A Messari analyst sparked heated debate over the weekend after declaring Ethereum is “dying” as network revenue declined in August.
In an X post on Saturday, Messari research manager AJC stated that “Ethereum’s fundamentals are collapsing,” as Ethereum’s revenue from fees in August was $39.2 million, down over 40% year-over-year and approximately 20% month-over-month.
Source: AJC
But many who read the post disagreed, pointing to Ethereum’s rising metrics, app revenue, stablecoin supply, continued L2 scaling and a distinction between Ethereum being a commodity, rather than a tech stock — meaning it shouldn’t be valued based on revenue.
Ethereum is still a vibrant ecosystem
A large part of Ethereum’s fall in revenue has come as a result of the Dencun upgrade in March 2024, which lowered transaction fees for layer-2 scaling networks using it as a base layer to post transactions.
Speaking to Cointelegraph, Henrik Andersson, chief investment officer of investment firm Apollo Crypto, said it is unlikely Ethereum is dying, because data from Ethereum L2s analytics tool growthepie shows it’s still “a vibrant ecosystem with stablecoin supply, throughput, and active addresses are all at or close to all-time high.”
As of Aug. 30, there were also over 552,000 daily active addresses on Ethereum according to investment research platform YCharts, representing a 21% increase since the same time in 2024.
There were over 552,000 daily active addresses on Ethereum as of Aug. 30. Source: YCharts
“We believe both Ethereum and Bitcoin have a place in a crypto portfolio,” Andersson said.
“Ethereum is becoming the neutral decentralized base layer for finance and just like Bitcoin is not valued on revenue but as a store of value, we don’t believe Ethereum can be valued solely on its revenue.”
In response to critics, however, AJC defended his use of revenue to value the layer-1 blockchain, explaining that because it’s collected in Ether (ETH), one of the largest historical demand drivers of consumption is now “trending toward zero.”
At the same time, AJC argued that active addresses and transactions are “meaningless statistics as it pertains to demand.”
Ethereum has been declared “dead” 40 times this year
Ethereum has been declared by various sources at least 150 times since 2014; most of these deaths have been recorded this year, with about 40, according to Ethereum Obituaries.
Ethereum has been declared dead 150 times before ACJ’s post. Source: Ethereum Obituaries
Ryan McMillin, chief investment officer at Merkle Tree Capital, told Cointelegraph that Ethereum continues to adapt and is generally declared dead in moments of narrative weakness, falling fees, transaction trending lower, or when competitors outpace it.
He said that in theory, because smart contracts are a competitive sector, developers and capital could slowly but permanently migrate elsewhere.
“But in practice, its developer community, entrenched DeFi protocols, and regulatory acceptance give it more staying power than the obituaries suggest; its current narrative is it will be the TradFi chain of choice, although the SOL ETF may disrupt that too,” McMillin said.
“The bigger story is that crypto is maturing into an ecosystem of differentiated assets, and Ethereum will remain one of the central pieces for years to come, and competition with other L1s is very healthy.”
McMillin said he doesn’t think Ethereum is “dying,” but said it has been stuck in a “difficult spot” for nearly two years because it’s trapped between Bitcoin’s narrative as digital gold and Solana’s pitch as the faster, cheaper alternative.
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“Ethereum’s ultra-sound money framing was never going to win against Bitcoin’s harder monetary premium, and when it comes to throughput and cost, Solana simply offers magnitudes of improvement,” he said.
One area that has helped Etherum in 2025 is its spot exchange-traded funds, which unlocked traditional finance flows and positioned Ether as a levered play on stablecoin adoption and network growth, according to McMillin.
“But that advantage may not last long, spot Solana ETFs are expected in the coming weeks, which could quickly level the playing field for mainstream capital inflows.”
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