Ethereum Price Forecast: Vitalik Buterin's SoV pitch sparks community debate as ETH slides to $2,100

Can Ethereum hold its ground at today's price of $2,110?

• Ethereum trades lower as Vitalik Buterin advocates moving away from the fee-burning narrative towards a store-of-value investment case.
• Bitmine's holdings reached 6.07 million ETH, or 4.97% of Ethereum's total supply, following a purchase of 9,587 ETH.
• A break below support around $2,100 could send ETH down to $1,970.

Selling pressure has pushed Ethereum (ETH) down 4.6% on Monday, while the crypto community debates co-founder Vitalik Buterin's view on the leading altcoin's long-term value. He argues that its store-of-value (SoV) characteristics, rather than transaction fee burning, should underpin that value.

Writing in an X post on Sunday, Buterin said decentralisation, security and censorship resistance should take precedence over optimising ETH for greater fee burns, particularly with AI development gathering pace.

Why is Buterin challenging Ethereum's fee-burning narrative?

With the introduction of EIP-1559 in August 2021, fee burning became a central element of the investment case for ETH. Under the system introduced by the upgrade, the base fee paid on transactions is burned by the network, taking those tokens out of circulation permanently.

When network activity is elevated, ETH burned can outstrip fresh token issuance, giving the asset partially deflationary characteristics.

The economic argument for valuing ETH mainly on fee burning "never was as strong as it seemed.", Buterin argued. Much of Ethereum's past fee revenue, he noted, originated from crypto-native activities. A fall in ETH's price could therefore also reduce the economic value underpinning those fees.

Pursuing maximum fee revenue could also mean costlier transactions, increased protocol spending and more interventionist governance, he cautioned. Such changes could weaken Ethereum's decentralisation.

With AI advancing rapidly, Buterin instead proposed grounding ETH's store-of-value case in Ethereum's fundamental strengths. He groups these under CROPS: censorship and capture resistance, open source, privacy and security.

Highlighting continued work on post-quantum security, privacy, multisig wallets and censorship-resistant transactions, he wrote: "The first and most important SoV-ish metric? To survive,"

Retaining EIP-1559 and its burning mechanism remains important, Buterin clarified. However, he said investors should not feel disappointed if fee burning falls short of the amount needed to balance new ETH issuance.

Support for Buterin's stance came from several leading industry figures, among them Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko, who stated that fees should not be Ethereum's main product focus.

For Moonrock Capital founder Simon Dedic, ETH's store-of-value case could also be Ethereum's strongest bullish argument. He contended that this could offer institutional capital a simpler investment narrative.

Critics, however, maintain that giving less priority to fee burning could allow Ethereum to expand as a platform while delivering little value to ETH as an asset.

How close is Bitmine to holding 5% of Ethereum's total supply?

Bitmine Immersion Technologies, meanwhile, has kept adding ETH to its treasury, moving nearer its target of owning 5% of the leading altcoin's supply.

Through an announcement on Monday, the company reported buying a further 9,587 ETH during the past week. Its aggregate holdings consequently rose to 6.07 million ETH, representing approximately 4.97% of Ethereum's circulating supply of 122.2 million ETH.

A stake of 5.227 million ETH was also maintained through its Made in America Validator Network (MAVAN), the company said.

Responding to Buterin's SoV thesis, BitMine Chairman Thomas Lee described ETH as pristine, trusted collateral rather than a cash-flow token such as HYPE or LIT.

Ethereum technical outlook: Could ETH slide to $1,970?

Long liquidations accounted for $457.8 million of Ethereum's $507.9 million in total liquidations over the past 24 hours, according to Coinglass data.

A bearish near-term outlook persists on ETH's daily chart, with the price trading beneath the 20-day, 50-day and 100-day Exponential Moving Averages (EMAs). These averages are grouped at approximately $2,291 to $2,371. Further supporting the downside bias, the 14-day Relative Strength Index (RSI) sits near 33, while the Stochastic Oscillator (Stoch) is around 13. Both indicate persistent oversold conditions, which could temper the selling but have not yet produced a convincing recovery.

The horizontal level around $2,101 provides the nearest downside support. Below it, the next floors lie at $1,971 and then $1,827.

Any move higher would first encounter resistance at $2,204, with $2,250 and the 20-day EMA next in line. Further up, a crowded supply zone comprises the 100-day EMA alongside the barriers at $2,355 and $2,371. A recovery would be necessary to relieve the prevailing bearish pressure.

(The technical analysis of this story was written with the help of an AI tool. Know more.)