Original|Sharplink CEO Joseph Chalom
Compiled by|Odaily Planet Daily Qin Xiaofeng (@QinXiaofeng888 )
Editor's Note: This week, former staunch ETH bull and Bankless co-founder David Hoffman published an article explaining why he sold off his ETH holdings, which resonated strongly within the Ethereum community. The article garnered an astonishing 1.8 million reads on the X platform. Amidst the surging public sentiment, Sharplink (Nasdaq: SBET), the second-largest listed company with a treasury of ETH (Odaily Note: Sharplink's treasury size is approximately 868,000 ETH, worth nearly $1.8 billion, second only to BitMine), could no longer sit idle.
On May 30th, Sharplink CEO Joseph Chalom published an article titled "Ethereum Going Back on Offense" in an attempt to boost confidence among ETH holders. He stated that the Ethereum Foundation (EF) is fulfilling its core responsibilities, focusing on the core protocol, security, and decentralization, which is the foundation of institutional trust; today's ETH is like Amazon during the internet bubble, undervalued (Odaily Note: Standard Chartered Bank has also made a similar analogy, emphasizing the severe disconnect between ETH's fundamentals and its price). Joseph Chalom believes that when the market is fearful now, it's a great opportunity to position; all parties in the ecosystem need to speak up proactively to drive the institutional adoption super cycle.
The following is the full text of Joseph Chalom's article, compiled by Odaily Planet Daily. Enjoy~
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The current controversies surrounding the Ethereum Foundation (EF) and the noise caused by ETH price volatility have caused many to lose sight of the bigger picture. While I understand these discussions, they do not determine who will lead the financial infrastructure for the next decade.
This is the perspective of a stakeholder. Before leading Sharplink, I spent twenty years as an executive at BlackRock, responsible for fintech business and digital asset strategy. These experiences gave me a deep understanding of what institutions truly need before deploying capital into new infrastructure.
I want to set aside this noise and offer a different perspective on Ethereum's current position and future trajectory.
The Ethereum Foundation is Fulfilling its Core Responsibilities
Take a step back. What has been delivered over the past decade? In the attributes most critical for institutional adoption—trust, security, and liquidity—Ethereum is far ahead. It is winning, and its lead is significant.
Look at the data: Ethereum settles the majority of global stablecoin value; it hosts far more tokenized real-world asset projects than any other blockchain; it is the default venue for high-value DeFi transactions. In these dimensions, other competitors are merely playing catch-up.
This is no accident. It is the result of years of rigorous protocol development by the Ethereum Foundation (EF). Ethereum is the only blockchain that has successfully launched major upgrades at its base layer consistently for a decade: The Merge, EIP-1559, Dencun, Pectra, Fusaka. The upcoming Glamsterdam upgrade will bring a leap forward in scalability, and the EF is leading the industry into the anti-quantum era. This is the most ambitious technical roadmap in the entire industry.
Decentralization is a Feature, Not a Bug
Some of the harshest criticisms of the EF view decentralization as a weakness. This perspective completely inverts institutional logic. The Ethereum ecosystem has the most developers of any blockchain—and the vast majority of these developers are not affiliated with the EF.
No single foundation should have complete control over a blockchain. Institutions are not looking to lock themselves in just to migrate from one proprietary system to another. They need assurance that the underlying properties they rely on cannot be arbitrarily changed by a centralized owner. In fact, no blockchain should be dependent on a single entity.
Ethereum's credible neutrality and decentralization are precisely why it is becoming the settlement layer for the future of finance. These are not bugs.
Between a foundation focused on security, privacy, quantum resistance, and the core protocol, and one optimized for short-term marketing, I will choose the former every single time.
ETH Value vs. Amazon
History is full of examples where foundational innovations were dismissed by critics who favored trendier newcomers, only for the pessimists to be proven wrong. Amazon is the quintessential case.
Early on, the market consensus on Amazon was that it was just a money-losing online bookseller propped up by the dot-com bubble. Short-sellers focused only on its P&L, missing Jeff Bezos's long-term vision—he was building an entirely new market structure for e-commerce. Its Total Addressable Market (TAM) was never book sales, but the entire retail economy, later expanding to cloud computing and media. Analysts fixated on Amazon's short-term stock price missed the bigger opportunity.
Today, Ethereum and ETH are in the same position. Its TAM is not crypto trading, but the entire global financial system. The intrinsic value of ETH is tied to the expansion of the network. And the Ethereum network is at an inflection point for step-change growth in transaction volume, spanning stablecoins, tokenized RWAs, DeFi, and the emerging wave of agentic finance. To secure transaction volume of this magnitude, Ethereum will become a highly demanded incentive layer and the ultimate trust infrastructure, and its monetary premium will rise accordingly.
No ETH, no Ethereum. The asset and the network are inseparable.
When Others Capitulate, It's Time to Make Money
In almost every market cycle, the moment when retail capitulates and sentiment is at its lowest is precisely when disciplined capital enters to build positions. Warren Buffett built Berkshire by buying quality assets at times of peak pessimism—from GEICO in the 1970s to Bank of America and Goldman Sachs during the 2008 financial crisis.
For most of the past year, the Fear & Greed Index has reflected extreme fear in the market. The smartest investors buy quality assets when the market is most fearful. They invest counter-cyclically, not pro-cyclically.
During the crypto winter following the FTX collapse, most institutions distanced themselves from Bitcoin and ETH exposure or shelved product launches. When I was at BlackRock, we did the opposite. We doubled down, investing in infrastructure, building ecosystem partnerships, and launching products that bridge TradFi and crypto.
We can all learn a great deal from Buffett and BlackRock.
Ethereum Needs New Voices
The EF is fulfilling its core responsibilities. Going forward, it will increasingly focus on CROPS. (Odaily Note: CROPS is an internal framework prioritizing censorship resistance, openness, privacy, and security. This shift means the Ethereum Foundation will focus on making Ethereum a "safe haven technology," prioritizing fundamental, long-term protocol security, user privacy, and resistance to censorship/control, rather than pursuing aggressive scaling and raw speed).
For most, it's clear the current gap is in marketing leadership; meanwhile, institutions are broadly looking to embrace Ethereum. I strongly believe stakeholders and participants in the ecosystem need to play a larger role in Ethereum's narrative and institutional adoption.
Since last summer, digital asset treasury companies and Ethereum core stewards have played a significant role in this regard. This includes Sharplink, Tom Lee of BitMine, Joe Lubin of Consensys, Etherealize, Nethermind, Aave, Morpho, EEA, and other ecosystem stakeholders. We also work closely with a small team within the EF focused on institutional education and adoption.
Sharplink is actively investing in this ecosystem. We were the first company to stake billions in ETH capital and have deployed hundreds of millions into high-quality DeFi protocols. We recently announced a $125 million DeFi yield fund launched in partnership with Galaxy Digital to provide capital to both existing and emerging protocols.
That said, we can and will do more, actively speaking up for Ethereum and proactively supporting the coming institutional adoption super cycle.
The future of Ethereum is happening right now.
Recommended Reading:
"Bankless Co-founder's Confession on Selling ETH: Ethereum Did the Right Thing, but 'ETH as Money' Has No Future"
"Bankless Founder Sells Off ETH, Collective Disillusionment in Ethereum Faith"
