Samson Mow says he “feels sorry” for Ethereum — and the market data gives him reason to be concerned.
What he said
- Jan3 CEO and longtime Bitcoin maximalist Samson Mow took to X to renew his criticism of Ethereum, admitting that while he dislikes ETH like many Bitcoin supporters, he “can’t help but feel a bit sorry for how bad things are for them now.” The post stopped short of a technical takedown, but added public pressure to an already tense narrative around Ethereum’s market and structural health.
Market snapshot
- ETH was trading around $2,100, down roughly 0.19% on the day, with an intraday range near $2,066–$2,124.
- The ETH/BTC ratio remains under pressure, hovering near 0.027 — a signal that Ethereum is weakening in relative terms as investors rotate toward Bitcoin during risk-off stretches.
Why critics are worried
- Layer-2 rollups (Arbitrum, Optimism, Base and others) have made transactions cheaper and expanded throughput, but that success has a trade-off: much user activity — and the fees that used to accrue to Ethereum mainnet — now lives on L2s. Critics argue this can dilute demand for the base layer rather than concentrate value on mainnet.
- Ongoing concerns about centralization persist, including the role of centralized sequencers and the concentration of staked ETH in large pools, keeping decentralization debates alive even as upgrades continue.
Treasury pain points
- Public and corporate ETH treasuries have taken hits. BitMine’s holdings surpassed 5,078,386 ETH on April 27, bought at an average price of $2,369 and worth roughly $12 billion at that time. Crypto.news reported BitMine carried an estimated $3.5 billion in unrealized losses in February 2026, yet continued buying into the drawdown.
- SharpLink reported a Q1 net loss of $685.6 million, driven largely by non-cash ETH market losses and impairment charges: $506.7 million in unrealized ETH losses plus a $191.7 million LsETH impairment. The company said these accounting losses did not reduce its ETH holdings.
Ethereum Foundation’s new posture
- Around the same time, Vitalik Buterin signaled a shift in the Foundation’s approach: using remaining resources to prioritize long-term survival over expansion, selling less ETH, and acting “as one node” rather than the center of the network. The Foundation reportedly holds about 0.16% of all ETH.
- Buterin emphasized priorities including censorship resistance, privacy, openness, security, safer code, stronger consensus, and reducing transaction intermediaries.
Bottom line
- Mow’s comment is not a technical analysis, but it amplifies a broader debate: Ethereum’s scaling model has improved usability and cost, yet may be redistributing value away from the base layer and stoking centralization worries. With ETH lagging Bitcoin and public treasuries reporting large unrealized losses, the market will be watching ETH/BTC dynamics, rollup adoption, and how the Foundation’s more conservative stance plays out.
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