Ethereum revenue plummets? Bankless co-founder: Someone is dismantling Ethereum

Written by: 0xjs @ Golden Finance

On September 7, 2025, Messari analyst Avg Joes, citing Ethereum network revenue metrics, pointed out that Ethereum is on the decline.

Despite hitting a new high in August, Ethereum's revenue in August was only $39.2 million. Specifically, this was a 75% decrease from August 2023 ($157.4 million) and a 40% decrease from August 2024 ($64.8 million). This was the fourth-lowest monthly revenue since January 2021.

Bankless co-founder David Hoffman replied to Avg Joes' post:

Have we forgotten what we wanted to do? We created this technology, and since the advent of churches, monarchies, and nation-states with tanks, guns, and fighter jets... finally, for the first time in history, we can create a currency created by the people, for the people... and yet we judge these things as if they are just technology platforms based on revenue.

These things are cryptocurrencies, and they should be judged as such.

Ethereum is the fastest growing emerging economy on the planet. Ethereum's economic model is similar to that of early Singapore or Shenzhen, where there was complete commercial freedom rather than a focus on taxing centralized authorities. David Hoffman's response was likely inspired by his own experience. On September 6th, the day before his reply, David Hoffman personally wrote on Bankless, stating that the Ethereum project itself is not just the ETH asset, but a system that allows humanity to collaborate in unprecedented ways. Unfortunately, people choose not to support Ethereum. Many are focused on dismantling Ethereum as quickly as possible—because if they could invest in something that strips valuable components from Ethereum's open-source superstructure, they could become incredibly wealthy. David Hoffman's full post is as follows: The other day, I stumbled upon a silly but amusing tweet. The idea is that if we all coordinate around the same asset, buy it, and drive its price up infinitely, we can all use it as collateral to take out loans. Infinite money loophole! I also love the replies to this tweet. “It’s called Bitcoin.” “This is Bitcoin.” The subtext is that Bitcoin is the first asset owned by the people, for the people, that we can all buy, never sell, and live off its earnings. Bitcoin works because of its Schelling point as an asset. Bitcoin is an asset you can never sell. Bitcoin is more than just an asset—it is the asset. Clearly, this belief is limited in scale, but it captures what Bitcoin aspires to be. A similar phenomenon is happening with Ethereum, but it's more about the Ethereum project itself than the ETH asset. For many Ethereum users, myself included, Ethereum is more than just a project to invest your energy in. Ethereum is that project. Ethereum is a coordinated human project. It's the open source collection of all economically valuable code. It's a superstructure for wealth creation that we can pass on to our children and grandchildren. It's a system that allows humanity to work together in unprecedented ways. It's a path to global peace, wealth, and happiness on a scale never before seen.  

If we can get all of humanity onto the same coordination layer, humanity can move forward.  

These are grand ideas, but I believe in them wholeheartedly. The fruits of peace, abundance, and happiness aren't a five-year project, they're a fifty-year project. They don't come from the birth of a few great smart contracts, they come from the second- and third-order effects of 5,000 great smart contracts.  

If we all coordinate around Ethereum as the trusted, neutral financial structure for the planet, we can accomplish more, faster.  

But, just like not everyone can support Bitcoin as an asset, unfortunately, people choose not to support Ethereum as a project. In fact, many seem focused on unbuilding Ethereum as quickly as possible—because if they could invest in something that strips valuable components from Ethereum's open-source superstructure, they could become incredibly wealthy. Ethereum demolition is a political trend. Just as Bitcoiners love Austrian economics, guns, and meat, Ethereum demolishers share similar personality traits (as do all of us!). Some people are hardwired to "defect" in a prisoner's dilemma. Whether you think the Ethereum community is "self-righteous" and "effectively no different than XRP shills" depends on whether you think Ethereum is a human project. My argument is this: if Bitcoin is a special snowflake because of its 21 million supply, Ethereum is also a special snowflake because of what it represents: a never-ending open source contribution project aiming to create humanity's greatest coordination software. What could be more noble than that?