Is Ethereum still worth holding in 2026? Recently, I’ve seen some calm voices in the community, and I think it’s necessary to sort things out clearly.

Don’t rush to criticize; first, listen to the logic. I’ve been involved in this market for a few years now, and I want to honestly lay out some observations. Many people are still living in the 2021 narrative, but the ecosystem has long since changed.

**How serious is the "betrayal" of Layer 2?**

Initially, everyone agreed to prosper together, but Layer 2 projects (like Arbitrum, Base) have gone their own way. They’ve taken away transaction traffic and earned Gas fee revenues, while the mainnet’s destruction mechanism isn’t as strong as imagined. Conversely, ETH’s inflation pressure remains, but its value capture ability is weakening. The mainnet is like an emptied-out infrastructure, mainly collecting basic fees without many economic model advantages.

**The experience gap is obvious**

It’s 2026 now, and parallel EVM chains like Solana and Monad are incredibly fast, with smooth operation comparable to Web2 applications. In contrast, Ethereum’s cross-chain bridges, multi-layer protocols, and complex interaction processes… Will users really endure these for the sake of "decentralization ideals"? High cross-chain risks and minutes-long confirmation times are unacceptable for ordinary users.

**Institutional money is already shifting**

Don’t expect the next bull market. Institutional capital has long been seeking new directions—such as the AI+Crypto integration track, native high-performance public chains—these areas have much stronger explosive potential. Ethereum is stuck in the middle: in terms of risk hedging, it’s less stable than Bitcoin; in terms of growth elasticity, it’s not as good as emerging public chains.

**The core issue**

Ethereum has fallen into a "mediocrity trap." The once-promised "world computer" has become increasingly complex, and this complexity itself has become a burden. Market confidence is still supported to some extent by liquidity and historical inertia, but once this support loosens, a rapid price decline is not hard to imagine.

This doesn’t mean ETH will necessarily fail, but by 2026, the crypto market is no longer an era dominated solely by ETH.