Vitalik Buterin, co‑founder of Ethereum, posted on X on November 8, 2026. He explained that the idea of ETH primarily as a fee‑burning token never proved as strong as early hype suggested. According to Buterin, trying to optimize the network for fee‑burn would force design choices that clash with decentralization and resistance to capture. Instead, he says the Ethereum community should prioritize ETH as a store of value, a role that aligns with the protocol’s core strengths, decentralization and what he calls CROPS (security, composability, resilience, openness, and permissionlessness). He acknowledges that EIP‑1559’s burn mechanism remains useful, but it should not be the main metric of success; the value of ETH ultimately comes from its stability and utility, especially as AI‑driven disruption raises demand for reliable, decentralized infrastructure.

“Expanding on why I believe "ETH as store of value (SoV)" makes much more sense to focus on than "ETH as fee-burning token". Three primary reasons: 1. ETH as fee-burning token never was as strong as it seemed 2. Optimizing for ETH as fee-burning token would demand Ethereum and ETH function in ways that are very hard to make compatible with decentralization and capture resistance. 3. Meanwhile, optimizing for ETH as SoV is aligned with Ethereum focusing on its unique strengths (decentralization and CROPS) EIP-1559 (including its burn) is fine and good, we should keep them. But we should not feel sad if fee burn is < 10% of breakeven indefinitely; the value of ETH comes from elsewhere. The core idea: the big thing that people appreciate about Ethereum is decentralization and CROPS. The main pragmatic benefit that these things translate into is stability. SoV is the category where that i”

— Vitalik Buterin (@VitalikButerin) on X · X ↗

Vitalik Buterin is not affiliated with COINMAG. The quote comes from a public post on X; the context was written by the COINMAG newsroom.