Ethereum Is a Failed Project' If ETH Fails as Store of Value

Bankless co-founder Ryan Sean Adams has issued a stark warning to the Ethereum community: if $ETH does not achieve status as a global store of value, the entire project should be considered a failure.

Adams made the comments on X, pushing back hard against the growing narrative that investors can be bullish on Ethereum as a technology platform while remaining indifferent to the ETH token itself. He described this as a "mental fallacy," arguing that the network and its native asset are inseparable. "There is no strong Ethereum without an ETH worth trillions," Adams wrote, adding that separating the two reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of Ethereum's economic structure.

A Public Split at Bankless

The comments land in the middle of a very public disagreement between Adams and his Bankless co-founder David Hoffman. In a May 26 post, Hoffman said he sold his entire ETH position, arguing that the "ETH is money" thesis has largely played out and left little room for a meaningful price rerating. Hoffman said he remains bullish on Ethereum as a network but has become less convinced that ETH itself will proportionally capture the economic value the ecosystem generates.

Adams rejected that framing directly. He drew a pointed analogy: "Saying you're bullish Ethereum not ETH is like saying you're bullish America not the American economy." For Adams, ETH is the economic engine, serving as collateral, a medium of exchange, and what he calls the "economic bandwidth for DeFi."

Hoffman countered that the two cannot simply be treated as one, arguing that a clear mechanism still needs to be demonstrated for Ethereum's growth to translate into sustained value accrual for ETH. His concern is structural: Ethereum's rollup-centric roadmap has shifted significant activity and fee capture toward Layer 2 networks and applications, meaning the base-layer token may not benefit proportionally from broader ecosystem growth.

Wider Implications for ETH

The debate touches on a question that has resurfaced repeatedly in the Ethereum community: whether the network's design sufficiently routes value back to ETH holders. The exchange reflects growing tension as Layer 2 expansion, stablecoins, and tokenized assets increasingly dominate network activity while ETH's monetary premium remains contested.

Adams has not sold his ETH holdings. His position is unambiguous: if the world does not ultimately treat ETH as a long-term store of value, Ethereum's core thesis has failed, regardless of the technology's success.

Sources:
U.Today: Ethereum Is Failed Project Without ETH, Bankless Host Says
The Crypto Times: Ethereum's ETH Is Money Era Is Over? Bankless Co-Founder Dumps ETH
AMBCrypto: Ryan Adams, David Hoffman Clash Over Whether Ethereum Growth Benefits ETH