Key Takeaway
What long-term vision did Buterin share?
He emphasized using low-risk DeFi protocols to provide Ethereum with a stable economic foundation.
What tension exists in the Ethereum ecosystem?
Balancing revenue-generating applications with projects that preserve Ethereum’s original mission and values.
Ethereum [ETH] is back in the spotlight, or we can say it has never left the spotlight.
But, this time, not just for its price action but also for co-founder Vitalik Buterin shifting his attention from price milestones to Ethereum’s long-term vision as per his recent blog post.
Vitalik Buterin’s long-term Ethereum vision
He argued that revenue generated from low-risk decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols could serve as a financial backbone for the network.
Buterin compared this to how Google Search sustains Google, while ensuring that non-financial applications continue to preserve Ethereum’s cultural and community-driven values.
Needless to say, for years, the Ethereum ecosystem has wrestled with a fundamental tension.
This included balancing applications that generate enough revenue to sustain the network against those that embody its original mission and values.
On one side, financial activity, often dominated by NFTs, memecoins, and DeFi loops fueled by incentives, generated significant capital but relied heavily on short-lived, sometimes circular dynamics.
On the other hand, non-financial and semi-financial projects like Lens, Farcaster, ENS, Polymarket, Seer, and privacy protocols showcased Ethereum’s cultural and technological depth.
Yet, they struggled with low adoption and insufficient fee generation to support the scale of a multi-hundred-billion-dollar economy.
Remarking on which, Buterin added,
“This disjointness created a lot of dissonance in the community, and a large amount of community momentum was backed by the theoretical hope that some application could emerge that fills both boxes at the same time.”
Did Ethereum find its “Google Search” moment?
Seeing this, Buterin suggests that Ethereum may have finally found its “Google Search” moment in low-risk DeFi.
Just as search and ads underpin Google’s revenue while allowing the company to pursue diverse projects, stable and accessible DeFi protocols could provide Ethereum with a reliable economic foundation.
These protocols, focused on democratizing global access to payments and savings in key asset classes like currencies, stocks, and bonds, would generate sustainable revenue without compromising Ethereum’s spirit.
Unlike Google, which critics argue drifted toward profit-maximization, Ethereum’s decentralized structure could ensure that financial success and community values remain aligned, allowing the network to “do well” while also “being good.”
“In fact, I hope Ethereum can do much better than Google.”
Ethereum network activity and price action
This coincided with Ethereum’s latest on-chain trends, presenting a nuanced picture of the network’s momentum.
While ETH traded at $4,485.13 at press time, much of the activity stemmed from smaller wallet holders.
In the chart below, address distribution shows four main categories: mega-holders with more than 1,000,000 ETH, large holders with 100,000–1,000,000 ETH.
Mid-tier wallets contained 10,000–100,000 ETH, and smaller accounts held 1,000–10,000 ETH.
Source: Santiment
The data underscores that the majority of engagement comes from smaller wallets, signaling a broad user base rather than heavy reliance on whales.
Activity levels also fluctuate noticeably, with a spike in participation observed around mid-September, reflecting periods of higher engagement on the network.
What’s more?
At the same time, Ethereum’s unstaking queue has stretched beyond 45 days, drawing sharp criticism on Crypto Twitter.
Many users expressed frustration, noting that the extended delay makes it difficult to access funds for everyday needs such as rent and utility bills.
Comparisons were quickly made to Solana, where unstaking takes just two days.
Finally, addressing the concerns, Buterin defended the longer wait, describing it as a necessary part of the network’s “security deal,” likening it to the process of a soldier leaving military service.
