Ethereum Price Forecast: ETH drops to $2,100 as community debates Vitalik Buterin's SoV pitch

Ethereum price today: $2,110

• Ethereum falls as Vitalik Buterin called for a shift from the fee-burning narrative toward a store-of-value thesis.
• Bitmine purchased 9,587 ETH, bringing its holdings to 6.07 million ETH, representing 4.97% of Ethereum's total supply.
• ETH could fall to $1,970 if it breaches support near $2,100.

Ethereum (ETH) is down 4.6% on Monday as the crypto community debated co-founder Vitalik Buterin's argument that the top altcoin's long-term value should come from its store-of-value (SoV) properties rather than transaction fee burning.

In an X post on Sunday, Buterin argued that the network should prioritize decentralization, security and censorship resistance instead of optimizing ETH for higher fee burns, especially as AI development accelerates.

Buterin questions Ethereum's fee-burning narrative

Ethereum's fee-burning mechanism became an important part of ETH's investment narrative following the implementation of EIP-1559 in August 2021. The upgrade introduced a system in which the network burns the base fee paid for transactions, permanently removing the tokens from circulation.

During periods of high network activity, the amount of ETH burned can exceed newly issued tokens, making the asset partially deflationary.

Buterin argued that the economic case for valuing ETH primarily through fee burning "never was as strong as it seemed." He noted that much of Ethereum's historical fee revenue came from crypto-native activities, meaning the economic value supporting those fees could also decline if ETH's price fell.

He also warned that maximizing fee revenue could require higher transaction costs, greater protocol spending and more interventionist governance, potentially undermining Ethereum's decentralization.

Instead, Buterin suggested that as AI is accelerating, ETH's store-of-value proposition should be built around Ethereum's core strengths, which he describes as CROPS: censorship and capture resistance, open source, privacy and security.

"The first and most important SoV-ish metric? To survive," he wrote, pointing to ongoing work on post-quantum security, privacy, multisig wallets and censorship-resistant transactions.

Buterin clarified that Ethereum should retain EIP-1559 and its burning mechanism, but investors should not be disappointed if fee burning remains below the level required to offset new ETH issuance.

Several prominent industry figures supported Buterin's position, including Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko, who said Ethereum should not focus on fees as its primary product.

Moonrock Capital founder Simon Dedic also called ETH's store-of-value proposition potentially the biggest bull case for Ethereum, arguing that it could provide an easier investment narrative for institutional capital.

However, critics argue that de-prioritizing the fee-burning narrative means Ethereum could grow as a platform without much value accruing to ETH as an asset.

Bitmine brings ETH holdings closer to 5% of total supply

Meanwhile, Bitmine Immersion Technologies has continued accumulating ETH, bringing its treasury closer to its goal of holding 5% of the top altcoin's supply.

In an announcement on Monday, the company disclosed that it purchased another 9,587 ETH over the past week, bringing its total holdings to 6.07 million ETH, equivalent to roughly 4.97% of Ethereum's circulating supply of 122.2 million ETH.

The company also said that it maintained a 5.227 million ETH stake via its Made in America Validator Network (MAVAN).

Commenting on Buterin's SoV argument, BitMine Chairman Thomas Lee said ETH isn't a cash-flow token like HYPE or LIT, but pristine, trusted collateral.

Ethereum technical outlook: ETH risks decline to $1,970

Ethereum recorded $507.9 million in liquidations over the past 24 hours, led by $457.8 million in long liquidations, per Coinglass data.

On the daily chart, ETH maintains a bearish near-term tone as price holds below the 20-day, 50-day and 100-day Exponential Moving Averages (EMAs), clustered between roughly $2,291 and $2,371. The downside bias is reinforced by the 14-day Relative Strength Index (RSI) hovering near 33 and the Stochastic Oscillator (Stoch) around 13, both suggesting lingering oversold conditions that could slow the sell-off but have yet to trigger a convincing rebound.

On the downside, immediate support is seen at the horizontal level near $2,101, ahead of a deeper floor at $1,971 and then $1,827.

On the topside, initial resistance emerges at $2,204, followed by $2,250 and the 20-day EMA. Above that, the 100-day EMA and the $2,355 and $2,371 barriers form a dense supply zone, and a recovery would be needed to ease the current bearish pressure.

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