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The Ethereum Civil War: What's Happening?
Bull markets are generally euphoric. Everyone feels like a genius and starts partying. And right now, most of the crypto community is partying.
Except for the Ethereum community.
It's in the midst of a massive civil war, with frustration almost boiling over into a revolution. Let's dive into the chaos.
For the past couple of years, $ETH price has been massively underperforming. For last year, ETH/SOL is down 78%. And ETH/BTC is down 45%. So, concerns about Ethereum's development have been building up for a long time.
But when $TRUMP and $MELANIA launched on Solana last week, everything blew up.
What happened? $TRUMP launch on Solana was as Ethereum's failure. They blamed the Ethereum Foundation for squashing the massive lead they had against Solana.
They were fed up with EF and started tweeting against it. This included lots of influential Ethereum OGs like Eric Conner. After the first spark was lit, it was a wildfire of attacks against.
- Ignoring devs: EF isn't listening to the needs of application developers.
- Lack of transparency: The community doesn't know the details of EF operations.
- No marketing: When competitors have highly oiled marketing teams, this is a weakness.
- Slow development: Ethereum's development process is painfully slow and inefficient.
- Overly idealistic: EF focuses on utopian use cases, ignoring money-making DeFi.
- Detached leadership: EF employees rarely use Ethereum themselves, creating blind spots in UX and other areas.
- Leadership change: Calls to replace Aya Miyaguchi, EF's Executive Director, with Danny Ryan, a widely respected figure.
- Dumping ETH: EF sells ETH to fund operations instead of using DeFi to fund operations.
- Scaling priorities: Critics argue that too many resources went into L2 scaling rather than scaling Ethereum's L1.
- Vitalik's vision: Even Vitalik came under fire for being too utopian and disconnected from real-world competitive pressures.
There's more. But trying to list them would've taken up the entire newsletter. But you get the idea.
Some are even suggesting creating a second foundation to rival EF, possibly with a competing vision for Ethereum.
Of course, not everyone was piling on. Many defended EF as well.
- Vitalik had already been aware of the drawbacks of the current leadership and was working on a transition.
- The Ethereum social layer is way more decentralized than its competitors. So they can't move as fast as Solana.
- EF did accept the criticism of lack of onchain usage. So, they've already started a Gnosis-safe wallet to start being active onchain.
- "Credible neutrality" is an important value of Ethereum. It prevents them from directly lobbying with the Trump administration like its competitors.
- EF's detachment from Ethereum price and marketing was a necessity in the previous administration where it could've been classified as a security. Solana did such activities and they got called security by the SEC. In contrast, ETH got an ETF.
- Many of the failures blamed on EF weren't meant to be their responsibility. Accelerating institutional adoption is an example. Now, there's a new organization called, Etherealize, that's funded by EF and Vitalik and is purely focused on BD and institutional adoption of Ethereum.
Ethereum sentiment is the worst that I've seen. It's kinda similar to the post-FTX sentiment on Solana. Even OG eth maxis seems bearish.
But if you look at the tech, the situation isn't as bad as seems. Solutions for the current problems of Ethereum are in development. The catch? It might take 1-2 years for those to go live.
So, ETH might go down in the very short term. But the potential solutions can get priced in and start pumping as well.
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Decentralized storage is holding back Web3 projects. High costs, inefficiency, and limited scalability hold DeFi and NFTs back.
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Even if 2/3 of nodes fail, your data stays safe and accessible.
Walrus unlocks new possibilities:
- Fully Decentralized metadata and media for NFTs.
- Efficient storage for social media content like videos and images.
- DeFi. Storing transaction history for high-speed chains or temporary storage for rollups and L2s.
- AI dApps. Increased functionality since they can use decentralized data to train models for any use case.
Walrus isn't here to replace AWS or Google Drive. Instead, it gives builders full decentralization, sovereignty, and security—the DeFi ethos in a package.
Walrus transforms the scaling of DeFi and NFTs by tackling storage in a cost-effective and highly scalable manner.
Sui is ready to skyrocket their whole ecosystem.
Protocol Research
Orbit: Making DeFi Easy as Chatting
I'm betting big on the DeFAI sector. It's the intersection of AI Agents and DeFi - leveraging AI to make DeFi simpler and more profitable for users.
I've covered this sector multiple times before, but today, let's dive deeper into Orbit, a project that's already up 3x since I first mentioned it.
Orbit aims to remove the complexities of DeFi, making it feel as easy as texting your smart cousin. No more endless clicks or digging through confusing dashboards.
Here's the kicker. Orbit isn't just simplifying DeFi for humans, it's also creating a financial hub for AI agents.
With support for 117 blockchains and over 200 protocols, it offers a comprehensive toolkit for both users and AI.
Right now, It offers two different "services": tasks and agents. Let's break it down:
- Tasks: Automate DeFi actions with natural language commands. Want to schedule a trade or rebalance your portfolio? Just type what you need, and Orbit handles the rest.
- Agents: Specialized AI-driven bots can perform tasks like liquidity provision, tracking trending tokens, or even managing your treasury. These agents gather insights from social media, on-chain activity, and market data to refine strategies.
With these features, Orbit has positioned itself as a one-stop shop for 90% of all on-chain actions.
The Financial Hub for AI Agents.
Orbit isn't just for human users, it's becoming the abstraction layer for AI agents.
If AI agents were to operate directly on-chain, they'd face major hurdles.
Managing multiple blockchains, integrating different protocols, and handling on-chain data. Orbit solves this by acting as the middle layer, simplifying these operations.
Take Aicrostrategy, an AI-powered DAO, for example. It already uses Orbit for treasury management, allowing it to focus on strategy while Orbit handles the heavy lifting.
The long-term vision? To make Orbit the economic hub where AI agents transact with each other. Think of it as the DeFi marketplace for autonomous agents.
Quick caveat. I don't trust these agents with real money yet. They have to mature before I can fully trust them with significant funds.
That said, just playing around with Orbit is enough to see its potential. Crypto investing is all about betting on future potential.
Why Orbit Is An Interesting one.
Orbit isn't just making DeFi simpler, it's creating tangible tools with real use cases. Here's what sets it apart:
Redesigned UI for Discovery: Orbit's latest update now highlights yield opportunities directly on its homepage. Spotting the best Solana yields? It's just a few clicks away. No digging, no hassle.
Some Recent Milestones:
- Integrated Dexscreener for better data insights.
- Launched a mobile app (PWA) for easy access on the go.
- Introduced whale alert systems and automated liquidity management tools for platforms like Meteora.
- Won the Arbitrum Trailblazer Program, a key endorsement of its innovation.
- Partnered with top-tier AI agents like Aixbt and S4mmyEth to expand its ecosystem.
Strong Community Growth. Metrics show 27,183 token holders with trading volume exceeding $51M in 24 hours and high liquidity distributed across 30 DEX pairs, $GRIFT demonstrates strong market activity.
The Token's Growth Potential
Orbit is gearing up for a series of launches and updates. Here's what's coming:
- Mobile App Expansion: Orbit's new PWA mobile app brings DeFi management to your fingertips, streamlining access for on-the-go users.
- Arbitrum Integration: As a Trailblazer Program winner, Orbit's enhanced support on Arbitrum could attract more liquidity and users to its platform.
- Multichain Portfolio View: A highly anticipated feature in the upcoming UI overhaul, this will provide users with a clearer snapshot of their cross-chain DeFi activity.
- Homepage Yield Opportunities: Orbit's homepage now features Solana yield opportunities.
- Revenue-Driven Buybacks: A portion of platform revenue is used to buy back $GRIFT, directly benefiting token holders and supporting price stability.
Closing Thoughts
Orbit represents a significant leap forward in making Defi accessible to everyone.
The idea of simplifying complex DeFi processes to the point where you can interact with them as easily as chatting with a friend is transformative.
As someone who's been following the DeFai space closely, I'm excited about the potential of AI agents to streamline operations and enhance decision-making.
The combination of user-friendly tools and a robust ecosystem for AI-driven solutions positions Orbit as a frontrunner in the DeFAI sector.
I believe we're just scratching the surface of what's possible here, and I'm eager to see how this project evolves in the coming months.
Disclaimer. I hold some $GRIFT that I bought from the open market. This is me sharing my research with you, and not an encouragement to buy. Do your own research!
🤖 Agent Arena
HeyAnon released the tokenomics of the $ANON token. It has many mechanics like staking, locking, and more.
Mode Network founder shared upcoming items to support the AI Agent ecosystem on Mode Network.
🚀 DeFi Catalysts
Uniswap will start v4 deployments this week so that builders can test integrations. The full release will be next week.
Liquity v2 is launching today. Many friendly forks will be deployed on other chains and they'll be airdropping tokens to $LQTY holders.
Origin Protocol will release its next yield-bearing token $OS, Origin Sonic. It's an LST on Sonic.
Balancer is voting on expanding Balancer v3 to Arbitrum. It'll be a new market for the protocol.
Nodepay announced new product releases like Desktop Node launch, NFTs, and Node Search. They're trying to scale to more users.
🪂 Airdrop Alpha
Plume Network, the chain focusing on real-world assets, has released the claims for season 1 of the Plume airdrop.
Orbiter Finance, a zk-based cross-chain protocol, has released the $OBT airdrop claim page.
Nillion announced the NIL airdrop. They've allocated 7.5% of the total supply to the community members and early builders.
🚀 New Launches
Sandglass, the Solana-based yield trading protocol, has expanded to the Ethereum L2 Eclipse.
InfinityPools launched on Base. It'll allow users to take unlimited leverage without the risk of liquidations.
🐦⬛ X Hits
- The current state of AI Agents.
- Difference between 2025 and 2021.
- Daniele Sesta on DeFAI as crypto super app.
- Comprehensive guide to DeFAI application landscape.
- $MUSIC thesis from agentstarter.
😂 Meme
Until next time,
Edgy
p.s. A few reasons why I'm still bullish
Today's email was written by Edgy and Yayya.
DISCLAIMER: I'm NOT a financial advisor. This content is for education and information purposes only. Crypto and DeFi are risky and speculative. Please do your research before investing.
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