market.

The bull market has arrived, but the directions that Vitalik "pointed out" during the bear market have not seen a large-scale explosion at the application level. Chaos and confusion have become the feelings of most project teams.

There has been no real innovation, no new narrative to invigorate the industry, and the kind of glory that once occurred during the DeFi Summer on Ethereum has not reappeared in the crypto market.

The infrastructure of blockchain has been completed, the highways have been built, but it seems that there are not many vehicles driving on them. The core contradiction in the current blockchain industry is no longer related to infrastructure. Instead, it is about what changes blockchain can bring to human life or the products of the world. What is the answer to this question?

If the answer is payment, then that was the answer given by Bitcoin back in 2008; if it is DeFi, then that is the answer provided by Ethereum in 2020. Currently, the most practical application in the crypto market can be said to be stablecoins, which are genuinely changing the traditional world in areas such as cross-border payments.

Is there really no more innovation in the blockchain industry? During this cycle, asset issuance platforms on various blockchains have become popular, but this is merely an innovation in the method of asset issuance; essentially, it is still a speculative nature product dressed in a new guise. Another area that has attracted attention is the blockchain AI track, which has drawn a substantial amount of funding, but the bubble has been burst by the emergence of certain breakthrough technologies. A more prominent issue in this field is that the main narrative remains AI, while blockchain technology merely provides auxiliary functions such as on-chain identity and the construction of economic systems for AI. This is not a crypto-native track.

In this desolation, speculative products are instead considered the best in the encryption industry. In the face of many people's advice, there is hope that Vitalik himself and Ethereum can engage more in this kind of "casino" play. Vitalik declined, saying, "If I examine my heart, I will find something worth fighting for."

Vitalik has also enjoyed the feeling of being revered, and when he was brought down from that pedestal, people saw him as an ordinary person. To some, this side of him is reflected as stubbornness, arrogance, and unwillingness to listen to others' opinions. But it is precisely these traits that allowed him to create Ethereum.

The passions of childhood may change the world

Someone once said: "When you were a child, whatever made time fly and brought you joy, that is the answer to your pursuit in this world."

For Vitalik, what is worth fighting for has long been reflected in his childhood experiences. At the age of 4, Vitalik received a computer from his father, and unlike other children who played games, he became obsessed with Excel software, quickly learning to write programs for automated calculations in Excel; by the age of 7, he created a "Rabbit Encyclopedia" document filled with charts and mathematical formulas, which soon confirmed his talents in mathematics and programming; at 10, his mental arithmetic speed was already double that of his peers; at 11, he began to study subjects like mathematics, programming, and economics ahead of his grade in special classes.

Programming technology itself makes Vitalik happy, and using technology to change the world is his pursuit. Compared to some speculators in the crypto market, his attitude has always been relatively conservative.

In 2018, the price of Ethereum plummeted, leading to community skepticism. Vitalik once issued a warning – don't let Ethereum become a tool for speculators to profit. At that time, just like now, Vitalik also considered leaving Ethereum, "Should I give up Ethereum to work at Google?"

Whenever the price of the coins is sluggish, doubts about Ethereum emerge. In the face of community skepticism and criticism, Vitalik always tends to have thoughts of "leaving."

Vitalik has always adhered to his beliefs. His dedication to technology and vigilance against "bubbles" has never changed. It is precisely these convictions that have brought transformation and innovation to the crypto world.

Looking back at the history of encryption development, important innovations that have driven the industry forward have mostly occurred on Ethereum, known as the "world computer," over the past decade: Ethereum widely adopted smart contracts, providing a platform for the prosperity of innovative financial mechanisms such as DeFi, the development of various layer two solutions like Rollups and Plasma, the practice of DAO governance models, and so on.

Today, more and more large institutions are building Web3 applications and infrastructure solutions on Ethereum. The Ethereum ecosystem is mature and leading in terms of technical resource reserves, development team support, on-chain funding scale, and client security.

Moreover, Vitalik is not only realizing his technological ideals with Ethereum, but he also places his social ideals on Ethereum, and is not limited to Ethereum. The concepts he advocates, such as decentralization, resistance to censorship, and quadratic voting, relate to democratic practices, internet structure, business, and public welfare organizations. This extends his influence beyond the scope of the crypto community.

The future of Ethereum is still worth looking forward to

Is there still something to look forward to in Ethereum? The answer is yes.

In April, Ethereum will welcome the mainnet launch of the Pectra upgrade. This upgrade integrates changes to both the execution layer and the consensus layer, introducing 11 key improvement proposals aimed at enhancing scalability, staking flexibility, and user experience. Overall, this upgrade will improve the performance and stability of the Ethereum network on a technical level; on an economic level, it changes Ethereum's staking economic model, which will affect the supply and demand relationship and market price of Ethereum; on an application level, it will attract more developers and users into the Ethereum ecosystem, promoting innovation and development in decentralized applications.

In the United States, a spot ETF for Ethereum that can be staked may also be approved. In the first quarter of 2025, several asset management companies have submitted applications on behalf of exchanges, planning to introduce staking features into their spot Ethereum ETFs. Several well-known institutions have also applied to provide staking functionality for spot Ethereum ETFs.

The implementation of the Pectra upgrade is expected to shorten the unbonding period for Ethereum staking, which was a significant barrier when staking was initially introduced for spot ETFs.

This upgrade could become a catalyst for the approval of staking ETFs.

It is generally believed in the industry that one of the main reasons for the weak attractiveness of the current Ethereum spot ETF is that the existing ETFs do not include staking functionality. The launch of the staking feature will allow holders of the Ethereum spot ETF to earn rewards for staking Ethereum. After staking, investors will receive an annualized return of 3-3.5%. With the introduction of a stakable Ethereum spot ETF, it may greatly increase the capital inflow into the Ethereum spot ETF, thereby driving up the price of Ethereum.

The above two factors are substantial positives for the foreseeable Ethereum price this year.

However, another fact is that the upcoming expected transformations in Ethereum are merely improvements made along a foreseeable path. These changes are just about refining the infrastructure further. They do not represent any disruptive industry innovation, nor are they groundbreaking products or applications.

The application scenarios of Ethereum seem to have reached their peak. In this cycle, there have been no projects on the Ethereum main chain that have seen widespread public participation, and the price has not exceeded its historical high. Its highest locked value still remains at the 2021 level.

It was once the preferred choice for building smart contract platforms. Nowadays, as the infrastructure of the blockchain world has developed and more cost-effective and user-friendly public chains are available, Ethereum is no longer the only option. In this cycle, some emerging public chains have developed their own ecological characteristics. The leading Ethereum Layer 2 networks have also achieved their own accomplishments.

Vitalik's decentralization is a good thing for an industry, indicating that the industry has matured. Ethereum is no longer the sole leader, and more up-and-coming players can compete with it, which will stimulate a richer ecosystem. As a rich blockchain ecosystem is established, the importance of Ethereum in the industry will inevitably decline.

Vitalik once said in an interview, "My life is about being a bridge for everything." Since 2015, the Ethereum Foundation has spent more on external grants than on internal operations. These grants have allowed Ethereum to connect more teams and have promoted the development of various projects in the crypto market. Both Ethereum itself and the work that Vitalik does are foundational efforts for encryption.

Neither Ethereum nor Vitalik himself should bear the confusion and anger of people regarding the lack of innovation in the entire industry.

"If you examine your inner self, you will also find something worth striving for.