Is Ethereum failing or evolving?

Transcript

So, if you're willing to give up your right to own your own assets, to custody your own assets, to have any degree of individual liberty and sovereignty, if you're willing to give that up to get security from someone else, eventually you're going to lose both. >> What's up everybody? It's LGD here and welcome to the Milk Road Show, the daily crypto show that can't decide if privacy is a real meta in crypto because who the hell want to see me be down 80% on my coins? Today is May 26th, 2026. I think the war in Iran is over. Or is it? As many enjoyed their long weekend, we were greeted by the potentially uplifting news that the conflict was resolved and that it was finally time for the great golden pump of 2026. But alas, nothing is ever as it seems in today's political climate. Speaking of war, today's guest

and co-host has a brand new name. Wartime Ethereum is on the show, aka John Gillan, my wonderful co-host, is here to spread the gospel about the world's ultrasound money after the infidels finally called it quits last week. Today's episode is brought to you by Cape, the privacy first mobile carrier. Nexo, earn interest, borrow and trade crypto, and Kalshi, where your takes finally pay out. What's up, wartime? >> I like how you make this sound like I'm a religious leader and like some fanatical zealot. Um, but that is a little bit of the vibes here. So, >> listen. Yeah. Well, Ethereum Ethereum lost their religious leader, one of their religious leaders last week, man.

So, that's I feel like it's an it's an appropriate way to introduce you. you have a new ENS domain which is wartime ethereum. So congratulations on that. That's a big that's a big 10 bucks spent and um you know I'm excited to chat. We have a lot to go through. Um yesterday I had on the show we did discuss the Ethereum quables and John I do want to save a lot of time in our show today to discuss that. Usually we do these episodes on Mondays. We didn't have the chance to yesterday. Uh so we're doing it today on Tuesday. we always look to you as our macro guy to kind of walk us through what's happening on the geopolitical side and on the Fed. So, I I would like to just spend a few minutes just covering that. Uh, last night in our Milk Road Pro Discord, you went on a

a couple of hilarious rants. Uh, one of them being about kind of what I said in the intro that um, you know, we thought this thing was done, but it is not and that the whole planet is burning reserves and that it can't go on m much longer. John, what is the status of the situation that we are monitoring? >> Well, first of all, LG, it's great to be back with you. We usually do these on Mondays, but it's I'm glad we waited till Tuesday because a lot of things happen on Monday. Um, yeah, so there's a lot of pieces. There's a lot happening this week. It's a really exciting time to be in markets and as a market commentator in digital assets and other places. Uh, okay. So the the conflict with Iran, there was a an announcement by President Trump that a a peace deal

had been quote largely negotiated, which is different than bigly negotiated, which is a pun that I made in our Milk Road Macro newsletter today. Um, but after the announcement that this like ceasefire had been extended and that they had largely come to terms on a lot of things that they'd been negotiating over and sort of put time boxes around further negotiations around Iran turning over their their nuclear materials and so forth. Um immediately after that there was a strike by Israel in Lebanon. Um Iran started laying mines in the straight and the United States launched what they called um I think self-defense strikes which is just Anyway, so they did that and then they said that that doesn't violate the ceasefire. Um so there's still a ceasefire even though everybody started

shooting. Um and so that's kind of the state of play right now. the the the reason that the market is so bullish on this and why we've seen oil sell off and the markets rally so hard is that this does look like the first time we've seen some actual concrete steps towards peace. But I do think it's it's another example of Iran really trying to draw this out as long as they can because they know that this is sort of like their one shot to use this leverage to get the best deal that they can. The longer this goes on, the greater the pain becomes, the closer we get to midterms, the higher the risk for President Trump, and uh the le less likely he is to put boots on the ground because they know that that'll be a longer term operation if they do that

and that'll hurt him a lot in the midterms and he doesn't want to do that. Nobody in America wants to do boots on the ground over there. So, um there's just a lot of uncertainty still about when this resolves, but the markets are looking through it and saying, "This seems positive. It seems like oil is going to begin to move. Oil and a lot of other things are going to begin to move through the straight." So that should be positive. The reason why this is so important for markets is and why this is becoming a fight at the Federal Reserve. The the inflation impact of this energy shock that we're seeing is starting to really materialize in the data um on inflation and the forward-looking data on inflation. The CPI and the PPI prints as we discussed in prior episodes came in really hot from April. Um and so

we're we're expecting that to continue. Yesterday, um, Fed Governor Waller, Chris Waller, who's a the New York Fed Governor, um, from the the New York Fed, uh, he gave a speech in Germany basically saying that the easing policy stance of the Federal Reserve uh, has to change, that, uh, cutting rates here is is a crazy thing to do and that he thinks that it's now time to start considering rate hikes. Um, so it looks like Worsh coming into his first FOMC meeting, this is what I wrote about in our Milkid Macro newsletter today, but Worsh coming into his first FOMC meeting in July might have a situation where he's been appointed by a president who wants him to cut rates, and he wants to cut rates. And the Fed Board of Governors might say, well, if inflation is this high, we're going to favor a

rate hike here, actually. And so there there's going to be a fight amongst the the board of governors of the Fed about what to do over policy between now and July. If this conflict can actually resolve, if oil and energy do start to move and that those inflation pressures seem like there's reason to believe they'll come down, maybe the Fed will look through this and they won't hike rates. Um but there's just a lot at stake. I mean, this has gone on so long now that there's starting to be an impact on policy and the potential path of policy, both monetary policy and fiscal policy. Um, so that that's just a little bit of what's going on there and and the updates from the weekend from Memorial Day. Um, but yeah, there's a ceasefire and the explosions in in the straight of four moves have been mostly

peaceful uh this weekend. So that's it's all progress. I think, isn't it? >> If you're not seeing this, you're trading blind right now. There are real moves happening behind the scenes that most people don't see until it's way too late. Inside Milkro Pro, you can track exactly what our analysts are buying, selling, and what's on their watch list before it moves. You can try it out for just a dollar for 7 days. The link is in the description. Peaceful explosions. Yeah, self-defense peaceful explosions. Yes, that's a new term yet again. Yet again in a in this this type of presidency, we're greeted with new terms that didn't exist before. This is this time coined by you, Mr. Wartime. Um, is there John, did you mention in there did you mention about anything about the um and again we're getting very into geopolitics here, but I just this is my

only other question on this. Did you mention did you mention anything about the nuclear side of the deal? because I I feel like that's just the only thing that is really sticking. Like everybody wants oil to flow through like there's no contention about that it feels like or that if there is it's very little but that's always a sticking point is is that done or not and it that doesn't feel like either side would ever budge on it. >> It seems like Iran is now open to uh a negotiation around this but the terms of that haven't been figured out yet. So the way I understand this and this again just by reading of this but the way um I understand this they have 30 to 60 days to negotiate some kind of an agreement around this and turning this over. Now whether that involves the United States

going in and extracting the materials or Iran turning them over to Russia or to you know some other third-party entity you know non-governmental agency that supervises nuclear materials that wants to go in and supervise the destruction or or you know removal of them or whatever that looks like. they have, you know, a month to two months to sort of figure out what that looks like. So, but I think that Iran is intentionally trying to drag that out as long as they can as well because they know that that's a big goal for Trump and as long as they have that, they have some sort of leverage on him, right? So, it's just nuclear dust that they're not really going to be able to enrich ever. Um, but they they also know that as long as they don't give it up, even if it's just in a

hole in the ground that they can't get to because the United States shoots anybody who goes to that hole in the ground, um, they they know it's a negotiating tactic. It's a poker chip. It's one of the few pieces of leverage they have left. So, that's a thing that'll be continued to be negotiated around. And there's a lot of different maybe we'll do this, maybe we'll do thats about how to handle that. But Iran hasn't agreed to anything yet, and I think they're trying to delay that agreement as long as they can for strategic uh, advantage. >> I see. Okay. And last week, I think you um you had Andreas from Real Vision on our macro show. Uh and you guys largely discussed this, but I think you also discussed um what I've asked you many times as well, and I feel like you're a

good source for this. I would love to kind of hear a little summary preview of that episode for anybody who wants to check it out. But the effect on resources from this, right, which is something that we know is going to creep continue to creep into people's wallets and into the economy regardless of what happens from the conflict from this point forward. And that basically right now everybody's burning reserves like I said um and that it really that really cannot continue. >> Yeah. So, uh the episode with Andreas is I think a really good one and very helpful. He is a fantastic analyst, worldclass um from Real Vision, which is a friend of the channel. Just everybody at Real Vision is a friend of Milk Roads. Um but yeah, he called us, he and I both have facial hair or had facial hair until he shaved. Um and he said

we're the two Chewbaccas of macro, which is another uh another term that I I think is hilarious. Um so I'm accumulating nicknames pretty fast here, but uh so Andreas's thoughts on this, I think, you know, he can speak for himself. you go watch the episode, go check out his work because he's he's putting out a lot of great content on this. But I think that the the way I view this is this gets back to I think something that uh Governor Waller said in his speech, which is that it's not just an energy shock. There seems to be structural increases, inflation across a lot of things because energy is an input into everything else that we produce all these goods and services take energy to to bring to market. And because rising energy costs have been sort of a systemic thing, that's sort of being

felt in almost every aspect of the economy and in consumer goods and so forth. And so, um, they think that the Fed governor is basically saying, hey, it looks like there's structural increase in inflation here and not just an energy shock. So, that's something where I think the Fed is going to watch that to see how that plays out because that's not something where, you know, you get one month of data and you can make that determination. Um Andreas basically said that we he in his estimate have four to six weeks for this conflict to go on um without a clear ceasefire before he gets to the point where he thinks that the Fed is going to actually seriously pivot towards rate hikes. Now that will be before the July FOMC meeting. So basically like we have basically up to about 2 weeks before the

next Fed meeting um to get a a resolution in place or he thinks that it's going to be more likely that the Fed does ultimately tilt in that direction of rate hikes. And you know I think that I agree with Andreas and I think that's what Governor Waller is doing by making the speech is sort of like a little bit of informal forward guidance and it's not coming from Jerome Pal himself because he does Pal doesn't want to be seen to like be subverting Worsh's leadership openly. Although behind the scenes, I'm sure there's, you know, debates about that. But Waller's making this to sort of give overtones to the market that, hey, this might be bigger than just an energy shock. This inflation risk might be more systemic and structural than than we previously thought because they've been looking through this energy shock for for months

now. And they're starting to say, hey, may we may have to hike here because there's so much um rising costs of everything else. But again, I think it's still depending on do we get the straight open? you know, maybe the conflict keeps going, but we reach some sort of compromise where the straight is is is moving and things are going through there. So, we'll have to see. I think it's just like getting really close to that decision point and the Fed's starting to make noises of like, hey, we might have to take action here. Um, but the thing Andreas points out and a lot of people have pointed out, which is that raising interest rates doesn't help with the supply side crisis. It's not going to print more oil. It's going to destroy demand in the economy. And this is what's this is what matters for

people who are investors in in digital assets and in AI stocks and technology because if we do see this pivot on monetary policy towards a more of a hawkish tone or towards rate hikes um and a more um restrictive monetary policy and fiscal situation that will reduce the um appetite for uh risk assets. It'll reduce the the size and growth and speed and velocity of growth of the economy. And so it just kind of puts a damper on things. The Fed can only do demand destruction through raising interest rates. It can't print oil. It can't, you know, open the straight. It can't do anything like that. So, um, it's not a great outcome.

It's kind of like pumping the brakes on the whole global economy because we don't have enough fuel to keep running this hot. Um, and so I don't think anybody in the West wants to see that. So, we're all hoping that this peace agreement comes through and that we get the the straight open. >> And that next Fed meeting is in on June 17th, right? On June 16th, 17th, I think. >> I haven't looked exactly, but yeah, it's coming up. I think it's about that, right? Okay. Yeah. >> Wow. Okay. So, that so that is definitely like a pretty big looming kind of catalyst. I I do want to kind of pivot to crypto in a second and kind of talk about what it means for that. But, um, shout out to to one of our sponsors, Kelsey. I'm just looking at their dashboard right now and the chances the

Fed decision in June that Fed maintains the rates is at 96%. So, that nothing would change and that a cut has 4% and hike has 2%. however the the the tabulation works on KI. I guess each of those are individual questions on KI. But anyways, the chances of a hike is literally like 1 to 2% um on Cali. So if you think that that would happen, >> that's a pretty good opportunity. That's a nice you're going to get a nice 50 100x return. Um and even just to kind of uh you know circle back around to what we said uh the chances of a US Iran Iran nuclear deal before September are only 47% and only 61% before uh December. So and only before June I mean that's only 5 days is 6%. So not not something the

market is really the pricing the market is not or at least whoever is betting on the stuff is not anticipating a nuclear deal anytime soon but also not anticipating much action from the Fed at the first meeting with with Kevin Worsh. Right. I realiz I missed earlier. I said July. I meant June. So that's Yeah. The June June is the next meeting. That's correct. Yeah. >> Yeah, it is in June. Yeah. So, it's pretty Well, that's what I'm saying. It's pretty soon. Um but doesn't look like at least this part of the market anticipates much to change just yet. Uh John, let's uh let's pivot to crypto. It's a great time to pivot to crypto for anybody who likes equities or anybody who likes anything really or if you've been here the whole time, it's also a good time to pivot to crypto. Let's assume let's play a nice case scenario

here which we kind of had over the weekend. We saw some some nice resistance form for Bitcoin. We saw a couple pumps up to like 78K in the last day or two. If this deal or some form of a deal did become relatively official, John, would this be like we're blasting off to the moon from here? >> I don't know if we would blast off to the moon, but it's definitely going to be a tailwind for risk assets. It's going to be a signal to the to the market that the Fed is not going to hike rates, that they're going to be able to continue to um see this momentum play out. I think there have been several times where I think this has probably happened half a dozen times or more by this point, but Andreas actually joked about this like he said, "I've popped

the champagne many times thinking that this conflict was over." Because so many times the president has said, "We're close to a deal. We're close to the end." But he's been saying this for months. Every time he does say that though, the market, you know, we see the same thing. oil sells off, futures rise, the the market goes higher, and we've seen this enormous um just un unrelenting growth and and rise in the the S&P 500 and in other um AI related investments. So, I think that that all just continues, right? And the market is just looking for certainty and clarity to to make sure that, you know, we're not going to have rate hikes that pump the brakes. Um and so I think that there will be a very constructive thing.

Bitcoin might break out of its range back to the upside. Um, but I think that though we're Bitcoin is kind of looking for one of these catalysts, right? Like either the Clarity Act coming becoming a law, the United States adopting, you know, a new policy on the Bitcoin strategic reserve or like accumulating Bitcoin. Um, or uh into the Iran conflict, something that kind of gives us that sort of catalyst and and market confidence to move higher and to say that, you know, the bull run is going to continue here. So, I don't know if we go to Valhalla, but it would definitely be a really strong tailwind for for all risk asset markets. you wrote in the Milk Road Pro Discord yesterday. Bitcoin has been in this channel ranging like a drunk stumbling down an alley for 109 Earth days. So that's what is I guess

that channel is what like the the 70 to 80. I'm assuming that doesn't account for 60. Do you think John from here that there's a chance there's still a chance that we flush down to 70 because it is something that you said. I've seen a few other analysts call for that we flushed to 74 and held there. What are the chances we see kind of one more pop down and hopefully not much more after that for the short term? >> Yeah. Well, I think that that's on the cards for sure. I think that's what the market is anticipating. I think we've got a window of weakness here while we wait for one of these catalysts to play out. One of the ones I just listed. Um, and you know, look, I think we we made the the February lows around 60K and then have been like in this range, like

I said, for over a 100 days now. Um, and that usually means, I mean, the longer a bare flag lasts, the more likely it is to to resolve and to pick a direction. Um, they usually resolve to the downside, but they don't always. And I think this is one of those situations where we've tested the top of the range. We've tested the bare market resistance band. We haven't been able to flip from a bare market into a technical bull market on that. And so now we we saw Bitcoin come down. It tested 74K, bounced up really hard, really fast off of that support. And now I think uh you know just today within the last hour or so we saw Bitcoin go up to 78K and that really quickly and then come back down to 76K.

Um so there's some volatility. Yeah, there's things are swinging. Um but I think that it's it's possible if not likely that we'll see a retest of that 74K and see if that holds. If it if it breaks, I think the next stop to look for is at 70. Um but there should be some support there. But see these are things it's like how strong is that support? Um and what are the the catalysts that drive us one way or the other? uh still kind of remains to be seen, but to me I think that 70K should be strong support. 74K has shown to be some support here in the short term. Um but how long does that hold up? How many times do we retest it before we break it or retest it before it holds and the bulls are able to push us back higher?

We'll see. I don't know if we go to the top of the range or the bottom of the range, but it it looks like right now the momentum and the circumstances um favor the downside for the moment. You also said in the Discord, it's a good time to keep your powder dry and your eyes open for opportunities. What do you mean by opportunities, John? I think that if Bitcoin does go below 70K, that's an opportunity because I think that no matter who you are or or what your outlook is, um you're going to be able to see the the thesis on another Bitcoin bull run starting on digital assets having lasting value and long-term value in this agentic economy that we're we're seeing arise and this, you know, relentless bull bull market that we're in continuing. Um I think that Bitcoin eventually participates in that and you know, a lot of people are

expecting a bottom in October. Some people are thinking it'll happen sooner, later, etc. But in any event, I think that no matter how you look at it, below 70K is a great opportunity to accumulate Bitcoin. It's back at the the previous all-time high from the 2021 bull run. Um, and so it's just kind of like a great place to be adding to your bags if you're looking for an opportunity opportunities beyond just Bitcoin, though. I think that when Bitcoin pulls back, you know, from its recent highs of around 80, 82K down to 70K down to, you know, in the 60s, wherever it ends up pulling back too, that could also present a window of weakness on different altcoin projects that um might present an opportunity for people to accumulate there as well. So, I think it's a good time if Bitcoin is showing a

window of weakness here and giving you an opportunity. If you want to accumulate some more Bitcoin, it's a great time to do that. if you want to look at some altcoin projects and again be patient and take a longer view on that, there's going to be value and opportunity there as well. So, I think it's just a good time to be paying attention across the digital asset markets and looking for those opportunities as as Bitcoin shows a moment of weakness here. >> And just to remind people, if you want to see what is on John's watch list, which you have three items on your watch list, you have six items in your portfolio, but you have three on your watch list. >> You're you're going to add a lot more. Is that what you're telling me?

>> Yeah, that's what I want, man. >> Yeah. This week I got to spend a lot more time underwriting a bunch of these different things because there's like I think 12 or so different coins that I was talking about with some of our friends in the Discord chat. >> And you know, I think it's just a good time to have a thesis on these. And I may not buy everything that I put on my watch list, but I want to expand that because I think our community wants to know, you know, where do you see value right now? And there's there's been so many projects like Zcash has been around for a really long time, but has only recently found a lot of adoption and attention. Um, so that's an example of like a dinocoin, you know, quote unquote that has has come back. Then there's a

lot of new projects like Venice that have have done really really well and had, you know, really strong performance and people want to understand not only why these things are performing, but what's the thesis, what is the project, you know, and just different things around these things. So, I think adding a bunch of things to my watch list just for information for our our audience because people are going to make different choices for themselves, too, about what they do or don't want to get exposure to. Um, I think that's something I want to start doing more in the coming week or so, couple weeks here. I'm going to start building that out more. >> The way we build wealth is changing. Stocks, savings accounts, real estate, that playbook is getting rewritten in real time. Nexo is the platform built for what's next. It's an all-in-one

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Definitely, man. That's something I want to see. I think a lot of people want to know what those assets are for you and for people. And again, you know, we talk about this every time. Pretty redundant at this point, but I I do think what we have is pretty awesome in Milkroad Pro. It's only a dollar to check it out for 7 days. And you can see John's watch list, which has three assets on it added uh through April and May. Uh and you can also check out his portfolio, which has I think six assets still on it. Six. Six or seven. Seven. Six. Six assets in there. Uh, and John's sitting at 17% cash in his portfolio. So, he does have dry powder ready to rip on the right dip. Uh, listen, John, let's get to the thing that probably is closest to your

heart and uh, you know, related to your your your change in identity. Let's put it that way on X. Uh, Mr. Wartime Ethereum. Listen, for anybody who was listening to the show yesterday, we we we recapped relatively well what went down last week and got some of his thoughts. um you know a lot of people leaving the Ethereum Foundation, a bank list finally selling all of their ETH and kind of disbanding which is very sad for a lot of people. Do you think, John, that this is this is healthy for Ethereum long term to kind of have this and especially at a point, you know, Vitalik wrote a post basically acknowledging as well that it's like, listen, I understand we're on a mission here, but I understand people are frustrated with price action. The but Ethereum is the butt end of the joke on

X often. That's like if you had held uh Micron for the last two hours, you would have outperformed ETH in the last six years. You know, there's a lot of funny jokes like that. Is this a healthy thing long term for Ethereum? Does it need to go through this John to to kind of thrive long term? >> I think that is exactly the thing the market is trying to figure out right now. And I think it's valid to have differences of opinions on that. And I think there are people who understand the value proposition that Ethereum is trying to to offer the market and the ways it's trying to differentiate itself that still have many valid criticisms and concerns for how it's going about it and for what the Ethereum Foundation both is and is not doing. So, there's a lot to discuss here. I really enjoyed

the podcast episode you did with Heb. Um I think he is somebody who's been a great thought leader and advocate and communicator for the space. I think that there's a lot of people who are investors but are not necessarily the best communicators. I think uh is is based I did a shout out to him just on Twitter just cuz like I really appreciate his commentary and just you know coming out and sharing his thoughts on things with the market because there's a lot of people debating things like how do you value an L1 and he's like willing to take the time to to contribute his his thoughts and expertise um to those conversations. So I just appreciate him and I'm glad that we got to have him on the show. I agree mostly with his comments. I'm a little bit more bullish than I think he is. Um

but I think that's, you know, like I said, people can have disagreements about some of these things. Um I I do want to just correct one thing you said, which is that bank list is not disbanding. They are changing. They're evolving. They're going to be um changing some of their content and they're but they're still going to be bank list. They're still going to be doing um their podcasts. Um and you know, Ryan and and Michael Na who has been on the show many times are doing the DeFi Report podcast now as well. David Hoffman um who's a great guy as well is is also going to be doing bank lists, doing interviews, exploring other things in the digital asset space and continuing to be um a great venue uh for people to discuss things in digital assets and a thought leader for the space. So there's a lot of evolution

that's happening there. Um it's just that David sold his his Ethereum. Um and so you know I don't want to speak for him as to why he made that decision. I think he's he's shared some thoughts on it. I'm sure he'll continue to comment on it. But where all this kind of shakes out for me is um you know I think Vitalik posted about this this weekend as well to kind of share his thoughts. And a couple things that stood out to me from what he said was that uh the Ethereum Foundation uh is just one node among many nodes in the governance operation and development of Ethereum as an ecosystem and as an asset. He noted that the Ethereum Foundation is only owns 0.16% of Ethereum's total supply, but that his personal net worth is 90% in Ethereum, which to me is indicative of a man who personally very much

believes in this, but also does not believe that he should be the dictator of Ethereum. And I think a lot of people want him to be Ethereum Jesus and to be the the, you know, sole arbiter of what goes on in the chain. That's not what he wants. If you look at Cardano, they're going through a different version of figuring out this governance structure themselves, right? like Charles Hoskinson um does not want to be the dictator of Cardano. They have an onchain governance system and a constitution, but they're also kind of in this like situation where they're trying to figure out what does executive leadership look like and how do we get some some help with that because maybe we're too decentralized and we're having friction with that. So all of these blockchain ecosystems are doing some version of technological innovation and financial innovation, but they're also

doing um governance innovation and they're doing innovations on how do we organize people and hierarchies and collaboration across time and space asynchronously. Uh there's a lot that goes into a functioning blockchain ecosystem and these are just some struggles and growing pains with this. So one of the things uh that also stands out from Vitalics post is this focus on crops on censorship resistant open private permissionless secure uh global financial infrastructure and that the the most important and valuable product of that infrastructure is ETH the asset and will continue to be ETH the asset but he also doesn't want to be in a position where he's like pumping his bags and like doing all the BD work

either because he doesn't view that as the proper role of the Ethereum Foundation. which is becoming a smaller leaner and more research and development focused institution as opposed to a BD one. So if you look at Bitcoin as an analog here which is not one to one for many reasons but Bitcoin is a store of value asset they don't do nearly as much development work and you know they have their own issues with this of like they have trouble making changes and changes to the protocol and the security budget presents some risks there. Um but Michael Sailor has launched a huge digital asset treasury company um and has has done the job of evangelizing and doing business development for Bitcoin as an asset that the Bitcoin core developers do not do. And I think Vitalic wants to see a similar sort of thing emerge for Ethereum where there is

the Ethereum Foundation that's focused on this research and development and improving and upgrading Ethereum as a network. Um but that someone else can bear that mantle of doing the business development work for ETH asset. I think you're seeing some of this being done by Danny Ryan and Vitalic or not uh Vitalic uh Vivec at Etherealize. they're working with Wall Street to to show the value of Ethereum and help people build on ETH. And then you're also seeing um Tom Lee from Bitmine uh being a retail voice and doing sort of that DAT role that Michael Sailor is doing in the Bitcoin ecosystem. Um Tom Lee just this past Monday, I think. Um he bought the largest purchase of Ethereum he's made since December, I believe. Um and he's

now getting towards towards close to 4 and a half% of the total supply of Ethereum which is you know sharp contrast to the Ethereum Foundation's.16% of the total supply of Ethereum. So you know I think Tom Lee and some of these digital asset treasure companies like Sharlink with Joe Shalom and Joe Luben who are bringing a lot of uh institutional capital into DeFi to to develop the the ecosystem there and to drive value to Ethereum in that way. these people can start to to bear that mantle and maybe a new organization will emerge to sort of be another node alongside the Ethereum Foundation to help with this. But it's really about what do you want to have? Do you want to have like Hyperlquid is is a a huge business. The token is growing, you know, ripping higher. But they also only have 24 validators upon whom all of that

security and trust depends. And Vitalic is saying that we don't want to be that. We don't want to, you know, we want to be the unreasonable man here. And that's a it comes from philosophy. Burch and Russell says like a reasonable man will allow his environment and and the pressures of it to shape him. An unreasonable man will demand that the environment um shape and reconfigure around him. So Vitalic is saying I don't want to be the dictator. I don't want to have total control of Ethereum or of the Ethereum Foundation and I don't want the Ethereum Foundation to have total control over Ethereum. I want to be censorship resistant, open, private, permissionless secure scalable global and I want ETH to be the most valuable digital asset in the world. because of that, not because we concentrated power in a few hands, maximized speed and

skatability and marketing and max extracted value and you know like hotwired um a better race car for for a short sprint. He's looking for long-term value. So there's a lot of thoughts on this, but wartime ethereum.eth ETH is uh my new ENS handle and I think that uh it's time for and we've seen a lot of people reignite their passion for Ethereum and participating in this conversation, sharing their thoughts, engaging in this, bringing attention back to Ethereum to what the value of digital assets are and what this uh ecosystem is supposed to be. So I think this is overall for me a very very bullish thing. even if it's not going to pump ETH's price in the next 24 hours, it creates a very robust and um let's say um unique and and to use Vitalik's

word, impressive long-term value proposition for Ethereum and for ETH the asset, >> but then shortterm it means we might just be stuck like this for a long time, at least on the price side, right? Because no, I understand what you're saying that it's like you like Vitalik's vision and he's painting that. is saying it's not going to be up to me or I don't want to be the one doing that and it shouldn't be me. It should be a collection I guess a collective of everybody else who's kind of half doing it now. But that also means that he's going to go build a product that he thinks is going to do what he wants it to do and that the value of it, the price value of it will not be up to him and to not expect what he does to affect it.

>> I think that that's a bit of an extension of what he said. I don't think he's saying the the what he's doing isn't going to affect the price. I think he's saying he wants it to affect the price in a different way. He wants the value of Ethereum to come from this different value source of of crops and of this um large credibly neutral global um financial infrastructure as opposed to, you know, going on CNBC every morning and pumping and shilling bags. Tom Lee can do that. Tom Lee does do that and in many cases he's on CNBC all the time talking about Ethereum. And you know, as far as the short-term price action, uh, I think that there's a lot of reasons to think that Ethereum is going to perform very well here. If you look at the the the metrics on the chain

in terms of the fundamentals and the adoption, we're at all-time high usage of the network. We're at all-time lows for fees on the network, and we're seeing the staking queue to get into the staking contract to stake Ethereum just continue to climb higher and higher. Um, Tom Lee, I said, like I said, has four and a half% of the total supply. I think he's got 80% of his Ethereum staked, and he's continuing to show commitment to the network there. So I think what we're seeing here is is just a transference of Bitcoin, Ethereum, and all digital assets really from the hands of of weak hands, paper hands who are looking for short-term speculation to hands that are very convicted in this long-term thesis and understand it and are are willing to um allocate capital to participate in it. And I think that that turns around

and all these things resolve to the upside at some point here soon. Like Michael Sailor's going to have more Bitcoin, Tom Lee is going to have more ETH. but they have the conviction, they have the capital, they have the long-term view, and they're going to continue to support the long-term value of the network. So, I don't think that it necessarily means that the the value of Ethereum is going to go one way or another. It's just saying this is the direction we're taking. Um, and in time, I do think this is going to resolve to the upside because we're seeing a lot of uh just the market is telling you that it believes in Ethereum and the the fundamentals of Ethereum are getting stronger and stronger. price will resolve to the upside, but you know maybe in the short term some people who are speculating on you know ETH pumping

to 5k this week they might sell or you know what I'm saying but like that's not really you know neither here nor there to me. Got >> it. Is this if you had it your way John like what what if you could shape this environment what would you do? >> I would get >> what would you what would you want to happen? I would get Danny Ryan, Joe Shalom, and uh Tom Lee in a group with David Hoffman and launch a new EF adjacent. I mean, I would join them. We call it wartime Ethereum if you want. I I don't care what you want to call it.

The point is that I think that la like this is created a tension on Ethereum and a need for somebody to step in to fill this role in a more clear and vocal way. Obviously, this is like, you know, we'll see what happens with this, but it's not clear if the digital asset treasury companies like Sharlink and Bit mine are going to take this mantle, if it's something that Etherealiz works on, if it's something that, you know, people who have left the Ethereum Foundation kind of come together and and make a new thing. We'll I would like to see that happen. Um, but you know, for in terms of what I would do, I think that I I like the direction of travel that we're on. I like the direction that Vitalic has charted. I like the development and progress that Ethereum has made. um and

and the the growth of the network, all the metrics that you're looking for are there. They're solid. They're growing. They're continuing to grow. Ethereum is gaining market share in stable coins, in real world assets, in tokenization, and all of these things. So, the strategy that they're running, I think, is working incredibly well and will continue to do so. It's just, you know, stay the course and commit. It doesn't mean to say that the the the criticisms of Ethereum are not valid or that the people who are making them are not passioned and enthusiastic and coming from a good place. It doesn't mean they should be ignored. Um, but finding a way to incorporate that feedback while continuing this positive trajectory that Ethereum's network is on, I think is kind of the the the end result that you want here. But just continuing this dialogue, channel this energy into

something productive and constructive for ETH, for digital assets. Um, that's the the direction I would like to see happen here. And I think there are a lot of leaders in this robust and decentralized Ethereum ecosystem who can make that happen. So, I'm excited to see what happens there. >> Maybe it should be you. >> I mean, I would love to, but you know, >> maybe you're the one who brings everybody together. Just start with a podcast. Let's get all let's get all three of those guys on one show and then they think they're coming in just to give their comments and then you're like this is actually a pitch. I'm John. I'm wartime ethereum. Uh I'd like to to rally all you guys. Drop what you're doing. Come with me.

>> Bring all your little companies. >> Wartime Ethereum would be an amazing podcast. I would love to do that. That would be so much fun. But yeah, >> it's very aggressive. Why did you choose why did you go with wartime? Well, you know, I was Bitcoin Jesus ETH for a while, but that was mostly just for humor and uh for LOLs. Um why did I go with wartime Ethereum? Because that was just the vibe, man. It's like whenever there is a uh a big challenge to Ethereum or like, you know, a long-term holder who sells or or any anything like this, I think people's response is to um lean in to connect with one another, re reunderwite their thesis, find community. Um, and it it really is kind of a time to to rally together um around the asset, around the ideas of of crops

and other things like this. Like we we are here because we believe in something, right? Like that's it's still in the bankless banner on Twitter, believe in something with the ETH um ETH capitalized. We do believe in something. And it's not just number go up. It's not just number go up technology. It's it's basically saying that we believe that human beings have the right to um financial sovereignty to um autonomy to privacy to all these things that Ethereum is uniquely situated to guarantee to them. And I don't think that it's a a necessary thing to surrender that to any entity whether it's the the Federal Reserve or JP Morgan or Hyperlquid like you want to have um autonomy over your assets and immutability of of the things that

you're doing permissionlessness, security, scalability, global access. So I think that all those things that Ethereum stands for and is committed to is what we believe in and ETH is the asset that allows us to have access to that. But it's not just there to to to go up to Valhalla and to you know yeet to infinity. Um there is something actual actually actually philosophical and um not religious exactly but something like that right that you believe in um that is about this uh this community and this asset and this movement is about and you know this is another thing I I tell people a lot when you're investing in something you're voting with your capital when you buy an asset whether it's you know a US Treasury bond or something else or a

dollar you're you're voting that is a an act of of voting with your capital it's a a franchisement that not everybody has and you have to be sort of circumspect about that. What do you want to support? Which technologies, which financial ecosystems, what kind of a future do you want to live in? Where do you want your capital to go? Because that is a vote that you're casting um by doing that. And I think that, you know, I vote for Ethereum. >> You're listening to the Milk Road Show, which means you've got takes, strong ones, I bet, but where do those takes actually go? Do you tweet them into the void, argue them in the group chat, or do you try to express them by buying a stock? The thing is, stocks move on like 50 other things at once. And that's where Koshi comes in. It's a CFTC

regulated prediction market where you bet directly on outcomes like Bitcoin hitting 100K, Fed rate cuts, GameStop buying, eBay with a clean yes or no. We did a full deep dive on why prediction markets might be crypto's third product market fit moment. Check the show notes for the full report and claim $10 free when you trade $10 on Cali. Wow. Why Why even put anything else on your watch list, John, when that's that's the pitch? Why would we even look at all the other stuff on your on your watch list when that's that's the that's the gospel? >> Because when the total addressable market is $200,000, there are a lot of different answers to this question. And I think that is something I'm really passionate about as well. I like learning about how different ecosystems, different assets answer this question.

I'm fascinated with Bitcoin, with Ethereum, with Cardano, with Algorand, with Hideera, with a lot of these different um assets and ecosystems because they're not just technologies. They're not just um meme coins. They're not just speculative technologies. They are also an an instantiation of a idea an idea and a view of the world of of you know what what human rights should be how they should be protected. And you know I think this is something I think about a lot which Benjamin Franklin said this is like a continuation of the American project in my view and of you know projects that have gone back to to Rome and Greece and beyond. Um Benjamin Franklin said that those who give up um give up liberty in exchange for security deserve neither and will lose both. So

if you're willing to give up your right to own your own assets, to custody your own assets, to have any degree of individual liberty and sovereignty, if you're willing to give that up to get security from someone else, eventually you're going to lose both because they're going to get all the control over your assets, over your life, and you're going to be renting it back from them. This is what we're trying to or what not we're trying to is what we're seeing happen right now as all these different financial institutions and technology institutions are going to start launching these products and services to try to get their arms around this. The way I've described it is it's kind of like um Thanos is assembling the Infinity Stones for the Infinity Gauntlet while all the Avengers are fighting over whether or not we should stop him, right? Like I'm not saying

that we have to be tribal. I'm not saying everybody in in crypto has to go buy ETH. It's not about this particular which asset which chain that's the wrong view of this. the the the the real threat I see is that a lot of these major institutions, I don't want to name any of them specifically, but they see the value of owning the stable coins, owning the chains where the stable coins settle, managing the reserves that back the stable coins, owning the products that are tokenized that are on these things that are these u these chains, owning the chain where it settles, having total permissioned control of those chains, and then bringing all the world's capital onto those chains because then they have exerted total control over all the world's capital and they get to decide who is whitelisted,

who's not, which transactions go through, which ones they reverse, and that gives them effectively total sovereignty and control over all of your capital. And it doesn't matter if it's in dollars or invested in the markets or in bonds or stocks or whatever. You're still just renting it back from them and they have total authority. Um, and so that to me is the the the system of trust me, bro, that we're trying to get away from. Crypto is a transition from trust to truth. and we don't have to trust anybody anymore. We can have a, you know, it's David Hoffman's Twitter handle, a trustless state where we don't have to trust any institution to to keep us safe, to protect us, to own our capital for us. Um, and so anyway, I'm getting really, you know, overheated about all these things, but I believe in

this stuff and these things matter and they don't matter at all until they do matter and then they are the only thing that does matter. I think Vitalik sees that. You see that reflected in his post and I think that Ethereum is trying to build a a future where there is an alternative system that is credibly neutral open permissionless secure scalable, and that's what Ethereum is. Um, and that's what a lot of other digital asset projects are trying to create. And I'm rooting for all of them because I think that we learn from trying different solutions and letting the market figure out which one it wants and where where that adoption happens. Um, but Ethereum's got the football right now from from where I sit. >> If you guys want to hear more from John, you can listen to the Milk Road Macro show. You can listen to this show. You

can join Milk Road Pro for a dollar and ask him directly in Discord and get these rants at any time of day because they do come sporadically as John gets inspired. No, John. Um, it's very compelling. Um, and thank you as usual for your thoughts, man. I think it's a it's a very crucial time from Ethereum and I feel like we'll look back on this time, especially a lot of people are dumping on it now publicly um as a make or break kind of fork in the road moment for it and and I I personally feel like you're going to be right on a lot of this um and that the overall direction is bullish. you always need these kinds of even just from a very cosmetic standpoint, you always need these kinds of flush outs before things get better.

So, uh it's a necessary part of the process and and clearly there's still a lot more. There's a there's a strong thesis behind the asset. Uh John, pleasure as always. Thank you everybody for listening and uh have a great rest of your day. >> Wartime Ethereum. Let's go. >> Send him some memecoins. Want insights on what's moving crypto markets and how we're trading each event? Subscribe to our channel and join the Milk Road daily and pro newsletters and start investing like the top 1%. This show is for educational purposes only. Nothing we say is financial advice. Investing is risky. Never invest more than you can afford to lose.