Boosting Ethereum: Bankless Cofounder Lays Out New Vision For Price Surge

The price of Ethereum has fallen on tough times during the second quarter of 2025, dipping to a low of $1,415 before somewhat recovering to linger around the $1,500 level. Crypto analysts are now offering their thoughts on what is driving the largest altcoin’s recent woes.

Bankless Cofounder Points To Community Attitude Problems

David Hoffman, a co-founder of Bankless, has turned to social media site X to opine about Ethereum’s price issues. In Hoffman’s view, the actual problem isn’t what most mainstream critics have their attention on – rather, he thinks that Ethereum’s leadership and community culture are driving users away.

Hoffman pointed to two particular instances of this issue: public shaming of ETH staking platform Lido Finance and the brutal treatment of some traders who were referred to as “degenerate.” He asserts these actions demonstrate a trend of alienating users and builders on the network.

‘Stop Policing Behavior,’ Hoffman Says

The cryptocurrency executive contends that Ethereum’s effort to manage user activity on what is supposed to be a permissionless blockchain has emerged as a central reason for its price drop.

Everyone is midcurving why ETH’s price performance has sucked

Ethereum leadership and culture have alienated users and builders by being hostile to its own app layer.

We publicly exorcised @LidoFinance. We’ve shunned traders and degens.

On a permissionless chain, we’ve tried…

— David Hoffman (@TrustlessState) April 12, 2025

“If we want ETH to grow, the EF and larger community need to begin bringing in users and builders, not driving them away with a holier-than-thou culture,” Hoffman wrote in his post.

According to reports, the Lido Finance platform has in the past received strong criticism from the Ethereum community regarding regulatory issues, centralization, and security concerns. On the other hand, some traders were accused of creating high gas prices and failing to back long-term projects.

In spite of all this, Ethereum’s price has demonstrated a little life in the form of a 6% jump within a 24-hour time frame. This arrives at a vital juncture, as ETH had reportedly reached a five-year low based on Bitcoin.

There are some believers among the community. Leo Glisic is one of them who hopes for positive upside on Ethereum given its position as “infrastructure for the future global financial system.”

In the opinion of Glisic, “Ethereum will be the settlement and interoperability layer, which is a winner-take-all market.”

Not everybody is so optimistic. One critic, CryptoCurb, has compared Ethereum with Nokia’s own historic collapse in the mobile phone market.

CryptoCurb speculates that Solana might supplant Ethereum much as Apple did Nokia, with a potential becoming the largest altcoin in the process.

Other skeptics, including Peter Schiff, have questioned whether the recent price rally can last. Some have even suggested Ethereum’s price could drop below the $1,000 threshold.

While Ethereum continues to traverse these choppy seas, the debate surrounding its community culture and leadership approach seems to be gaining traction.

With prices remaining well short of highs past, how the Ethereum Foundation deals with these criticisms may have an important role to play in the direction of the network.

Featured image from Pexels, chart from TradingView