Ethereum team lead Péter Szilágyi said that ‘ETH was never intended to be a currency’. Instead, he emphasized that Ethereum was designed to support decentralized applications.
A key selling point for long-term ETH holders was its deflationary nature, but that narrative has gradually faded since the March Denkun upgrade.
Peter Schilage : “ Ethereum Was Never Intended to Be Money”
Silaj’s statement suggests that Ethereum has greater value as a utility token than as money. Viewing it as just money is limited, and its true potential lies in supporting decentralized applications and systems.
“ETH was never intended to be money. ETH was created to support a decentralized world, which means ETH has value. But none of the OGs ever wanted ETH to be money. Bring on the tar and feathers,” Silaj wrote .
DCinvestor, a popular user on X (formerly Twitter), agrees that the value proposition of most digital assets, including Ethereum, is based on their utility. This topic is still controversial , with some saying that ETH is money.
This debate is not new. At a panel in Tel Aviv in 2019, Ethereum co-founders Vitalik Buterin, Joe Rubin, and eToro’s Yoni Asia expressed the opinion that “Ethereum can be money if the community wants it.”
Read more: What is the Ethereum Cancun-Deneve (Denkun) Upgrade?
Meanwhile, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin took the opportunity to explain the network’s growth at Token2049 in Singapore. He highlighted how layer-2 networks continue to reduce transaction fees and improve confirmation times. Buterin also stressed the importance of balancing Ethereum’s core values of decentralization and open-source development with mainstream adoption.
Meanwhile, ETH’s main selling point among long-term holders, its deflationary nature, continues to fade. ETH’s new supply is positive again, often increasing at its highest daily rate since the consolidation.
The supply of Ethereum is increasing as transaction fees are reduced following the Denkun upgrade in March. The data also shows that Ethereum is issuing more units than it is burning, contradicting previous deflationary narratives.
So now it is difficult to call ETH a deflationary currency with stable purchasing power anymore. In fact, it has increased by almost 13,000 ETH in the past week. This supply pressure continues to weigh on the Ethereum price.
“At the current rate of network activity, Ethereum is unlikely to become deflationary again. The narrative of ‘ultrasonic’ money is probably dead or will require significantly higher network activity,” CryptoQuant analysts stressed .
Read more: Ethereum (ETH) Price Prediction 2024/2025/2030
According to BeInCrypto data, ETH is currently trading at $2,546 at the time of writing, up nearly 5% since the session opened on Friday.
