Ethereum Supporters Address Detractors: “The Markets Will Align Soon”

TORONTO — Ethereum just completed its most significant upgrade in over a year, but this milestone follows a turbulent period for the blockchain. The price of ether (ETH) has declined, developers have migrated to rival platforms, and the Ethereum Foundation — a nonprofit steward of the project — has faced criticism for a perceived lack of coordination and vision.

Speaking on a panel at CoinDesk’s Consensus conference in Toronto, Paul Brody — global blockchain leader at EY and chairman of the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance — and Josh Stark of the Ethereum Foundation offered a more optimistic view of the road ahead.

There are two key aspects the community is seeking, according to Stark. First, “the ecosystem needs stronger leadership… Stronger leadership on the roadmap, on executing that roadmap, and really help coordinating the ecosystem to tackle the big challenges.” Second, the network needs improved messaging. “Ethereum’s fundamentals are incredibly strong, but few people are standing up to tell the story of that ecosystem and to highlight the incredible work being done,” Stark stated.

Despite its recent struggles, Stark and Brody maintained that Ethereum is still the most innovative and forward-focused project in crypto. Brody suggested that concerns about the foundation’s leadership might be overstated, commending former executive director Aya Miyaguchi for her tenure, which began in 2018 and concluded this year.

“Ethereum is a proof-of-stake chain with more than 120 layer-2 networks,” said Brody. Network capacity, he added, is near “300 to 450 million transactions a day.” Furthermore, “transaction fees at the L2 level — they average under one penny per transaction for the last three months,” Brody noted. “If I evaluate [Miyaguchi’s] tenure objectively in terms of results, I would rate it an A plus.”

Miyaguchi transitioned to the role of president of the Ethereum Foundation in March 2025, appointing Hsiao-Wei Wang and Tomasz Stańczak as the new co-executive directors — part of a leadership restructuring aimed at enhancing the foundation’s strategic focus.

Some critics argue that Ethereum’s roadmap has leaned too heavily on layer-2 rollups — independent blockchains that process transactions efficiently before “settling” their history on Ethereum’s main chain. Brody defended the network’s rollup-centric strategy: “I’m delighted,” he said.

While layer-2s like Optimism, Arbitrum, and Coinbase’s Base network have reduced users’ fees — generally seen as a major barrier to wider adoption — skeptics contend they may also present new security risks and fragmentation challenges that could threaten Ethereum’s foundational value.

“Ethereum is being Ethereum,” Brody stated. “Identifying a problem, fixing it, and moving on to the next challenges. Regarding the biggest issue we’ve addressed over the past few years, it was scalability, right? Going from one million transactions a day to 450 million in network capacity is a significant achievement.”

“All ecosystems will eventually adopt something resembling an L2 roadmap with modularity and specialization,” Stark added. “We’re just the ones who have advanced furthest down this path, encountering and addressing the challenges along the way.”

Ether (ETH), the network’s native token, has traditionally been viewed as a blue-chip crypto asset. However, in recent months, it has underperformed compared to some competitors. Network tokens are often seen as indicators of an ecosystem’s overall health.

Stark emphasized that Bitcoin has effectively established itself as a reliable store of value, allowing it to navigate the market more favorably than Ethereum. “Ethereum has a more complex narrative,” he noted.

Still, Stark remains confident that the market will eventually reflect Ethereum’s intrinsic value. “The world will continue to engage with these technologies and systems,” he emphasized. “There will be a demand for a slightly more complex, yet equally valid value proposition. I believe we are beginning to see that now. Markets ultimately recognize value, and I believe Ethereum is the most significant project in crypto and has always been.”