Bankless co-founder Ryan Sean Adams not too long ago took to the X platform to closely criticize the rising “Ethereum not ETH” narrative.
With out its native token performing as a large international retailer of worth, your entire community is essentially a “failed challenge.”
The “Ethereum Not ETH” fallacy
Adams expressed deep frustration with the rising sentiment that one may be bullish on the Ethereum community’s expertise with out being bullish on the ETH asset itself.
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He famous that this precise “psychological fallacy” is what triggered him to start out writing and podcasting within the first place.
“There isn’t any robust Ethereum with out an ETH price trillions,” Adams acknowledged. “With out ETH as a world retailer of worth, Ethereum is a failed challenge. Full cease.”
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He elaborated that ETH acts because the important “financial bandwidth for DeFi,” serving as the one asset maximized for cryptographic property rights (CROPs). Adams argued that separating the community from the asset is intellectually dishonest.
“Saying you’re bullish Ethereum not ETH is like saying you’re bullish America not the American financial system,” Adams defined. “They’re one and the identical – financial engines. Higher to confess Ethereum is a failed challenge than ‘Ethereum not ETH’.”
He urged the group to desert the “weak blockchain not crypto stuff,” arguing that it is mindless for actually crypto-native tasks like Bitcoin, Zcash, or Ethereum.
A rift between founders
On the identical time, his Bankless co-founder, David Hoffman has disagreed with the core analogy.
“I do not suppose that is true. The analogy would not maintain. These are two totally different mediums with totally different contexts,” Hoffman argued, including that “There must be a mechanism that drives worth to ETH.”
Adams, nevertheless, identified that the mechanism has at all times been clear: ETH performing as cash.
“The mechanism is ETH getting used as a SoV [Store of Value], medium of change, or unit of account,” Adams fired again. “We did like 100 podcasts on this? You may imagine it’s not occurring or won’t ever occur or can’t occur. However the mechanism is obvious and has at all times has been clear.”
The co-founder’s exit
In mid-to-late Might 2026, David Hoffman shocked the cryptocurrency group by publicly asserting that he was promoting and liquidating the final of his ETH holdings.
Nonetheless, Ryan Sean Adams has not offered his Ethereum. Regardless of stepping again from some content material roles at Bankless, Adams has not indicated that he’s on the verge of dumping his holdings.