Vitalik Buterin backs ETH as a store of value

Key points

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin says ETH should prioritise its role as a store of value over transaction-fee burning.
Buterin argues that fee burning was never as strong a measure of ETH’s value as some investors believed.
He says Ethereum’s decentralisation and stability provide stronger foundations for ETH’s long-term value proposition.

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Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin says ETH should prioritise its role as a store of value over transaction-fee burning.
Buterin argues that fee burning was never as strong a measure of ETH’s value as some investors believed.
He says Ethereum’s decentralisation and stability provide stronger foundations for ETH’s long-term value proposition.

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has urged the network to prioritise Ether (ETH) as a store of value rather than a fee-burning asset.

His argument challenges the focus on transaction-fee destruction as a central measure of ETH’s economic value.

“ETH as store of value (SoV)” makes much more sense to focus on than “ETH as fee-burning token,” Buterin wrote.

He argued that maximising fee burning could push Ethereum towards designs that undermine decentralisation and resistance to censorship.

Buterin said Ethereum should retain EIP-1559 and its fee-burning mechanism, even if burns remain below 10% of breakeven indefinitely.

He identified decentralisation and what he called “CROPS” as Ethereum’s core strengths, linking them to network stability.

Buterin also argued that stability could become more valuable as artificial intelligence reshapes economic activity and asset markets.

His comments place ETH’s value proposition on network reliability and decentralisation rather than transaction-fee destruction.