Bankless: This crypto cycle has overlooked Ethereum

Author: David Hoffman, Source: Bankless, Translation: Shaw Golden Finance

About two years ago, Ryan and I had a phone call with Chris Burniske, shortly after recording a podcast episode with him.

In the cryptocurrency space, Chris has always been a mentor to Ryan and me because we both entered the crypto industry to try to understand, categorize, define, and model this inherently unknown industry.

He said something on the call that Ryan and I didn’t want to hear: “This cycle might skip Ethereum altogether.”

In the end, that’s exactly how things unfolded. Setting aside debates about cycle dynamics and timing, most on-chain activity over the past few years has been unrelated to Ethereum, and the price of ETH reflects that.

I suppose this is how Bitcoin holders felt in 2021. Bitcoin performed well during the NFT boom—it was seen by institutional investors as a hedge against currency devaluation and poor government fiscal management. But in terms of retail market favorability and on-chain activity, Bitcoin was considered an outdated cryptocurrency and was neglected.

With Bitcoin, you can’t do much; all transaction activity is concentrated on Ethereum. During the last cycle, Ethereum was the absolute star.

The recent wave of developments in the crypto space has also repeated this pattern, only this time, Ethereum was overlooked, and all activity was concentrated on Solana. Notably, Bitcoin has also experienced a significant resurgence in cultural influence and popularity.

Although Ethereum has made some much-needed fixes, the overall market sentiment has never truly recovered to an optimistic state—perhaps just escaped despair. The Digital Asset Treasury (DAT) brought a major victory for Ethereum in this cycle, even as we are now suffering from its negative effects.

But overall… it seems the cycle of skipping Ethereum has come to an end.

Despite a decline in Ethereum’s market share and development momentum, it remains the leading smart contract chain. No other chain poses a threat to it. Moreover, unlike all other smart contract chains, only Ethereum has a similar origin story to Bitcoin—a perfect initial coin offering (ICO), a chaotic early phase, and an operation mode of the Ethereum Foundation that is entirely non-corporate.

Ethereum possesses qualities that no other blockchain can replicate—in the vast ocean of high-performance smart contract chains… there will always be only one Ethereum.

Looking ahead to 2026, Larry Fink’s economist article on tokenization has paved the way for Ethereum to experience a cultural revival, much like Bitcoin did after a cycle that didn’t involve Bitcoin ended.

I remain cautiously optimistic… and by 2026, many favorable factors could emerge for Ethereum. Let’s wait and see.