“Ethereum Is a Giver, Not a Taker”: David Hoffman Explains ETH Exit

Bankless co-founder David Hoffman said he sold his Ether holdings because he believes the long-standing “ETH is money” thesis has already largely played out. Despite this, he remains strongly bullish on Ethereum as a network.

According to Hoffman, the decision did not come lightly, given that he built his career, business, community, and identity around Ethereum.

Ethereum Chose the Hard Path Unlike Bitcoin

In his latest tweet, Hoffman stated that the “ETH is money” thesis depended on Ethereum succeeding across multiple layers of coordination, including decentralized leadership, governance, Layer 2 ecosystems, roadmap execution, and technological development.

Hoffman described Ethereum as “not Bitcoin,” and said that Bitcoin simplified its blockchain to maximize the value of BTC, while Ethereum pursued a more ambitious path by expanding utility across decentralized applications, finance, tokenization, and infrastructure. He even went on to add that Ethereum achieved part of that vision and earned the market capitalization it currently has, but said the opportunity for ETH to be significantly rerated higher by the market now appears to be closing.

The Bankless co-founder also explained that the broader “strong version” of crypto, which focused on decentralized finance, NFTs, DAOs, and crypto-native systems, failed to maintain long-term mainstream support outside the 2020 to 2022 period. He said crypto’s reputation later became associated with scams, grifts, and speculative behavior, which ended up weakening the social belief system required for ETH to function as money at a global scale.

He further stated that Ether’s utility increasingly benefits other forms of money, especially stablecoins and tokenized dollars, rather than ETH itself. Hoffman described Ethereum as a “giver, not a taker,” while saying that the network provides secure blockspace, tokenization infrastructure, and DeFi support at minimal cost rather than extracting maximum value for ETH holders. He said Ethereum’s architecture prioritizes applications, rollups, and ecosystem growth over ETH itself, which makes it difficult for the underlying crypto asset to fully achieve global money status without overwhelming market dominance.

Ethereum in Crisis?

Hoffman’s decision also comes at a time when bearish sentiment around Ethereum has been intensifying. A recent report by Santiment found that social media discussions have increasingly shifted from optimism toward frustration and concerns about further downside.

The analytics firm said traders have increasingly viewed ETH as “dead money” compared to stronger-performing crypto assets in 2026, as weakening ETF flows, declining on-chain activity, and growing competition from ecosystems such as Solana and BNB Chain added pressure on sentiment.

Rumors about prominent Ethereum figures reducing or exiting ETH positions, including discussions surrounding Hoffman, have also contributed to rising uncertainty in the market, especially as traders worried about insiders losing confidence in the asset.

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