Samson Mow says he feels “sorry” for Ethereum — and the market data gives him fuel
Jan3 CEO Samson Mow, a well-known Bitcoin maximalist, stirred the conversation on X this week by openly expressing sympathy for Ethereum’s current condition. “I hate Ethereum as much as the next Bitcoin Maximalist but even I can't help but feel a bit sorry for how bad things are for them now,” Mow wrote, framing the network’s struggles as plainly visible even to its critics.
Where Ethereum stands now
- Price action: ETH was trading near $2,100 at the time of the comment, down about 0.19% for the day and oscillating between roughly $2,066 and $2,124, according to crypto.news data.
- Relative weakness vs. Bitcoin: The ETH/BTC ratio has stayed under pressure, recently hovering around 0.027, signaling that Ethereum remains weaker than Bitcoin on a relative basis.
Why critics — and some supporters — see trouble
Mow’s blunt take taps into broader market and structural debates about Ethereum’s path forward. Key points shaping skepticism include:
- Layer-2 migration: Rollups such as Arbitrum, Optimism and Base have successfully lowered costs and increased throughput by moving much user activity off the mainnet. While that improves access, critics argue it can also siphon fee demand away from Ethereum’s base layer, concentrating value across multiple networks rather than on mainnet.
- Decentralization concerns: The rise of centralized sequencers on rollups and the concentration of stake in large pools have reactivated long-standing debates about how decentralized Ethereum really is — even as developers pursue further upgrades.
Treasury pain and corporate write-downs
Market stresses have extended to large public ETH holders. Crypto.news reported that miner BitMine’s treasury exceeded 5,078,386 ETH as of April 27 — tokens the firm acquired at an average price of about $2,369, making the position worth roughly $12 billion at that time. BitMine reportedly carried an estimated $3.5 billion in unrealized losses in February 2026 but continued accumulating during the drawdown.
Other treasury strategies have also shown sharp paper losses. SharpLink recorded a $685.6 million net loss in Q1, driven mainly by non-cash ETH market losses and a $191.7 million impairment tied to LsETH; the company logged about $506.7 million in unrealized ETH losses but said its holdings remained intact.
Ethereum’s long-term pivot from the Foundation
Mow’s remarks arrived shortly after Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin outlined a tighter, survival-focused plan for the Ethereum Foundation. Buterin said the foundation will sell less ETH going forward, holds roughly 0.16% of all ETH, and should function as “one node” among many rather than a central actor. The Foundation’s new priorities include censorship resistance, privacy, openness and security — with an emphasis on safer code, stronger consensus, and reducing intermediaries in transactions.
Bottom line
Mow’s comment is less a technical indictment than a blunt reflection of current market sentiment: weak price action, diminished relative strength versus Bitcoin, and structural questions about where value accrues in an L2-centric ecosystem. With large holders taking paper losses and the Foundation narrowing its focus, Ethereum faces both challenge and evolution — and the debate over whether recent design choices have helped or hurt the base layer is likely to intensify.
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