The market saw a risk of deflation in this concept. Vitalik took a front-step. By his estimates, the historical peaks of burning through EIP-1559 “never were as strong as they seemed”. They were dependent on inner cyclical activity of crypto speculations. And it itself was falling once every bear market started.
“Don’t be sad”: Vitalik Buterin offers CROPS for $ETH
Attempts to squeeze the premium out of the protocol by any means would push the system toward overly aggressive management and interventions, says Buterin. Ethereum would be required to become a centralized commercial project with inflated costs on research and development in other words. What the market needs meanwhile, amid the rise of AI and regulatory storms, is not a “corporate shitcoin”, but what Vitalik calls CROPS – “censorship and capture resistance, open source, privacy and security”.
EIP-1559 is not going anywhere, and Vitalik openly says “don’t be sad” if the volume of gas burned will forever stay below the 10% mark. The source of value for Ethereum lies in completely another dimension.
Solana’s co-founder, Anatoly Yakovenko, unexpectedly aligned with Buterin on this matter. “You can’t focus on fees as the products”, he said, calling such an idea “absolutely meaningless”. According to Yakovenko, the blockchain network must generate real value for the end users, not control the price of getting into the block.
Vitalik is absolutely right that you can’t focus on fees as the product. That’s absolutely meaningless. You need to pick a product, the thing that brings value to people, and do that really well.
— toly 🇺🇸 (@toly) November 8, 2026
There is lots of technical stuff and philosophy around, but what the missed deadline on the testnet and Vitalik’s manifesto reveal is that Ethereum opts for long-term, secure, and even a bit boring stability of the basic layer. Infra doesn’t try to flirt with the market through deflationary records.
