Bankless co-founder Ryan Sean Adams recently took to the X platform to heavily criticize the emerging “Ethereum not $ETH” narrative.
Without its native token acting as a massive global store of value, the entire network is fundamentally a “failed project.”
The “Ethereum Not $ETH” fallacy
Adams expressed deep frustration with the growing sentiment that one can be bullish on the Ethereum network’s technology without being bullish on the $ETH asset itself.
He noted that this exact “mental fallacy” is what triggered him to start writing and podcasting in the first place.
“There is no strong Ethereum without an $ETH worth trillions,” Adams stated. “Without $ETH as a global store of value, Ethereum is a failed project. Full stop.”
He elaborated that $ETH acts as the essential “economic bandwidth for DeFi,” serving as the only asset maximized for cryptographic property rights (CROPs). Adams argued that separating the network from the asset is intellectually dishonest.
“Saying you’re bullish Ethereum not $ETH is like saying you’re bullish America not the American economy,” Adams explained. “They are one and the same – economic engines. Better to admit Ethereum is a failed project than ‘Ethereum not $ETH‘.”
He urged the community to abandon the “weak blockchain not crypto stuff,” arguing that it makes no sense for truly crypto-native projects like Bitcoin, Zcash, or Ethereum.
A rift between founders
At the same time, his Bankless co-founder, David Hoffman has disagreed with the core analogy.
“I don’t think this is true. The analogy doesn’t hold. These are two different mediums with different contexts,” Hoffman argued, adding that “There needs to be a mechanism that drives value to $ETH.”
Adams, however, pointed out that the mechanism has always been clear: $ETH acting as money.
“The mechanism is $ETH getting used as a SoV [Store of Value], medium of exchange, or unit of account,” Adams fired back. “We did like 100 podcasts on this? You can believe it’s not happening or will never happen or can’t happen. But the mechanism is clear and has always has been clear.”
The co-founder’s exit
In mid-to-late May 2026, David Hoffman shocked the cryptocurrency community by publicly announcing that he was selling and liquidating the last of his $ETH holdings.
However, Ryan Sean Adams has not sold his Ethereum. Despite stepping back from some content roles at Bankless, Adams has not indicated that he is on the verge of dumping his holdings.
