Why I Sold My ETH, David Hoffman

Popular Crypto Investor & Bankless Co-founder David Hoffman revealed that he sold his Ethereum holdings, despite spending years building his career and identity around Ethereum.

But unlike many bearish calls flooding crypto markets lately, Hoffman explains his reasons behind Ethereum’s selling. 

Reason Behind David Hoffman’s ETH Selling

In a recent post on X, Hoffman said the popular “ETH is Money” idea has mostly already happened, but not in the explosive way any Ethereum supporters once hoped for.

According to him, Ethereum succeeded technically, but the market no longer appears willing to aggressively “rerate” ETH higher as a monetary asset. He said that Ethereum chose the hardest possible path in crypto by prioritizing open ecosystems, decentralization, Layer-2 scaling, and public infrastructure instead of maximizing direct value capture for ETH holders.

That design helped Ethereum become the foundation for stablecoins, DeFi, tokenization, and Layer-2 networks, but it also allowed much of the economic value to flow toward apps, rollups, and external assets rather than ETH itself.

Ethereum’s Success May Be Helping Everyone Else

One of Hoffman’s biggest concerns involves stablecoins. Ethereum currently hosts around $163 billion in stablecoins, up massively from just $3 billion in 2020.

However, Hoffman believes Ethereum’s infrastructure growth is increasingly strengthening assets like the U.S. dollar instead of strengthening ETH as money.

He described Ethereum as “a giver, not a taker,” arguing that the network intentionally provides low-cost infrastructure to the entire crypto economy without aggressively extracting value back into ETH.

Solana, NEAR, and Revenue Chains Changed the Market

Further into the explanation, Hoffman also pointed toward the rise of competing ecosystems like Solana and NEAR Protocol, where token prices became more closely tied to revenue growth and blockchain activity.

He noted that in 2024, Solana gained dominance as its Layer-1 revenue surged, while NEAR’s 2026 rerating has also closely tracked rising blockchain fees and token burn activity.

That shift, according to Hoffman, changed how markets value smart contract platforms.

Is Hoffman Bearish on Ethereum?

Surprisingly, no. Hoffman repeatedly said he remains “massively bullish” on Ethereum as a network and believes its ecosystem, apps, and Layer-2 infrastructure will continue growing strongly.

His concern is mainly around ETH’s ability to structurally outperform from current levels.

As of now, the Ethereum price is trading around $2073, reflecting a drop of neally 60% from its ATH of $4973.