Bankless co-founder and longtime Ethereum advocate David Hoffman has revealed that he has fully sold his personal Ether, stressing, however, that he remains deeply optimistic about Ethereum’s future.
In a Tuesday tweet, Hoffman clarified that the move was not motivated by short-term bearishness or a loss of faith in Ethereum’s technology.
“If you missed the news last week, I sold my ETH,” Hoffman wrote, noting the emotional weight of the decision after years spent building his career and community around Ethereum. “The ETH is money thesis didn’t fail… it played out.”
According to him, Ethereum’s evolution over the years has transformed the way he evaluates the asset. While he still sees Ethereum as one of the most important infrastructures in crypto, he no longer believes ETH itself is significantly undervalued relative to the network’s current economic design.
In his view, Ethereum has become “a giver, not a taker,” offering low-cost security and settlement infrastructure while allowing much of the ecosystem’s value to flow toward applications and layer-2 networks built on top of it.
 
Hoffman also said fees are a key metric for valuing layer-1 blockchains, arguing Ethereum didn’t hold revenue dominance long enough to spark another major repricing cycle as past bull runs. He compared Ethereum’s strong fee-driven momentum during the 2021 cycle to Solana’s resurgence in 2024 and NEAR’s growth in 2026, arguing that periods of explosive fee generation often correlate closely with sharp increases in token valuations.
Beyond Ethereum’s valuation model, he also reflected on the broader evolution of crypto narratives over the past several years. He revisited earlier visions surrounding DeFi, NFTs, and DAOs, industries once viewed as the building blocks of a fully autonomous digital economy.
However, he noted that mainstream enthusiasm for crypto lasted only briefly, from late 2020 to early 2022. Outside of that window, the industry’s image has largely been dominated by speculation, hacks, scams, and limited real-world adoption.
The pundit also highlighted the explosive rise of stablecoins as one of Ethereum’s biggest success stories. Stablecoin liquidity on the Ethereum network has reportedly surged from roughly $3 billion in 2020 to more than $160 billion today.
Still, he argued that this growth primarily reinforces the dominance of the U.S. dollar rather than strengthening ETH as an independent monetary asset. In essence, Ethereum has become the infrastructure powering the expansion of digital dollars rather than replacing traditional monetary systems.
Despite his decision to sell, Hoffman insisted that exiting ETH does not mean abandoning Ethereum itself.
“I remain incredibly optimistic about the Ethereum network and its ecosystem,” he stated.
Instead, he explained that he has simply reallocated capital toward other opportunities within the broader market, adding that he currently sees limited upside for a dramatic structural repricing of ETH.
Hoffman’s remarks arrive at a difficult moment for Ethereum investors. Although Ethereum remains the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization and continues to dominate decentralized finance and smart contract activity, ETH has struggled to regain momentum after a prolonged correction.
The cryptocurrency remains significantly below its all-time high of $4,953, with extended consolidation and weak price action exhausting many investors over recent months. Since February, ETH has largely traded sideways amid growing competition from rival chains and increasing migration toward layer-2 ecosystems.
Still, many analysts continue to defend Ethereum’s strategic importance within crypto markets. Earlier this month, macro analyst Jordi Visser described Ethereum as “fuel” for AI agents, arguing that the network could become a critical layer powering emerging artificial intelligence-driven economies.
At press time, ETH was trading at $2,016, reflecting a 1.94% drop in the past 24 hours.
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