Why Bankless Co-Founder Sold His Entire Ethereum Portfolio

Bankless co-founder David Hoffman said he sold his ETH because he no longer believes Ethereum’s success will fully translate into higher ETH prices.

Hoffman, one of Ethereum’s most visible media advocates, said the “ETH is money” thesis did not collapse. Instead, he argued that it already played out. “The ETH is Money thesis didn’t fail… it played out,” he wrote.

His post lands as ETH trades near a fragile support zone around $2,050 to $2,100. The asset has struggled to regain stronger resistance above $2,300, while ETF flows and on-chain demand remain mixed.

Hoffman Says Ethereum Network Can Win While ETH Lags

Hoffman made a clear split between Ethereum the network and ETH the asset.

“I am massively bullish Ethereum,” he wrote, adding that he expects the network to perform well. But he said only a “marginal amount” of that success may be reflected in ETH.

That is the core of his argument. Ethereum may continue to dominate stablecoins, tokenization, DeFi, and Layer 2 activity. But ETH may no longer capture enough value from that growth to justify a major asset rerating.

The Value Capture Problem

Hoffman argued that Ethereum is structurally designed to give value back to its ecosystem.

He described Ethereum as “a giver, not a taker,” saying it provides secure blockspace to L2s, tokenizes real-world assets, and supports DeFi without taking much economic markup.

That view matches the current market debate. Ethereum usage remains strong across areas such as stablecoins and rollups. But L2s and applications now capture much of the activity that once supported the old fee-burn narrative.

As a result, Ethereum can grow as infrastructure while ETH fails to outperform.

ETH Faces Weak Technical Momentum

The timing also matters. ETH is trading close to a key support range after failing to build strong momentum above $2,200. Analysts have warned that a break below the current zone could weaken the chart further.

At the same time, institutional demand remains uneven. Ethereum ETFs have not delivered the consistent inflows needed to offset weaker market confidence.

A Symbolic Exit From an Ethereum Insider

Hoffman said he is not bearish on ETH. He said he wants to allocate capital elsewhere because he does not expect ETH to be “structurally rerated” higher or lower.

Still, the move carries weight.

For years, Bankless helped popularize ETH as internet money. Hoffman’s exit shows that even some Ethereum believers now question whether ETH remains the best financial expression of Ethereum’s future.

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