JAN3 CEO Samson Mow renewed criticism of Ethereum as ETH trades near $2,100 and continues to drag Bitcoin.
Summary
- Samson Mow said he is sympathetic to Ethereum as ETH battles Bitcoin and market pressure.
- Ethereum is trading near $2,115, with weak price action keeping attention on support and center losses.
- Vitalik Buterin said that the Ethereum Foundation will sell less ETH and focus on long-term survival.
In a post on X, Mow said he doesn’t like Ethereum like some Bitcoin maximalists, but added that he sympathizes with the current state of the network.
The comments come as the Ethereum market setup remains weak. ETH was trading at $2,100 at press time, down 0.19% on the day, with an intraday range between $2,066.23 and $2,124.48, according to crypto.news data.
Samson Mow takes aim at Ethereum’s weaknesses
Mow’s post framed Ethereum’s current position as difficult, even from the perspective of a longtime Bitcoin supporter. He said, “I can’t help but feel a little sad about how bad things are for them now.”
His comments followed months of pressure on Ethereum’s market position. ETH has struggled to find solid momentum, while Bitcoin has attracted more attention from investors looking for relative strength during periods of risk-off.
The ETH/BTC ratio remained under pressure again. The ratio recently settled near 0.027, indicating that Ethereum continued to weaken against Bitcoin in relative terms.
That weakness has given rise to widespread debate about whether Ethereum’s scaling approach has helped the network or reduced the need for its infrastructure layer. Layer-2 networks made transactions cheaper, but also moved user activity away from Ethereum’s mainnet payments.
The growth of Layer-2 raises questions of the base layer
Ethereum’s pooling strategy has helped the network handle more transactions through Layer-2 platforms such as Arbitrum, Optimism, and Base. That approach lowered costs for users and improved access.
However, critics say that a similar model could reduce the need for direct currency for Ethereum’s base layer. If the work is moving towards decentralized rollups, the value can be spread across multiple networks instead of staying concentrated on the mainnet.
Concerns also remain around the intermediate sequences and large lakes. These issues have kept the decentralization debate alive, even as Ethereum developers continue to push the development of the technology.
Mow’s critique fits that broader argument. His post did not provide a detailed technical review, but added attention to Ethereum’s current mix of weak price action, reduced relative strength, and structural questions.
BitMine and ETH treasury losses add to the pressure
A related market review shows that Ethereum holders have also faced pressure. Crypto.news reported that BitMine’s ETH holdings fell to 5,078,386 ETH on April 27, after the company bought tokens at an estimated price of $2,369 each. At the time, this position was worth $12 billion.
The same report said that BitMine was holding about $3.5 billion in unrealized losses by February 2026, when it bought ETH during the reduction period.
Other public ETH treasury schemes have also faced weak accounting results. Crypto.news reported that SharpLink posted a loss of $685.6 million in Q1, driven mainly by losses in the non-cash ETH market and impairment charges.
SharpLink reported $506.7 million in unrealized ETH losses and a $191.7 million LsETH impairment charge. The company said that the accounting loss did not reduce its holdings of ETH.
Vitalik Buterin supports the small Ethereum Foundation
Mow’s comments also came shortly after Vitalik Buterin outlined the new direction of the Ethereum Foundation. Buterin said the foundation will use its remaining resources to focus on long-term survival rather than expanding its activities.
Crypto.news reported that Buterin said that the Ethereum Foundation will sell small amounts of ETH in advance. He also said that the foundation owns about 0.16% of all ETH and should act as a single node in Ethereum, not the center of the network.
Buterin’s program focuses on anti-censorship, privacy, openness, and security. He also said that Ethereum must be more interesting in areas such as secure code, strong consensus, and fewer intermediaries for transactions.
