Ethereum's Crossroads: To Fork or Not to Fork?

By: blockbeats|2025/04/03 01:15:02
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Original Title: "Ethereum Crossroads: To Pivot or to Persevere?"
Original Source: Biteye

ETH/BTC hits a five-year low, the old ecosystem is leaving, the new narrative is absent—Ethereum is trapped in the middle ground of technical upgrades and value dilution.

The Ethereum Guard is still talking about ideals, while reality is settling faith.

This time, we won't talk about emotions, only judgments: Is holding ETH still worthwhile? What are the arguments of the bulls and the bears?

Ethereum's Crossroads: To Fork or Not to Fork?

Part One: Bullish Camp - Network Security + Technical Dividend + Macro Tailwinds

Although Ethereum's price has not taken off, bullish views believe that the long-term value of ETH is still gradually accumulating. The ecosystem's fundamentals are solid, technical upgrades are advancing, and macro expectations are gradually improving, providing threefold support.

1. Ethereum Remains the Absolute Center of Infrastructure: Bitwise CIO @Matt_Hougan pointed out that stablecoins, tokenization, and AI Agents are all dominated by ETH. As long as Ethereum can achieve a better user experience through Layer 2 without losing its original position in institutions' hearts, the future is very optimistic, leaning towards a bullish attitude. Saul Rejwan, Managing Partner at Masterkey, predicts that once policies relax, ETH will be the first-round beneficiary of DeFi and DePIN. @BTW0205 believes that although the short term is bearish, in the medium to long term, Ethereum still possesses ecological inertia and systemic advantages. As long as it can reshape its value model and drive the new narrative, a comeback is still possible.

2. Ongoing Technical Upgrades Continue to Release Structural Dividends: The Prague/Electra upgrade is imminent, and Rollup performance improvements will make ETH faster, cheaper, and more open. Gas reduction attracts more users back and also strengthens the necessity of using ETH. Bulls believe the market has not yet priced in these structural optimizations. @binji_x also believes that the outline of an "Ethereum superchain" has emerged, poised to open up new growth opportunities.

3. Ecosystem Structural Adjustment Signals: @feifan7686 believes that Ethereum is transitioning from a technology-driven to a capital and ecology-dominated development path. The Pectra upgrade adjusts ETH's properties, cross-chain testing alleviates performance bottlenecks, and oracle layout fights for pricing power, all part of a systematic "self-rescue" around capital structure and ecological discourse. Although it may be difficult to immediately reflect in prices in the short term, the direction is clear, overall tending towards a bullish view.

4. Secondary Trader Calls Out "ETH Undervalued": Renowned crypto analyst @rovercrc and prominent trader, former BitMEX CEO @CryptoHayes, both tweeted, pointing out that ETH is undervalued in the market. Hayes even predicted: ETH will surpass SOL and rise to $5000. Although these views are radical, they reflect mainstream traders reassessing ETH's valuation space.

5. Macro Liquidity-Driven Impact: @0xVeryBigOrange believes that regardless of how much technical or ecosystem discussion surrounds Ethereum, the fundamental reason for the current price stagnation is one—macro liquidity has not yet been unleashed. It's not that ETH is lacking, the entire market has not entered the "liquidity release cycle" yet.

6. Potential Opportunity for Bull Market Rotation: ETH has not surged not because it lacks opportunity, but the rotation has not yet come to it. Coupled with the interest rate cut expectations and ETF progress, ETH has the potential to move from the periphery back to the center. DigitalCoinPrice estimates that in an optimistic scenario, it could reach $7,000 by the end of the year, and in the long term, it could reach up to $47,000 by 2030.

7. TVL Maintains First Place, On-Chain Funds Still Holding ETH: Ethereum currently has a TVL of $498.5 billion, accounting for over half of the total DeFi network. While Solana and Tron have shown impressive performance, when it comes to "on-chain money," ETH is still the most stable pool.

8. Lower Inflation Rate, Supply Model Superior to BTC: ETH's annual issuance is only 0.5%, much lower than BTC's 0.83% (BTC is 66% faster than ETH). This view emphasizes that Ethereum's inflation rate is much lower than Bitcoin's, making its monetary model more sustainable.

9. Leading Developer Ecosystem Scale: Venture capital firm Electric Capital released its annual report stating that ETH accounts for 65% of global on-chain developer innovation activity, with over 6200 active developers per month, and L2 developers experiencing a 67% annual growth rate. These data indicate that Ethereum still holds a core position in the developer community.

10. Foundation Reform Enhances Governance Expectations: Vitalik announced the restructuring of the foundation to improve technical decision-making efficiency and enhance transparency. For an asset like ETH, governance structure upgrades mean long-term certainty enhancement.

In summary, the bullish camp believes that Ethereum is the value reservoir of Web3, laying the technical groundwork for the next decade, with short-term price not being the core focus.

II. Bearish Camp: Crisis of Faith + Value Capture Failure + Roadmap Disputes

The core viewpoint of the bearish camp is: the times have changed, ETH lags behind competitors in terms of price movement, structure, efficiency, and narrative, the technical roadmap has failed to translate into token value, and the ecosystem is facing fragmentation.

1. Institutional Viewpoint Suggests ETH Has Yet to Bottom Out: @jason_chen998 believes that the fundamentals of Ethereum have deteriorated, with the current only positive factor being the ETF staking, but core institutions such as BlackRock have not yet entered the market, indicating they are still suppressing the price to accumulate, suggesting that ETH may not have bottomed out. Overall, the sentiment leans bearish.

2. ETH Ecosystem Has Lost Its Growth Engine: @Loki_Zeng believes that the Ethereum ecosystem experienced a comprehensive standstill in Q1 2025, with on-chain data plummeting significantly, traditional sectors (DeFi, L2, NFT) almost stagnant, and new trends (AI, Meme) unrelated to ETH. The previously highly anticipated ETF staking benefit has failed to attract significant interest, as large funds find it difficult to accept the low returns and high costs of this allocation logic. Overall, it is believed that ETH lacks substantial growth momentum, leaning bearish.

3. RWA Narrative Disillusionment, Ethereum May Not Be the Optimal Solution: @yuyue_chris questions Ethereum's actual capabilities in the RWA track. Although ETH has long been seen as the "secure settlement layer" for real-world assets, its weak price performance and the liquidation risks stemming from the PoS mechanism are eroding its credibility as the underlying RWA layer. Overall, the belief is that Ethereum's ability to support global-scale RWA is questionable, with the RWA narrative overestimating its role, leaning bearish.

4. On-Chain Growth Slows Down: @PANewsCN researcher @wsy2021111 mentioned in a December 2024 commentary that ETH's mainnet user growth stagnated over the past year, with a significant number of new users opting for L2 or Solana and other new chains. In his view, Ethereum is transitioning into a "reservoir of value for whales," while ordinary small-scale users and emerging popular applications prefer chains with lower fees and faster transaction speeds. This viewpoint highlights the pressure Ethereum faces in terms of user growth.

5. Supply Enters an Inflationary State: Due to the continuous decline in network transaction fees, Ethereum's daily burn rate has dropped to a historic low. This has led to a significant decrease in ETH's expected burn rate, resulting in an annual supply increase of approximately 0.76%, or a yearly addition of about 945,000 ETH. Currently, Ethereum's overall supply has surpassed pre-merge levels.

6. ETH/BTC Ratio Hits Five-Year Low: On March 31, analyst James Van Straten stated that the ETH to BTC exchange rate dropped to 0.02193, hitting a five-year low. Amid the BTC halving rally and new L1 rotation, ETH has become the "least appreciating major coin," experiencing gradual fund outflows and wavering faith.

7. Rise of New Public Chains such as Solana Intensifies ETH Competition: Solana offers a lighter user experience and a more vibrant culture, attracting a large number of incremental users and developers. Chains like Base and Sui have seen active growth, while the Ethereum mainnet has gradually transformed into a realm for institutions and traditional projects, losing its appeal to young projects.

8. Technical Roadmap Scrutiny: Empowerment or Value Erosion? Investor John Pfeffer suggests that Ethereum's current technical roadmap benefits users but undermines the token's value. Layer 2 scaling and the shift to PoS will reduce mainnet congestion and fees, improving on-chain experience but reducing ETH's burn per transaction.

9. Outflow of Core Applications: Rumors within the industry suggest that Uniswap plans to launch an independent chain by the end of 2024. Uniswap is the largest source of Gas on ETH, accounting for over 14%. If it migrates chains, ETH could lose hundreds of millions of dollars in annual fees and a significant burn source, intensifying the risk of ecosystem drain.

10. Foundation Accused of Top-Level Take Profits, Governance Trust Questioned: By the end of 2024, the Ethereum Foundation was exposed to high-point selling, sparking speculations of "internal bearishness." Combined with issues like poor governance efficiency and slow scaling, the community has lost confidence in future development.

11. Clear Community Roadmap Divergence: Base's Jesse Pollak and core developer Dankrad Feist fundamentally disagree on the mainnet's and L2's reliance level, leading to a lack of roadmap clarity and decreased execution efficiency. While Vitalik has spoken out, the overall direction lacks clarity, resulting in strategic oscillation.

In conclusion, the core logic of the bearish view is that Ethereum is currently trapped in a situation where it is advancing technologically but lagging in price, while the ecosystem's focus, narrative control, and user growth are silently slipping away.

III. So, What Judgment Should Be Made Now?

Based on the above long and short factors, we can conduct the following comprehensive analysis starting from the mindset and decisions of holders:

1. Holder Focusing on Long-Term Value

If you believe that ETH represents the future infrastructure of Crypto, with the most extensive developer community, the strongest DeFi ecosystem, and a continuously evolving technical roadmap, and that developers, funds, and the structural narrative have not collapsed, and it is still the core anchor chain of new narratives (DePIN, AI Agent, RWA), then holding or even gradually accumulating more during this time and waiting for the next cycle is a logical choice.

2. Holder Focusing on Medium-Term Profit and Having a Higher Risk Aversion

At this moment, moderately reducing your ETH position may be more in line with your strategy. After all, many of the mentioned bullish factors are more likely to gradually materialize in the medium to long term, while in the short term, ETH may continue to fluctuate or even weaken. The competitive landscape and value dilemma mentioned in bearish arguments are not issues that can be resolved in one or two quarters.

You may consider reducing your position at this time, holding a core position flexibly for readjustment, adding more after the ETH trend becomes clear, or engaging in moderate swing trading to improve capital efficiency. A neutral strategy may involve holding part of your core position (to avoid missing out on potential breakouts) while using another part of your funds for swing trading or allocating to other assets to hedge the opportunity cost of holding ETH.

3. Holder Concerned About Short-Term Performance, Certainty, or Doubtful About Ethereum's Roadmap

Exercising caution is also a wise choice. You may consider partially closing out most of your position on rebounds while continuing to monitor key indicators of the Ethereum ecosystem (such as on-chain activity). If there are significant signals of fundamental improvement in the future or new narratives emerge, then timely readjustment may be necessary.

Risk Disclaimer: The above is for informational purposes only and not investment advice.

This article is a contributed submission and does not represent the views of BlockBeats.

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$COIN Joins S&P 500, but Coinbase Isn't Celebrating

On May 13, S&P Dow Jones Indices announced that Coinbase would officially replace Discover Financial Services in the S&P 500 on May 19. While other companies like Block and MicroStrategy, closely tied to Bitcoin, were already part of the S&P 500, Coinbase became the first cryptocurrency exchange whose primary business is in the index. This also signifies that cryptocurrency is gradually moving from the fringes to the mainstream in the U.S.



On the day of the announcement, Coinbase's stock price surged by 23%, surpassing the $250 mark. However, just 3 days later, Coinbase was hit by two consecutive events: a hack where employees were bribed to steal customer data and a demand for a $20 million ransom, and an investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) into the authenticity of its claim of having over 100 million "verified users" in its securities filings and marketing materials. These two events acted as mini-bombs, and at the time of writing, Coinbase's stock had already dropped by over 7.3%.


Coincidentally, Discover Financial Services, being replaced by Coinbase, can also be considered the "Coinbase" of the previous payment era. Discover is a U.S.-based digital banking and payment services company headquartered in Illinois, founded in 1960. Its payment network, Discover Network, is the fourth largest payment network apart from Visa, Mastercard, and American Express.


In April, after the approval of the acquisition of Discover by the sixth-largest U.S. bank, Capital One, this well-established digital banking company of over 60 years smoothly handed over its S&P 500 "seat" to this emerging cryptocurrency "bank." This unexpected coincidence also portrayed the handover between the new and old eras in Coinbase's entry into the S&P 500, resembling a relay race scene. However, this relay baton also brought Coinbase's accumulated "external troubles and internal strife" to a tipping point.


Side Effects of ETFs


Over the past decade, cryptocurrency exchanges have been the most stable "profit machines." They play a role in providing liquidity to the entire industry and rely on trading fees to sustain their operations. However, with the comprehensive rollout of ETF products in the U.S. market, this profit model is facing unprecedented challenges. As the leader in the "American stack," with over 80% of its business coming from the U.S., Coinbase is most affected by this.



Starting from the approval of Bitcoin and Ethereum spot ETFs, traditional financial capital has significantly onboarded users and funds that originally belonged to exchanges in a more cost-effective, compliant, and transparent manner. The transaction fee revenue of cryptocurrency exchanges has started to decline, and this trend may further intensify in the coming months.


According to Coinbase's 2024 Q4 financial report, the platform's total trading revenue was $417 million, a 45% year-on-year decrease. The contribution of BTC and ETH's trading revenue dropped from 65% in the same period last year to less than 50%.


This decline is not a result of a decrease in market enthusiasm. In fact, since the approval of the Bitcoin ETF in January 2024, the inflow of BTC into the U.S. market has continued to reach new highs, with asset management giants like BlackRock and Fidelity rapidly expanding their management scale. Data shows that BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin ETF (IBIT) alone has surpassed $17 billion in assets under management. As of mid-May 2025, the cumulative net inflow of 11 major institutional Bitcoin spot ETFs on the market has exceeded $41.5 billion, with a total net asset value of $1214.69 billion, accounting for approximately 5.91% of the total Bitcoin market capitalization.


Chart showing the trend of net outflows for Grayscale among the 11 institutions


Institutional investors and some retail investors are shifting towards ETF products, partly due to compliance and tax considerations. On one hand, ETFs have much lower trading costs compared to cryptocurrency exchanges. While Coinbase's spot trading fee rate varies annually in a tiered manner but averages around 1.49%, for example, the management fee for IBIT ETF is only 0.25%, and the majority of ETF institution fees fluctuate around 0.15% to 0.25%.



In other words, the more rational users are, the more likely they are to move from exchanges to ETF products, especially for investors aiming for long-term holdings.


According to multiple sources, several institutions, including VanEck and Grayscale, have submitted applications to the SEC for a Solana (SOL) ETF, with some institutions also planning to submit an XRP ETF proposal. Once approved, this may trigger a new round of fund migration. According to a report submitted by Coinbase to the SEC, as of April, the platform's trading revenue from XRP and Solana accounted for 18% and 10%, nearly one-third of the platform's fee revenue.



However, the Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs passed in 2024 also reduced the fees for these two tokens on Coinbase from 30% and 15% to 26% and 10%, respectively. If the SOL and XRP ETFs are approved, it will further undermine the core fee revenue of exchanges like Coinbase.


The expansion of ETF products is gradually weakening the financial intermediary status of cryptocurrency exchanges. From their original roles as matchmakers and clearers to now gradually becoming mere "on-ramps and off-ramps" for funds, exchanges are seeing their marginal value squeezed by ETFs.


Robinhood Takes a Stand, Traditional Brokerages Join the Fray


On May 12, 2025, SEC Chairman Paul S. Atkins gave a keynote speech at the Tokenization and Cryptocurrency Working Group roundtable. The theme of his speech revolved around "It is a new day at the SEC," where he indicated that the SEC would not approach enforcement and regulation the same way as before but would instead pave the way for cryptocurrency assets in the U.S. market.



With signs of cryptocurrency compliance such as the SEC's "NEW DAY" declaration, an increasing number of traditional brokerages are attempting to enter the cryptocurrency industry. One of the most representative cases is the well-known U.S. brokerage Robinhood, which began expanding its crypto business in 2018. By the time of its IPO in 2021, Robinhood's crypto business revenue accounted for over 50% of the company, with a significant boost from the Dogecoin "moonshot" promoted by Musk.


In Q1 2025 earnings report, Robinhood showcased strong growth, especially in revenue from cryptocurrency and options trading. Fueled by Trump's Memecoin, cryptocurrency-related revenue reached $250 million, nearly doubling year-over-year. Consequently, Robinhood Gold subscription users reached 3.5 million, a 90% increase from the previous year, with the rapid growth of Robinhood Gold providing the company with a stable source of income.



Meanwhile, RobinHood is actively pursuing acquisitions in the cryptocurrency space. In 2024, it announced a $2 billion acquisition of the long-standing European cryptocurrency exchange Bitstamp. Additionally, Canada's largest cryptocurrency CEX, WonderFi, which recently went public on the Toronto Stock Exchange, also announced its integration with RobinHood Crypto. After obtaining virtual asset licenses in the UK, Canada, Singapore, and other markets, RobinHood has taken a proactive approach in the compliant cryptocurrency trading market.



Furthermore, an increasing number of brokerage firms are exploring the same path. Futu Securities, Tiger Brokers, and others are also dipping their toes into cryptocurrency trading, with some having applied for or obtained the VA license from the Hong Kong SFC. Although their user bases are currently small, traditional brokerages have a natural advantage in user trust, regulatory licenses, and low fee structures. This could pose a threat to native cryptocurrency platforms in the future.



User Data Breach: Is Coinbase Still Secure?


In April 2025, security researchers discovered that some Coinbase user data was leaked on the dark web. While the platform initially responded by attributing it to a "technical misinformation," it still raised concerns among users regarding its security and privacy protection. Just two days before Dow Jones Indexes announced Coinbase's addition to the S&P 500 Index, on May 11, 2025, Coinbase received an email from an unknown threat actor claiming to have obtained customer account information and internal documents, demanding a $20 million ransom to keep the data private. Subsequent investigations confirmed the data breach.


Cybercriminals obtained the data by bribing overseas customer service agents and support staff, mainly in "non-U.S. regions such as India." These agents abused their access to Coinbase's internal customer support system and stole customer data. As early as February this year, blockchain detective ZachXBT revealed on X platform that between December 2024 and January 2025, Coinbase users lost over $65 million to social engineering scams, with the actual amount potentially higher.


Among the victims was a well-known figure, 67-year-old Ed Suman, an established artist in the art world for nearly two decades, having been involved in the creation of artworks such as Jeff Koons' "Balloon Dog" sculpture. Earlier this year, he fell victim to an impersonation scam involving fake Coinbase customer support, resulting in a loss of over $2 million in cryptocurrency. ZachXBT critiqued Coinbase for its inadequate handling of such scams, noting that other major exchanges have not faced similar issues and recommending Coinbase to enhance its security measures.


Amidst a series of ongoing social engineering incidents, although there has not been any impact on user assets at the technical level so far, it has raised concerns among many retail and institutional investors. Especially institutions holding massive assets on Coinbase. Just considering the U.S. BTC ETF institutions, as of mid-May 2025, they collectively hold nearly 840,000 BTC, and 75% of these are custodied by Coinbase. If we price BTC at $100,000, this amount reaches a staggering $63 billion, which is equivalent to the nominal GDP of two Iceland in the year 2024.


Visualization: ChatGPT, Source: Farside


In addition, Coinbase Custody also serves over 300 institutional clients, including hedge funds, family offices, pension funds, and endowments. As of the Q1 2025 financial report, Coinbase's total assets under management (including institutional and retail clients) reached $404 billion. The specific amount of institutional custodied assets was not explicitly disclosed in the latest report, but it should still be over 50% based on the Q4 2024 report.


Visualization: ChatGPT


Once this security barrier is breached, not only could the rate of user attrition far exceed expectations, but more importantly, institutional trust in it would undermine the foundation of its business. Therefore, after a hacking event, Coinbase's stock price plummeted significantly.


CEXs are All in Self-Rescue Mode


Facing a decline in spot trading fee revenue, Coinbase is also accelerating its transformation, attempting to find growth opportunities in derivatives and emerging assets. Coinbase acquired a stake in the options platform Deribit at the end of 2024 and announced the official launch of perpetual contract products in 2025. This acquisition fills in Coinbase's gap in options trading and its relatively small global market share.



Deribit has a strong presence in non-U.S. markets, especially in Asia and Europe. The acquisition has enabled Coinbase to gain a dominant position in bitcoin and ethereum options trading on Deribit, accounting for approximately 80% of the global options trading volume, with daily trading volume remaining above $2 billion.


Meanwhile, 80-90% of Deribit's customer base consists of institutional investors, with their professionalism and liquidity in the Bitcoin and Ethereum options market highly favored by institutions. Coinbase's compliance advantage, coupled with its already robust institutional ecosystem, makes it even more suitable. By using institutions as an entry point, it can face the squeeze from giants like Binance and OKX in the derivatives market.



Facing a similar dilemma is Kraken, which is attempting to replicate Binance Futures' model in non-U.S. markets. Since the derivatives market relies more on professional users, fee rates are relatively higher and stickiness is stronger, making it a significant source of revenue for exchanges. In the first half of 2025, Kraken completed the acquisition of TradeStation Crypto and a futures exchange, aiming to build a complete derivatives trading ecosystem to hedge the risk of declining spot transaction fee income.


With the surge of Memecoin in 2024, Binance, OKX, and various CEX platforms began massively listing small-market-cap, highly volatile tokens to activate active trading users. Due to the wealth effect and trading activity of Memecoins, Coinbase was also forced to join the battle, successively listing popular tokens from the Solana ecosystem such as BOOK OF MEME and Dogwifhat. Although these coins are controversial, they are frequently traded, with fee rates several times higher than mainstream coins, serving as a "blood-boosting" method for spot trading.


However, due to its status as a publicly traded company, this practice is a riskier endeavor for Coinbase. Even in the current crypto-friendly environment, the SEC is still investigating whether tokens like SOL, ADA, and SAND constitute securities.


In addition to the forced transformation strategies carried out by the aforementioned CEXs, they are also starting to lay out RWAs and the most talked-about stablecoin payment fields, such as the PYUSD launched through a collaboration between Coinbase and Paypal, Coinbase's support for the Euro stablecoin EURC by Circle that complies with EU MiCA regulatory requirements, or the USD1 launched through a collaboration between Binance and WIFL. In the increasingly crowded trading field, many CEXs have shifted their focus from just the trading market to the application field.


The golden age of transaction fees has quietly ended, and the second half of the crypto exchange platform game has silently begun.


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