In his latest comments, Vitalik Buterin argued that Ethereum should place greater emphasis on ETH’s role as a store of value. He still supports keeping EIP-1559, but does not see the amount of ETH burned as the defining measure of its value.
To me, this raises a deeper question: Do people want to hold ETH because its supply shrinks, or because the network offers something worth holding it for?
1️⃣ Scarcity only matters when demand persists
Fee burning reduces supply relative to what it would otherwise be. But lower supply does not automatically mean higher prices if demand also weakens.
EIP-1559 burns the base fee. Validators still receive priority fees and network rewards, so it is misleading to assume that more burning necessarily reduces validator income by an equivalent amount.
An asset that aims to preserve value over time must give people a reason to keep owning it—even after market excitement fades.
2️⃣ High fees can improve burn figures while hurting users
If we focus only on ETH burned, expensive transactions can look like success. For users, however, those fees are the cost of transferring funds, trading, and accessing applications.
In my view, Ethereum faces a harder challenge: supporting more economic activity at reasonable costs while creating sustainable demand for ETH.
Network growth and token appreciation are connected, but they do not always move together. That growth must translate into demand to use, collateralize, or hold ETH.
3️⃣ Long-term strength comes from trustworthiness
The Ethereum Foundation identifies CROPS as its core principles:
• CR — Censorship Resistance
• O — Open Source
• P — Privacy
• S — Security
To me, the economic significance is clear: when people commit assets to a system for years, they need confidence that its rules are reliable, their assets are protected, and no single party can easily take away their ability to use it.
However, stable infrastructure does not mean a stable ETH price. The market still needs evidence that these technical strengths translate into genuine demand to hold the asset.
4️⃣ $10,000 is a thesis that needs evidence
I believe the store-of-value argument could broaden how the market values ETH. But a new narrative alone cannot create a new growth cycle.
For a $10,000 target to carry weight, we need stronger long-term holding demand, a deeper role for ETH as collateral, and economic activity on Ethereum that creates clear value for ETH itself.
Historical accuracy matters, too: EIP-1559 went live in August 2021, while The Merge took place in September 2022. These were separate milestones; combining them into one event and attributing an entire price rally to them oversimplifies what happened.
I still see long-term potential in ETH. My conviction rests on Ethereum’s ability to become infrastructure people want to rely on for decades.
If that demand keeps growing and ETH remains essential to the system, the path toward $10,000 gains a stronger foundation.
Fee burning can support scarcity. Utility and lasting trust give people a reason to hold.
Big long $ETH today and thank me later.
